We collect cookies to analyze our website traffic and performance; we never collect any personal data.Cookies Policy
Accept
Michigan Post
Search
  • Home
  • Trending
  • Michigan
  • World
  • Politics
  • Top Story
  • Business
    • Business
    • Economics
    • Real Estate
    • Startups
    • Autos
    • Crypto & Web 3
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Beauty
    • Art & Books
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Education
Reading: Pro Sports Leagues Hit Hard by Covid Outbreaks Should Halt Play
Share
Font ResizerAa
Michigan PostMichigan Post
Search
  • Home
  • Trending
  • Michigan
  • World
  • Politics
  • Top Story
  • Business
    • Business
    • Economics
    • Real Estate
    • Startups
    • Autos
    • Crypto & Web 3
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Beauty
    • Art & Books
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Education
© 2024 | The Michigan Post | All Rights Reserved.
Michigan Post > Blog > Sports > Pro Sports Leagues Hit Hard by Covid Outbreaks Should Halt Play
Sports

Pro Sports Leagues Hit Hard by Covid Outbreaks Should Halt Play

By Editorial Board Published December 17, 2021 8 Min Read
Share
Pro Sports Leagues Hit Hard by Covid Outbreaks Should Halt Play
16streeter sot1 facebookJumbo

In the midst of a new wave of coronavirus infections sweeping the globe, sports officials are scrambling to figure out how to keep their seasons going with schedules intact, to maintain the normal churn of competition and revenue.

They shouldn’t dither with such foolishness.

It’s time to press pause on games, matches and meets. If we’re genuinely interested in public health, genuinely invested in slowing the virus and saving lives, we need to look at the storm that has gathered and take shelter from it.

Come back in February, or later. By then, if we play this right and we’ve collectively worked to slow the spread and proliferation of variants, we can get back to the games. Only this time with a renewed sense of diligence and tighter restrictions.

There’s an inescapable feeling of déjà vu right now in the sports world, where fear and uncertainty about the coronavirus rage again.

Just look at what’s happened over the last few days.

Scores of N.F.L. players have been placed on the league’s Covid-19 reserve list this week after positive tests, including double-digit numbers of players from the Cleveland Browns and Washington Football Team, prompting the league to go back to the mask mandates and prohibitions on indoor meetings of 2020.

Dozens more players have been sidelined in the N.B.A., including most of the Chicago Bulls and almost half the Nets’ roster.

The coronavirus sent a formidable chill across the N.H.L., causing the Carolina Hurricanes and Minnesota Wild to cancel their game and Calgary Flames to temporarily shutter.

With the virus proliferating in Canada, Ontario-based teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and Raptors and the Ottawa Senators will limit capacity at their games thanks to new local ordinances.

In the heart of college basketball season, men’s and women’s programs have postponed a litany of games since Wednesday, some within hours of tipoff.

2021 N.F.L. Season News and Analysis

In Europe, several Premier League games in the world’s richest soccer league were postponed after multiple outbreaks on multiple teams.

Sound familiar?

We all remember March 2020, when the cancellation of college and N.B.A. basketball games signaled that the coronavirus was about to turn inside out life as we knew it?

It’s been 20 months and most everyone has relaxed their vigilance. In sports, where the proximity of competition and camaraderie make viral spread even easier, players, fans, and officials have let up as if the war against the pandemic were over. But now we’re hit with a new hard reality: Yet another wave, propelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, adds another layer of danger.

“It’s a wildfire right now,” says Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington. His institute analyzed data to predict the virus’s course and its effects. All throughout the pandemic, those predictions have been remarkably accurate.

Mokdad, like most other experts, is fearful about what the United States will see over the next few weeks, when the holidays will compel more travel and indoor gatherings and millions will be susceptible to the aggressive Omicron variant, the dangerous Delta variant and the seasonal flu.

“During the holidays,” Mokdad continued, “I expect the wildfire to run rampant.”

What should the sports world do?

Take the holidays off. No games. No practices. No fans jammed in stands mask-less, passing along Omicron with every high-five and throaty cheer.

Regather in February or later, assess where we are and what we need to do to better, then consider coming back. If that means shorter seasons and games lost and careers put on hold, so be it.

We’re in now-familiar territory, feeling now-familiar tension: How do we balance our need for entertaining sports with a public health crisis the sports world has yet to come to grips with? Millions have died across the globe, including roughly 800,000 in the United States. Then there’s the incalculable damage in severe illness, cases that linger for months, and the hospitals stretched to the breaking point.

We’re at war with the virus, and the sports world is among the most powerful social forces in the world. It should take the lead in doing the prudent thing and pausing schedules.

Players won’t like it. Mostly, they’re too competitive and too armed with a sense of physical invulnerability. They aren’t inclined to slow their roll, even for a while.

Leagues and team owners and sponsors will bray against it, because of their insatiable desire to make money, money and more money. Notably, in the Premier League, where five games in the last 10 days have been called off, several teams are now known to favor a suspension of the league’s schedule. But such sentiments are in the minority so far.

