It’s going to be a while before we see the return of organized sports.
The NBA canceled the remainder of its season after professional basketball players started testing positive for the coronavirus. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been postponed until 2021. For the moment. it remains possible that Major League Baseball might still happen, though under very strict conditions.
All of this is entirely appropriate. I don’t think anyone begrudges the players or the teams choosing to keep themselves safe during a global pandemic, even though we all sorely need healthy and virtually-communal distractions right now. So one of the thought experiments I’ve taken on to occupy myself while trying not to freak out too badly is what we might see from organized sports in the coming months.
To be clear: I would be utterly surprised, and maybe even rightfully alarmed, if any of this happens. But read on to the end for a short-term approach to spectator sports during the pandemic that could work and be implemented almost immediately.
Baseball, which can be but is typically not a full-contact sport, could open around mid-May or early June. Games would be played in empty stadiums, with spectators tuning in via television and the internet. Teams would grow global audiences, and fans and others who are new to the sport would reap the enormous psychological benefit of having something other than the pandemic to argue about online. Reddit, Twitter, and a new sports-specific social media platform from ESPN would explode with users. Virtual watch parties would abound, and Seamless and GrubHub would quickly learn to hire extra delivery drivers—on hazard pay—for game days. Games would be broadcast openly, out from behind paywalls, to offer entertainment and relief to the American people, and to viewers around the globe. Advertisers would come flocking back. The players, management, and all staff, of course, would have to live out the entire season—likely a rather short one—under rigorous quarantine and would be subject to regular testing for Covid-19. (See how unlikely this is? This also assumes vast quantities of testing kits are easily available.)
Series-long meetings between teams would be reduced to single-game competitions. Playoffs and championships, including the World Series*, would be reduced to three-game series if not single-game sudden-death meetings. (*All championships during the pandemic would carry an asterisk due to the restricted nature of the sports’ seasons.)
I don’t personally enjoy baseball, particularly when it’s televised, but the idea of America’s national pastime coming to the rescue of the country’s psyche and soul like this honestly has me feeling a bit teary. Just like evening cheers in our cities for our medical workers, emergency responders, delivery drivers, and other essential personnel, we could come together around our screens to cheer for something active and awesome, which would be a lovely and necessary diversion from so much fear and anger stemming from both the pandemic and the onslaught of disinformation from the federal government.
There would be no college sports until sometime in 2021—until after a vaccine has been developed and administered far and wide. With colleges and universities moving to an online-only, distance-learning model, there would be no students on any campuses—which also means no collegiate sports.
For professional football . . . Well, what I’ve imagined is downright preposterous. But I enjoy football, and I love the Green Bay Packers. So let’s dive in.
The NFL could play a limited season. For logistical purposes, the entire season—from training through playoffs—would need to be confined to a single geographical region. The whole point is to avoid travel and increased exposure risk for the huge number of people who are involved in football. Think players, coaches, trainers, doctors, equipment managers, dietitians . . . Everyone would have to be effectively sequestered—away from all family and friends not directly involved with the teams—with routine tests for everyone for the full run. (Again, this is pure fantasy.) I’m thinking Los Angeles would be the natural choice, where multiple hotels and stadiums could be taken over and repurposed.
No preseason games. The first three games for each team would be played entirely within that team’s division, and all games would take place in the month of December. Games would be played on both Saturday and Sunday—to fill the airtime normally devoted to college games, and to expand the number of games everyone can watch, therefore also expand advertising. After this initial short season, everyone gets an extended bye while arrangements, rankings, and brackets are worked out for a March Madness style, single elimination march toward the Super Bowl*—which would then carry an asterisk because of the weird season leading up to the big game. Beginning in early January, each division would send its top two teams to the playoff brackets. It would be basically the NCAA Basketball tournament, but starting at the Sweet Sixteen level and with two “regions”—the NFC and the AFC—instead of four, but with four weeks of games.
All of this assumes that no one involved in any sport tests positive for Covid-19, or that there’s a new wave or spike in domestic infections and deaths. It also assumes that everyone would agree to isolate themselves with their teams and away from all other family members and friends for the duration of their sport’s season.
What I think is much more likely, and what I’d like to see adopted, is a push for wide and free broadcast of recordings of the greatest games and competitions, across disciplines and nationalities. We should be rebroadcasting the Miracle on Ice and Super Bowl XIII. We should be rebroadcasting cricket matches and curling tournaments. And these should be actual broadcast events, rather than dumping so much footage out for on-demand streaming, so that we can build anticipation for each event and share in the real-time excitement together.
We are already isolated enough. Sports can rally our spirits and help bring us together again, even as we all—athletes included—remain safely sheltered at home.
(This post/rambling screed was inspired at least in part by this April 4, 2020, story from The Washington Post: How long until sports can return? You might not like the answer.)