“The virus will make the decision for us.”
Of all the quotes that have circulated around the world regarding the Coronavirus crisis, it is perhaps those chilling eight words that will scare NFL and sports fans in general the most.
Sport is a huge source of comfort and entertainment to millions of Americans, as well as fans from around the world. The news that the NFL may not return as early as some hoped – perhaps naively – for will come as a body blow that is felt as immensely as any of the tackles we long to see on the football field.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, must hardly be able to believe quite how high profile he has become in the past seven weeks. Often front and centre during U.S. COVID-19 press conferences, he has become both a touchstone for the official message and something of a meme after his reactions to some of President Trump’s high-profile speeches have caused ripples felt thousands of miles west and east of the Oval Office’s press centre.
Fauci’s admittance that while the return of the NFL is “feasible” it remains open to debate, was clear on little in his interview which appeared in the popular Football in America column and was related to in a Bleacher Report article.
“I think it’s feasible that negative testing players could play to an empty stadium,” Fauci said Fauci when questioned about the prospect of the NFL being played without fans. “Is it guaranteed? No way.”
It would be easy to read into that statement that the NFL is going to have to wait to return, because the fans are such a huge part of the game. But far from it. Fauci believes that while a second and perhaps third wave of the Coronavirus is “inevitable”, probably around the time that football has the best chance of returning, during the fall, there are ways to let fans back into stadiums to keep at least soe of the atmosphere.
“A third of the stadium or half the stadium so people could be six feet apart,” was Dr. Fauci’s prognosis on exactly how many could return.
For that to happen, of course, many other boxes will require ticking. These include but aren’t restricted to: wider and more frequent COVID-19 testing, a better understanding of how we can combat Coronavirus – with or without a vaccine being available – and antigen testing.
With the Premier League in England looking unlikely to return easily due to players being diagnosed with Coronavirus, there is just the same chance that American footballers will fall prey to the deadly virus and its rapacious ability to transmit between people. Fauci was clear on this matter – anyone who is discovered to have Coronavirus will have to go into quarantine and no matter how big the star or important the player, to put any infected player on the football field would be “malpractice”.
With other sports in America such as Major League Baseball or the NBA behind NFL in terms of being ready, a lot hangs on the sport of American Football. While the NFL Draft worked in a virtual way and may change in the future because of how successful the altered version was just a few short weeks ago, real-life NFL action is going to be very difficult to reactivate quickly.
With travel restrictions in place across much of the world, the notion of neutral stadiums or empty stadiums both needing serious exploration, Fauci and others in the government taskforce will be hoping that they can negotiate what is a medicinal and political minefield.
Denver Broncos’ Von Miller already expressed on Mothers’ Day just how important it is for players to have their biggest fans in the stadium.
“I just can’t imagine not having my mom at a game.”@VonMiller’s mom Gloria is the real MVP. 🧡 #MothersDay | @NFLFilmspic.twitter.com/uZ1eQorLyJ
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) May 10, 2020
The issue of whether sport is the same without fans in the stadiums where games take place is a huge one, and an obstacle each sport must overcome if it is to return.
As Dr. Fauci explained, many obstacles still lie in the path of the NFL before the first touchdown will be seen around the word.
