by Eric Vah, Staff Writer
The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.
The recent spread of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has almost entirely stopped live sports across the United States over the last two months.
It started with the NBA when Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert was the first professional athlete to be diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 11. It quickly spread to teammates of Gobert and other players around the league, most significantly Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant. Then, the NCAA canceled all remaining winter and spring activities, most notably the men’s and women’s basketball tournament. Soon, almost every other league would follow, with the NFL and College Football still set to go on as planned in the fall. With that being said, The Jaguar Times looks at how COVID-19 has impacted sports in the U.S.
At the beginning of March, the NBA was looking at possible solutions to keep games going as scheduled despite the rapid spread of COVID-19 at the time. No NBA player had been diagnosed with the virus yet, so the NBA kept games going as scheduled. That all changed on March 11 when Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, ultimately starting the stoppage of live sports across the country. Soon after, the NBA season was suspended and the NCAA canceled its remaining winter and spring sports, including men’s and women’s basketball.
The MLB and NHL soon followed after but did not make as big of headlines. The MLB has tried ways to get baseball to start back up by having all 30 teams play in Arizona and staying in hotels 6 feet apart from each other. They planned on trying to do this as early as May, with many experts being skeptical about the possibility of it. The NHL has also devised a possible return with 4 cities hosting the rest of the season remotely. Once again, experts were skeptical of the idea since resuming play too early could lead to a bigger spread of the virus. All golf tournaments were either postponed or canceled due to the crisis, and next season’s golf schedule was revised due to the crisis as well.
Since this is happening in the spring, fall sports have not been affected in many ways by the growing pandemic, with the NFL and NCAA football saying that they’re still scheduled to have full seasons as planned in the fall. However, the NFL Draft was forced to go virtual due to the virus and many general managers, coaches, and even the commissioner were forced to do their duties from home, while still keeping the draft running smoothly.
One of the most notable changes to the sports world due to the COVID-19 crisis is the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Originally, the Olympics were still scheduled to go on as planned in July, but as the virus grew, tensions increased and the Olympics were ultimately postponed until next summer 2021, still giving fans hope that sports will come back soon.
COVID-19 has also had a significant impact at the high school level. With school being remote for the rest of the year, many sports’ seasons were either cut short or canceled altogether. Mr. Hamilton explained that “the shortening and ultimate cancelling of some seasons has been very disappointing” but he also explained that
“the number one priority must be the health and safety of all individuals.” When asked if this would have an affect on fall sports, he said that “we really have to wait and see” and that “there are far too many unknowns”.
Ultimately, the sports world has been deeply affected by the growing crisis, and while most leagues have proposed solutions to finish their seasons despite the ongoing crisis, most people look at those ideas and are still skeptical about those being possibilities. The sports world has stopped but many leagues have postponed live events until as early as June 2020, and the NFL and college football are confident their seasons can still go on as planned, giving fans hope that they will defeat COVID-19 and get live sports back as soon as possible.