Covid seems to be hitting the NFL and College Football hard

[maxrandb]

I made a prediction when they started football that this would happen.

Just two weekends ago, 15 major college games were cancelled due to Covid outbreaks among many schools.

Now, the reigning NFL MVP and both starting running backs for the Baltimore Ravens are out. In the same division, Myles Garrett, a candidate for defensive player of the year will miss his second game after testing positive. About 7 more Browns are on the Covid list.

If ever there was an activity ripe for Covid spreading, spitting, sweating and huffing and puffing around a bunch of guys banging into each other for 3 hours is surely it.

I'm a football fan, but I just can't understand what has become of our country.

At one point, we put our lives on hold from 1941 - 1945. We didn't bitch about not being able to get a haircut because our barber was fighting Nazis in Europe.

For 4 years, we rationed everything from sweets to meats.

Now, we can't even make it for a Saturday or Sunday without our football.

People have always been selfish. It seems like today, selfishness is a value to be celebrated and embraced.

[NoMoreRepugs]

1. We can't even agree to wear simple protective garb to potentially

save one another from a known deadly virus. The America that existed during WW2 no longer exists.

[sarcasmo]

2. I brought football back! 🍄🍄🍄

[malaise]

21. THIS!

Thanks Killa Con!

[jalan48]

3. It was predicted by some sportswriters.

[Moostache]

4. If you have not already seen it, I cannot recommend this documentary enough...

We live in a world run completely amok with advertising and marekting and all for the profits of an increasingly smaller circle of profiteers and wealth extractors... These spring from the internet and Silicon Valley and as much as anything else - the need for media 'content' is driving the decisions to allow or host football games and to bring in fans in many cases...it is all a part of the more fundamental disease discussed at length in the following...

The Social Dilemma:

This is not necessarily 'new' information, but it is presented in a relatable and informative way. Our country IS changed and not for the better due to social media and the unregulated nature of the product they sell - US!

Additionally vital to understanding just how fucked we the consumers and people really are was the Frontline episodes on Facebook earlier this year:

The Facebook Dilemma:
Part One:

Part Two:

The internet companies from YouTube to Twitter to Facebook need to be massively changed and held accountable for the outcomes that they are creating and profiting from...EVERY single dollar 'earned' at these companies from selling marketing information and data to advertisers should be taxed as much as anything else offered as consideration in capitalism transactions...and that money should be plowed back into climate change combat, social equity programs and funding education for the populace through a university level degree or trade certification.

[sarcasmo]

10. Surveillance Capitalism.

[mr_lebowski]

12. I watched Social Dilemma just last night ... I also HIGHLY recommend it ...

Everyone, esp. parents ... needs to see it.

[BannonsLiver]

5. Frankly, I'm surprised it's gone as well as it has in the NFL.

We’re in week 12. Didn’t think it would get that far.

[Funtatlaguy]

6. Too much grab ass and locker room talk.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

7. Line of scrimmage

What did they think was going to happen?

[moondust]

9. 40 years of Reaganomics.

Greed is good. Be as greedy as you can. Screw the little people. Gubment baaaaad.

[PSPS]

11. Comparison to the 40's is apt. Before long, Covid will surpass all US WW II deaths, which was 291K

[Stallion]

13. Actually 18 Ncaa games were cancelled or postponed last week

[Hermit-The-Prog]

14. Every infection risks life-changing damage. The game does not have to go on.

[misanthrope]

15. Americans have been materialistic for longer than you think

When Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States circa 1830, he noted, "As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?"

That was long before modern advertising and technology magnified the issue.

[usajumpedtheshark]

16. And high school sports and various tournaments still on in S. Dakota

some of which are sponsored by Sanford Health

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. I'm surprised it hasn't been worse tbh.

I'm still prepared for their playoffs/seasons to be cancelled before it's all over, but didn't think they'd get this far.

[mnhtnbb]

18. "Selfishness is a value to be celebrated

and embraced."

That is the one and only value of the Republican party of today. It explains the cult worship of Trump. He is all about self. That's all he cares about. That's the appeal. He shows people that should be the primary concern for themselves. What's in it for me and me first are the rallying cries of Republicans today.

How else could someone like the Barrett woman be nominated to the seat of Ruth Bader Ginsberg ? And she has come through with this decision to knock down the Covid restraints on church and synagogue attendance numbers in NY. What matters most? Community health? No. Me and my right to go to church or synagogue no matter the effect on spreading a deadly disease.

Me, me, me. My taxes. My rights. My white supremacy. My vote. My religion. Me, me,me: it's the Republican way.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. I expect the priorities of vaccination to be re-shuffled.

