Covid-19 has caused professional sports like the NBA, NFL, and MLB, to alter their season in order to make it safer for the players, coaches, and fans.
The MLB pushed their season back and made it shorter. The NFL is playing with little to no fans in the stands. The NBA stopped their season and started again on a later date, in a central location.
Are these professional sports taking enough precautions to prevent the spread of Corona?
The MLB had hopes of starting their season at the normal time of late March, but Covid-19 had other ideas for them. They ended up starting their season in late July and instead of playing a regular 162 games, they are only playing 60. One of the precautions the MLB is taking is that they have removed all the fans from the stands and replaced them with cardboard cutouts of fans. By doing this, it reduces the amount of people in the stadium to only the ones that need to be there like the players and staff.
Another precaution is that teams will carry 30 players on the active roster for the first two weeks of the season and 28 for the two weeks after that before reducing to 26 for the rest of the way. This reduces the number of people in the stadium even more and truly makes sure that the least amount of people as possible are being exposed to each other. Baseball is played with players spread far out from each other, which is ideal for the Covid scenario. The MLB has been doing a great job with preventing the spread of Covid-19 while still playing their sport.
On March 11th, the NBA stopped their season after a player tested positive for Covid-19. After a few months, they started their season up again on July 30th. With the resuming of the season there was changes made to how the games are put on, “Obviously the most significant changes from when we shut down are we’re playing without fans, we’re playing in a central location, we’re playing on a campus where the players are going to remain there throughout the competition, and the players are going to be tested … most likely daily.”
The NBA had a smart idea when they decided to keep all the games and players in one location, therefore minimizing the spread of Covid. Basketball can not be played while social distancing but the precautions that the NBA is taking are good enough to prevent the spread of Corona. The NFL has recently started their 2020 season at their normal time.
The NFL might have a harder time dealing with Covid-19 but, “based on early coronavirus testing results through August, the NFL has managed to keep the number of positive tests relatively low. Which is remarkable given the massive number of people required to operate 32 NFL teams.”
Some precautions the NFL has taken are limiting the number of fans and making sure everyone besides the players are wearing masks. NFL stadiums are allowed to seat 22% of their capacity, but many have decided to not let any fans in at all. Football is hard to play while trying to prevent the spread of Covid-19 because it requires players to be in the face of another player at almost all times. A football team also has a lot more players on it than a basketball or baseball team, which is another reason football is harder to play safely in this pandemic.
The NFL is doing their best to keep playing as safe as possible, but it would not be surprising if the NFL has to stop their season because of the Coronavirus. Rizzo 3 The NFL, the NBA, and the MLB have taken necessary steps to slow the spread of Covid-19, but the question is, are these steps enough? It would not be surprising if professional sports will have to stop their seasons because players are testing positive for Covid-19. We cannot know if the precautions that are being taken are going to be effective enough to completely prevent Corona from spreading until the seasons are over, but the spreading might be inevitable.
Mina Rizzo is a junior at Rio.
