The president called a meeting of sports executives. So there was a meeting. And the president said after the meeting he wants fans back at games in August. So did everyone else on the teleconference, no doubt.
“They want to get back,” President Trump said of the leaders of 12 American sports leagues in the meeting Saturday. “They gotta get back. They can’t do this. Their sports weren’t designed for it. The whole concept of our nation wasn’t designed for it. We’re gonna have to get back. We want to get back soon.”
Everyone wants to get back to normal. That’s not in question. No waiter or lawyer or shortstop wants to sit on the sideline of life as the coronavirus pandemic plays out.
Unfortunately, wanting to get back isn’t a game plan and unsupported optimism isn’t a timeline. It’s not even really time to make any timelines considered we’re still wading into the unknown of this crisis. It’s odd after meetings like this to realize the adults in the room are those running the toy department.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver reportedly said his league would, “love to lead the way,” by re-starting play, but first public health officials needed to signal an, “all clear.” That’s a diplomatic way of saying in a presidential teleconference what the NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, told NFL.com last week.
“As long as we’re still in a place where when a single individual tests positive for the virus that you have to quarantine every single person who was in contact with them in any shape, form or fashion, then I don’t think you can begin to think about reopening a team sport,” Stills said. “Because we’re going to have positive cases for a very long time.”
That’s not just sobering to hear and painful to consider. It’s smacks of the truth. It’s not even time to think of going back to games right now. Sports executives know this best of all. They’re at the back of the line of importance. They’ll serve a purpose someday, of course. It’s to tell us life is back to normal when it’s ready to get back there.
Maybe that’s August. Maybe it’s a year from August. Who knows? Think of it: Is anyone ready to consider sitting in a full basketball arena or packed football stadium with this virus on the loose?
Anyone at all?
We’re not on some scoreboard clock in this. The virus will tell us, as Dr. Anthony Fauci keeps reminding us, even as doctors and nurses battle on the front lines and most of us stay at home on the back lines.
Sports is helping as it can. The New England Patriots team plane flew a million surgical masks from China to Boston and New York. The Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins lent their stadiums for drive-up testing. Stars like New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees gave $5 million toward relief.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey also dangled the prize of football to fans, like a parent to a child, while issuing a stay-at-home order. “If you’re eager for a fall football season coming up, what we’re doing today gives us a better chance of being able to do that as well,” Ivey said.
The Most Valuable Player of the next sports season isn’t a quarterback or point guard or outfielder. It’s the doctors who invent a vaccination. It’s the medical team that allows games to return to normal.
Until then, even the NFL’s medical chief says it’s hard to see games returning to normal. The NFL draft is the perfect sports event in the time of coronavirus. No crowds. No games. Team executives can stay in their homes and call in picks to be read aloud over the television.
Can we stretch the draft into a week to supply us with a diversion? Maybe two weeks with nothing else on the horizon?
The president keeps going through false timelines here. He said all through February the virus was contained. Then how he wanted to be back to normal by Easter. Now August is floated as a possible return of our games.
We all hope that’s the case. But we don’t need fluffed-up timelines right now. We need honesty, medical facts and optimism that we’ll get to the other side of this. As we will.
Someday that will mean getting back to a sports event to enjoy a game, cherish a good moment and pretend it’s important. But let’s not play pretend. Let’s sit in our homes cheering for some MVP to emerge and let sports happen again.
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