Can NFL safely hold 2020-21 season? ‘Almost an impossible situation,’ Fauci says
In retrospect, it would be the most blinding domino effect in the sports world, especially in the world of the NFL, where social distancing is only a lovely theory spoken about on Twitter and never practiced on the field.
Take one COVID-19 infected lineman, an entire offensive line, and just even the slightest bit of phlegm, and you have an entire team outbreak all within a span of seconds.
“Sweat does not do it,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, told NBC’s “Football Morning in America” over the weekend. “This is a respiratory virus, so it’s going to be spread by shedding virus. The problem with virus shedding is that if I have it in my nasal pharynx, and it sheds and I wipe my hand against my nose – now it’s on my hand. You see, then I touch my chest or my thigh then it’s on my chest or my thigh for at least a few hours. Sweat as such won’t transmit it.”
While on the surface it seems like a good thing that football players who can sweat oceans on each other while on the field cannot contract the virus that route - it’s not.
“But if people are in such close contact as football players are on every single play, then that’s the perfect set up for spreading,” Fauci told NBC. “I would think that if there is an infected football player on the field – a middle linebacker, a tackle, whoever it is it – as soon as they hit the next guy, the chances are that they will be shedding virus all over that person.”
Coronavirus testing
That’s where testing comes into play. Outside of sports, regular people are finding it difficult to get tested for the coronavirus, while the rich seem to have an easier time getting tested, The Boston Globe reported. If the NFL wishes to have even so much as a fragment or wisp of a season, they’ll need an abundance of tests at their disposal.
According to NBC Sports, coveting that many tests would “either be sheer folly or greedy on the part of a sports league,” especially now. However, Fauci remains positive that over some time, the country will have increased access to tests.
“If I test today, and I’m negative, you don’t know if I got exposed tomorrow,” Fauci said, NBC reported. “There’s no guarantee that you’re going to get exposed and be positive the next day. To give you an example, you’re probably reading in the newspapers that there’s an infection in the White House. I was exposed to that person. So I immediately got tested. I am negative. So, I’m negative yesterday. I don’t know if I’m going to be negative Monday. Understand? It’s almost an impossible situation.”
In the past, Fauci has been vocal about the future of sports in a post-COVID-19 world. In an interview with the New York Times April 28, Fauci said that it would be wise for some sports to skip the rest of their seasons if the United States can’t flatten the virus curve.
“Safety, for the players and for the fans, trumps everything,” he said, the NYT reported. “If you can’t guarantee safety, then unfortunately you’re going to have to bite the bullet and say, ‘We may have to go without sports for this season.’”
If leagues did make the decision to resume or start their seasons amid the pandemic, Fauci told the NYT that leagues have “got to be really creative,” which would prove to be “more difficult and more problematic.”
So many questions
Testing everyday equals countless tests. It also leads to more questions than answers: What would the backup situation look like? What happens when all your starters are infected? What happens if a player is infected twice after being in a 14-day required quarantine? Do you cancel games or postpone them? And if you postpone, wouldn’t that push back the regular/post season? It’s almost like constantly trying to move an 18-wheeler over a lake covered with a thin sheet of ice – the looming threat of immanent COVID-19 danger is almost certain.
It’s not just the pro leagues asking these types of head spinning questions, but also colleges and universities who are unsure about their own upcoming football season., McClatchy News reported. NCAA President Mark Emmert spoke about it during a Friday evening Twitter interview.
“If a school doesn’t reopen, then they’re not going to be playing sports,” he said. “It’s really that simple.”
This is life in sports right now. Running the risk of infecting top players, ones like Patrick Mahomes, weighs heavily on everyone’s minds. If someone like him tested positive, it would be ludicrous to keep him in and endanger the entire team, Fauci told NBC .
Pull away top-tier players and viewership drops – but that’s the risk the NFL seems to be ready to take. The new normal is based on infuriating ‘what-if’ scenarios, but will that ever even out in the future?
“The virus will make the decision for us,” Fauci told Pro Football Talk.
Sports fans react
The reaction to Fauci’s recent comments appears to be a mixed bag on social media, with people both anxious to kick start sports, and those wishing the NFL will just “wait and see” if COVID-19 numbers drop in order to start planning the 2020-21 season.
This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 1:53 PM with the headline "Can NFL safely hold 2020-21 season? ‘Almost an impossible situation,’ Fauci says."