The NFL is in the middle of a COVID crisis, unless you ask them, in which case they’ll say everything is fine. The Ravens and Steelers were supposed to play on Thanksgiving, but after the Ravens had 20 positive COVID tests, the game was delayed to Sunday, and then delayed again to today, and now the league has pushed it to tomorrow. Will the game actually be played tomorrow? Who knows?
This is just the latest incidence of the coronavirus affecting the league. The Titans had an outbreak back in early October that delayed a game between them and the Patriots, and the 49ers lost their entire receiving corps for a game due to contact tracing protocols a few weeks ago, and just this week all three Broncos quarterbacks had to sit their game out, causing the team to start a practice squad wide receiver at quarterback.
These issues are having real-world effects on these teams, making them significantly less competitive, and in the Broncos’ case, making it essentially impossible for them to win. There was no justification for playing that game, other than the TV contract demanding it. It was never going to be entertaining, or interesting, or competitive, or worth anyone’s time. There weren’t any fans in attendance, so why did that game go on? Why the veneer of normalcy?
The problem with the NFL is that — yes,ah you’re right, let me start again.
One major problem, among many others, with the NFL is that its priorities are way out of whack. The idea of “We must play our schedule of football games no matter what” leads to the act of playing their schedule of football games, no matter what. They hide concussions, and suffer injuries that will be debilitating in the long run, and pump the players full of whatever drugs let them play. These things happen in every sport, of course, but not to the same extent: the game of football is fundamentally built on destroying the bodies of those who play it, and there is simply no baseball equivalent to that.
But all this is to say that when the NFL sees an obstacle in its path to playing a game of football, well, boy does the NFL get mad at the obstacle.
Here, we see Kyle Shanahan, who certainly is not dumb, mad at the restrictions in place in his home stadium’s county. Why is he mad? Because it’s inconvenient for him. Because he wants to do this thing, and he wants to do it the regular way, and the health officials saying, “No you can’t,” are bothering him. He’s Super Bowl-losing coach Kyle Shanahan! He doesn’t want to hear that shit!
The restrictions are right, by the way. No one should be playing or practicing a contact sport when close contact with another person is the easiest way to get COVID, especially in the wake of a monumental increase in cases, one that will only keep growing as the full effects of Thanksgiving travel reveal themselves. Football isn’t necessary, and it shouldn’t get special treatment.
And yet they must play their schedule of games no matter what. Business goes on at the expense of health, as it always does. Should we be surprised that this is the decision the NFL is making? No, not when they make this decision every game day of every year. The NFL has never cared about the health of its players. Why start now?