Can we play games on Zoom?
Do we rapid test players at halftime?
How will sports look in its second matchup with COVID and its viral brothers, Delta and Omicron?
Because sports are going on. Come hell or high absentee rate, the games and the billion-dollar businesses are going on. The NFL shifted three games where teams had at least 20 players on the COVID list to Monday and Tuesday. In the NBA, star Kevin Durant became the eighth Brooklyn Nets player to enter COVID-19 protocols.
The Florida Panthers suspended play through at least Christmas weekend, as did Colorado and Calgary in the NHL. That’s after the Panthers fielded a virus-diluted team in Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
That’s the new normal, next normal, now normal or whatever abnormal adjective you want to place in front of what we’re dealing with in the larger world. The smaller world in sports keeps going against an Omicron variant that is more contagious but apparently less deadly than its viral predecessors, medical information says.
So it isn’t a question of if the games go on. It’s how. The Miami Dolphins, for instance, moved to last season’s lockdown of facilities and practice protocol. Zoom meetings. Split squads. They got running backs Myles Gaskin and Salvon Ahmed back from COVID protocol on Friday.
They’ll play Sunday against the New York Jets (3-10), a toothless team separated by more than quarterback play and December hope. Their strategy on the COVID front was different. The Jets allowed in-person interviews while the Dolphins (6-7) operated on Zoom. Will that matter when available players are listed for Sunday?
Here’s another new question, same as the old viral question: If teams are instituting lock-down behavior against the virus, should they allow fans to flock into full stadiums? And would those thousands of fans put greater society at risk?
Decisions.
In Canada, teams were government-ordered to limit attendance to 50 percent capacity for now. That poses an odd question in the implementation. Which fans get tickets for a particular game? Who gets stuck with the blah opponent?
Decisions, decisions.
One thing for sure: It looks like the leagues will muscle through this for now. Four Heat players wore masks during pre-game warmups Friday night in Orlando. The Toronto Raptors planned to roll out an initiative for fans Saturday called, “Operation Mask Up (Or Out).” It required, “all attendees to strictly adhere to all mask-wearing protocols or risk ejection from the building.”
The political food fight will follow. That’s part of all this, too.
In sports, playoff races might be skewed, pre-game announcements will change betting lines and some teams already are upset. The schedule must be flexibly maintained. The NHL might have a three-week buffer if it opts players out of the upcoming Beijing Olympics due to COVID. Does the NBA push this season again into next season?
It’s already ugly in football. The Las Vegas Raiders, for instance, protested when their game was moved from Saturday to Monday after more than 20 Cleveland Browns were on the reserve COVID list. That changes the look of their following week’s game against division rival Denver.
“Maybe Cleveland should fly [to Las Vegas],” Raiders owner Mark Davis said. “That’d make it more fair.”
Fair isn’t the issue. Keeping the games going is. Again, there’s no reason just yet to cancel them if people want to assume the risks. But the manner of keeping them going is odd.
Kyrie Irving, one of three percent of unvaccinated NBA players, was told to stay away from his Nets this season. They just brought him back to field a roster. But due to a New York mandate for vaccinated workers, he can’t play home games. He can only play the remaining 24 road games.
“The emergence of the omicron variant is precisely the type of the change that warrants a flexible response,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.
No one wants the seasons to stop. No one will be more flexible than the Goodells in sports to keep the games going.