Here we are. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, we were able to watch the crowning of a new 2020 NBA champion. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers! More notably, we were able to witness a bigger feat. Throughout the whole NBA restart, the league was able to have ZERO positive COVID cases. That's number is accumulated between staff, coaches, families, and the players themselves. That's such an amazing effort and work by the commissioner, Adam Silver, to even have made that possible. Strategically placing teams in a "bubble" and following extra precautionary safety protocols to even accomplish such achievement.
The same goes for MLB. MLB has gone as far as cutting their season by 2/3, decreasing the amount of regular-season games from 162 to 60 with expanded playoffs. Just like the NBA, professional baseball is having a bubble setting with the exact same safety protocols to minimize the coronavirus spread amongst teams. What have the results been? ZERO positive cases.
On the other hand, the NFL season hasn't been a disaster yet. Not yet at least. The cases in the NFL have ramped up over the past couple of weeks. This has been attributed to the fact that the whole league hasn't taken the situation as seriously as other sports. You have coaches not wearing masks on the sidelines and players meeting up to have unauthorized practices. Even though it'll be hard to put 32 teams in a bubble setting, the NFL hasn't even proceeded with that idea nor considered even shortening the season.
It seems as if everyone else realized that in order to carry on with their respective seasons, leagues would have to adapt to this unique environment. However, the NFL believes it can continue normally as things would not go wrong. Which is not the case, clearly.
Photo: Elaine Thompson, AP
Week 5 into the season, there have already been team outbreaks totaling at a minimum of 30 cases across the league. The numbers don't seem like much considering the number of players that are actually in the NFL, however, you have to look at the situation at hand. This is a close contact sport so anybody who had been exposed to the virus has to quarantine. This has led to whole teams and opponents to wipeout, canceling activities for the week, games being delayed, and shuffled into later weeks. On top of that, players have already opted out of the season so it's not like teams have the depth of players available to them. This is ust a big mess in the making. You all know this could get much worse if the NFL doesn't take any strict actions.
The NFL is giving off that impression that as long as they are getting their money, they are just going to go along as the season continues. Personally, I think if the NFL doesn't do anything immediately, the season won't get completed. The league won't even make it halfway through the season.
The league office and players union just don't care. In addition, it's just so many any rising cases, that soon, the league won't be able to control the spreading of the virus and the NFL would be forced to shut down its season. Of course, the league office won't do it themselves. It'll have to take actual legal authorities to step in and cancel it.
The NFL just won't make it. With these trends, there is no possible way. The NFL needs to approach this with a lot more urgency or the league can be in real trouble. Players may still want to play for money or because of the love of the game, which I understand completely. But it's just too risky and lives are put in danger.
I don't like this one bit from the NFL and it's crazy because football is my favorite sport! SMH
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