I wrote about coronavirus and how it was and might affect sports around the world last week. Since then, more cases have been confirmed in more places, and games, festivals, and other events have been postponed or cancelled altogether. Italy has basically shut down the entire country and has postponed all Serie A matches until at least April 3rd. The SXSW festival in the United States has been cancelled and Coachella was postponed. All of the major U.S. sports leagues have taken measures to restrict locker room access for reporters in an effort to minimize the possibility of exposure for players.

Arsenal, the Premier League club about which I manage a website, just postponed it’s match against Manchester City scheduled for Wednesday, March 11th on the advice of the British government. Several of Arsenal’s players and staff had come into contact with Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis 13 days ago. Those who interacted with Marinakis are self-isolating through Thursday evening, when the 14-day period when they can transmit the virus has ended.

We are still just seeing the beginning of COVID-19’s effects on sports. I think more games will be postponed in the coming days out of an abundance of caution, or at least they should be. As I said last time, I’m not a medical professional, so my opinion doesn’t carry all that much weight. But from a commonsense perspective, it seems like an awfully big risk we are taking for sports, something that at its core isn’t that important to society.

In the United States (and to a lesser extent in Europe), we just don’t know how many people have been exposed and what the penetration of the disease actually is. For example, earlier this week, it was confirmed that a priest who had given communion to hundreds of parishioners in Washington, D.C. tested positive for the virus. We don’t know where it is, we don’t really know who has it, and we don’t know how much we are spreading it by continuing to gather large groups of people together.

I simply cannot see how the college basketball conferences and then the NCAA can play tournaments with spectators in attendance over the coming weeks. I think they will do everything they can to avoid cancelling them altogether, but it seems a foregone conclusion that the arenas will be empty. Thank goodness for TV and streaming — they will come in handy as we sit at home trying to minimize our time spent in public, I suppose.

As sports fans, we love stories about guys playing through injuries. “What a tough guy,” we say, “she gutted it out for the team.” Injured players suiting up for the big game become legends. Michael Jordan’s flu game. Keri Strug’s vault on a badly sprained ankle. Tiger Woods winning the 2008 U.S. Open with a broken leg and torn ACL. Curt Schilling’s bloody sock. Kirk Gibson hobbling around the basepath after a World Series pinch hit walkoff.  And the list goes on. They’ve all etched their names in sports history for fighting through the pain.

But should they have suited up? Should they have been on the field in the first place?

Every case should be evaluated on its own merits, but my general feeling is that no, players shouldn’t play hurt.

For every one of those legendary stories, I’d bet there are three people who battled through as much or more pain that we don’t remember. What did they get out of it? A shot at a big win or a title? Maybe. More pain and problems down the road? Probably.

And when was the last time a team showed the same level of commitment and loyalty to a player as that player showed the team? For a team legend, perhaps (but I’d suggest even those decisions are motivated by things other than any commitment to the player). Teams chew players up, wear out their bodies, and spit them out when they can no longer perform. It’s a cold, harsh reality that fans refuse to acknowledge.

For the majority of athletes, their body is their only valuable asset. They need to protect it and look out for themselves. When they play hurt, they put that asset on the line, and for what? As I said, every case is different, and if it’s just a case of pain tolerance where there isn’t much of a risk of further injury, then I’m somewhat more play with it. But even that has it’s limits — addiction to painkillers is a very real thing that athletes should be concerned about.

As a former athlete, I get it. You want to play. It’s what you do, it’s what you know, it’s who you are. You want to be there for your teammates. I’m fine with adults taking calculated risks if they completely understand their situation, but with all the external pressures athletes face, I wonder if that “informed decision” is even possible.

It’s all a bit cynical from me, I know. But I’m tired of the scales always tipping in favor of the teams. Teams are companies; they are created entities that make money hand over fist. Players are people. They have lives, families, hopes, dreams, pains, and everything else. We have much more in common with them than we do with the teams we support. It’s long past time we realize that and act accordingly.

 

 

Coronavirus (that’s the CDC link) is affecting sporting events around the world. Italian sports, like Serie A, are being played to empty stadiums through April 3rd. Several esports events have been cancelled, postponed, or moved entirely online to avoid people physically interacting. The NBA and the NHL aren’t doing anything yet, but they have prepared contingency plans and are encouraging their players to limit contact with fans. The NHL is also concerned about a possible stick shortage because two of the main manufacturers have had factories closed in China.

The FA (England) has dropped pregame handshakes between teams, which seems a bit silly to be honest. Sure, they’re not touching hands to avoid communicating the disease; they’re just playing an entire game where people will be sweaty, bumping into each other, clutching and grabbing each other, sharing water bottles, etc. But good for them for doing something, I guess. Teams have also been advised to start making plans for playing in empty stadiums.

The NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament just held a game in Baltimore, MD in a fan-less arena. What will the NCAA do for the men’s and women’s Division I tournaments just around the corner? Division I games in Seattle have already been cancelled, and the NCAA has formed a committee to make recommendations.

The International Olympic Committee will have to make a decision on the Summer 2020 games in Japan at some point. All indications from the IOC have been that they want to push forward with the games as scheduled. According to Thomas Bach, the IOC president, the committee will follow the recommendation of the World Health Organization, which he says has not yet mentioned canceling or postponing the Olympics. But the Japanese island of Hokaiddo, where the marathon is scheduled to be held, is currently completely shut down because of the coronavirus. As of March 1st, Japan had the fifth most cases in the world, not including the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which if it were a country, would have more. The games are still four-and-a-half months away, which gives health officials time to get the virus under control, but the clock is ticking.

Not that my completely non-expert, non-medical professional opinion matters, but I think leagues and teams in the U.S. and abroad should be ultra-careful. We have a communal responsibility to protect each other. Even if the virus might not have a high death rate for the main sport-fan demographics, if we continue to spread the virus in the community, we run the risk of transmitting it to the populations for whom it is more problematic. Unfortunately, we have a tendency, especially where sporting events (read: money — from the gate, from T.V., from sponsors) are concerned, to not always get our priorities straight. The primary concern here HAS to be public health.

The chart below comes from a paper from the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; it shows the Spanish Flu death rates per 100,000 in Philadelphia and St. Louis. During the height of the Spanish Flu, St. Louis cancelled public events, but Philly still held a parade.

Yes, modern medicine is much better than it was in 1918 and the diseases are different, but why risk it? Why gather large groups of people for non-essential events and create environments in which the coronavirus can spread?

Fans needs to be smart as well. If you’re not feeling well, even if there isn’t any particular instruction to stay home because of COVID-19, maybe don’t go to the game. It’s a good rule to live by generally, whether there is a budding global health crisis or not — if you might be sick and can afford to stay home, do it. It’s the considerate thing to do. Your community will thank you.

As we’ve heard time and again, we shouldn’t panic. But we also shouldn’t be silly. Nobody, me especially, wants to see sporting events cancelled. For now, it’s probably better to be safe than sorry.