Fans won’t like it. No one wants to miss out on more athletic spectacle — especially now, sick as we are of worrying about sickness, needy as we are for the balm games can provide.

Miss the holiday season, all that football, basketball, hockey and international soccer?

Well, at this rate of infection, there’s a chance there won’t be enough players to field competitive teams for those big-splash games.

Assuming we weather the storm, we can get back to our games later. And when we do, changes are in order.

The N.F.L. and N.B.A., for example, both foolishly scaled back on their testing of players and team staff members compared to last season. Neither league required players to be vaccinated, both nudging unvaccinated players to inoculate by offering a carrot: Get your shots and you get less testing, fewer nettlesome restrictions like wearing masks or being separated from teammates at team headquarters.

The time for nudging is over. Most players and team personnel are vaccinated, which remains, by far, the best way to keep severe illness and hospitalization tamped down. Now it’s time to get everyone on board.

It’s time for sports leagues to mandate vaccination for every player. No shot, no games or practices or hanging at team headquarters.

Time to get back to the rigor of daily testing.

Time that all teams require proof of vaccination from fans and, yes, the wearing of masks. When we see 100,000 fans packed shoulder-to-shoulder at the biggest stadiums, a sea of unmasked multitudes, everyone screaming at the top of their lungs, what message does that send?

It sends this message: Everything is fine. We can relax. No need to worry.

But we should be plenty worried because, once again, a wildfire is bearing down. And that’s cause enough for a holiday break for sports.

TAGGED:Athletics and SportsBasketballBasketball (College)Brooklyn NetsCalgary FlamesCarolina HurricanesChicago BullsCleveland BrownsCoronavirus (2019-nCoV)Coronavirus Omicron VariantEnglish Premier LeagueFootballHockey, IceMinnesota WildNational Basketball AssnNational Football LeagueNational Hockey LeagueOntario (Canada)SoccerThe Washington MailWashington Football Team
Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Email Copy Link Print

HOT NEWS

Boy, 8, and lady, 10, killed in US Catholic faculty capturing named – as father manufacturers attacker ‘a coward’

Boy, 8, and lady, 10, killed in US Catholic faculty capturing named – as father manufacturers attacker ‘a coward’

World
August 29, 2025
‘I am shocked at how fragile I’m nonetheless’: Cumberbatch and Colman on defending their sanity from perils of social media

‘I am shocked at how fragile I’m nonetheless’: Cumberbatch and Colman on defending their sanity from perils of social media

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch says he is shocked at how "fragile" he nonetheless is - regardless…

August 29, 2025
How the US commerce battle is now concentrating on you from at present

How the US commerce battle is now concentrating on you from at present

Donald Trump has cancelled a loophole from at present that had allowed customers and companies…

August 29, 2025
West Nile virus case confirmed in Ionia County

West Nile virus case confirmed in Ionia County

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) -- The Ionia County Well being Division as confirmed a human case…

August 29, 2025
Lansing colleges acknowledged for sustainability efforts

Lansing colleges acknowledged for sustainability efforts

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) -- Lansing Public Faculties is being honored with the 2025 Inexperienced Ribbon…

August 29, 2025

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Travis Kelce jersey gross sales see large spike following Taylor Swift engagement announcement

Kansas Metropolis Chiefs followers positive are excited in regards to the upcoming season.Fanatics, the official on-line sportswear retailer for the…

Sports
August 28, 2025

Commentary: How Shohei Ohtani turned the Dodgers into a world leisure gateway

Within the waning days of the Nineteen Sixties, when Don Sutton was beginning his Corridor of Fame profession and Don…

Sports
August 28, 2025

First look: Rams go midnight mode with their new ‘rivalries’ uniform

Nothing, it appears, instructions the eye of Rams followers greater than the group’s uniforms.And on Thursday, the Rams revealed a…

Sports
August 28, 2025

His Tennessee turmoil behind him, Nico Iamaleava forges a contented UCLA homecoming

Nico Iamaleava is the uncommon commuter having fun with his time on the 405 lately.Each pump of the brakes, each…

Sports
August 28, 2025

Welcome to Michigan Post, an esteemed publication of the Enspirers News Group. As a beacon of excellence in journalism, Michigan Post is committed to delivering unfiltered and comprehensive news coverage on World News, Politics, Business, Tech, and beyond.

Company

  • About Us
  • Newsroom Policies & Standards
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Careers
  • Media & Community Relations
  • Accessibility Statement

Contact Us

  • Contact Us
  • Contact Customer Care
  • Advertise
  • Licensing & Syndication
  • Request a Correction
  • Contact the Newsroom
  • Send a News Tip
  • Report a Vulnerability

Term of Use

  • Digital Products Terms of Sale
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Settings
  • Submissions & Discussion Policy
  • RSS Terms of Service
  • Ad Choices

© 2024 | The Michigan Post | All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?