Current thinking is that medical personnel get first shots, then old folks.

I think old folks will be de-prioritized, after cops, fire, professional sports, college sports, military, food-industry workers (including truckers), teachers and students, social- and entertainments-elites, then maybe old folks.

In fact, professional sports may be immunized before the medical community. It's big business.

[cwydro]

20. I've seen pics of them wearing masks on the sideline - with their noses uncovered.

Guess they don’t get any education about how to wear them correctly. Smh.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. Worth Noting

Since you started your thoughts around football, there were in fact, football seasons in 1942-1945.
Championships were won by Chicago, Washington, Green Bay, & Cleveland. So even then, football was not canceled.
But, I agree with your general point.
One thing I read showed that at the end of the 1945 season, NFL teams had 638 players on roster. 21(!) had already died in action that year! Around 3% of roster players had already died!

[maxrandb]

27. Yes, I know. I actually played softball at Captain McClure Field at Naval Station Norfolk

A lot of people don't know that the second oldest brick baseball stadium in the country is on Naval Station Norfolk. Only Wrigley Field is older.

We played softball there when I was in the Navy.

So, I can actually say that I played on the same field as Bob Feller, Pee We Reese, Eddie Robinson, Dom Dimagio and Stan Musual and other Hall of Farmers.

Yes, there was sports during the World Wars, but the difference is, we actually did something as a nation to make it possible.

There wouldn't have been sports if we allowed Nazi murderers to sit in the stands with us.

We've really done nothing but ring the dinner bell for Covid.

https://pilotonline.com/sports/baseball/article_2add0ead-8422-5467-bfc7-cbafc2fdbc12.html

McClure is a lot of field for such an informal game. It seats 3,500 and is the second-oldest brick baseball stadium in the country. Games have been played here for almost a century. Years ago, the Navy put up a series of markers to tell its history, but these days few stop to read them.

The one near the entrance on the first base side has been bleached by the sun.

"During World War II all Americans pitched in for victory. Several major league baseball players enlisted in the United States Navy and reported to Norfolk for training."

And then you see the names. Phil Rizzuto. Pee Wee Reese. Bob Feller. Dom DiMaggio.

[Nevilledog]

23. National's pitcher Sean Doolittle was correct.

"I do think it brings to mind kind of where we’re at in our response to this as a country. Like we’re trying to bring baseball back during a pandemic that’s killed 130,000 people. We’re way worse off as a country than we were in March when we shut this thing down. Look at where other developed countries are in their response to this. We haven’t done any of the things that other countries have done to bring sports back. Sports are like the reward of a functioning society. And we’re trying to just bring it back, even though we’ve taken none of the steps to flatten the curve, whatever you want to say. We did flatten the curve a little bit, but we didn’t use that time to do anything productive. We just opened back up for Memorial Day. We decided we’re done with it. If there aren’t sports, it’s going to be because people are not wearing masks, because the response to this has been so politicized. We need help from the general public. If they want to watch baseball, please wear a mask, social distance, keep washing your hands. We can’t just have virus fatigue and keep thinking, ‘Well, it’s been four months, we’re over it, this has been enough time, right? We’ve waited long enough, shouldn’t sports come back now?’ No, there are things we have to do in order to bring this stuff back. And now you want to bring fans back? Is that safe? I don’t know. I’m not a public health expert, but we should probably defer to them on some of these issues. So I don’t know if it’s safe or not. I really don’t know. But that doesn’t seem like something that … I don’t know if that feels like a good idea or not. I don’t know."

[Drahthaardogs]

24. It's the money!

They don’t care

[Tarc]

25. This is a bit misguided

Players want to play as well,. this isn't just pushed by "greed". For pros, this is their livelihood, for the college players it is their chance to get into that life and be financially secure.

Let's not forget the hundreds of thousands who either work at the stadiums or in the nearby locales who make a living from the games too.

[BumRushDaShow]

26. The other side of your coin

masks the fact that many of those "stadium staff" have also contracted it, either from the players and team staff, or from their own interactions outside of their jobs and they are often members of the most vulnerable populations. And not recognizing the roll of the dice one does regarding how one's body might respond to infection given all we've seen happen over the past 9 months, necessitates the need for caution.

Some of these players may have to end their careers early due to slow, initially undetected damage to critical parts of their bodies that this virus has potential to inflict (despite any "mild symptoms" ), and a vaccine will not reverse that.

[Autumn]

28. I have no sympathy for that outbreak. They chose to play their game.