NEW YORK _ After 9/11, sports were so important to New York City. We came together for games and put our hands on hearts and swore the terrorists would not break us. When the Yankees made it to the World Series, it felt like the nation was there with them.
But you can't stare down a virus, or vow that it won't disrupt your way of life. You can't build tanks or walls to contain it. A virus thrives in the same community from which we derive strength.
We've been slow to realize this in sports, but it's time.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was asked on Wednesday in front of a congressional committee about those crowds that come to watch games, and whether the Ivy League had been too panicky in cancelling its postseason basketball tournaments. After all, the NBA is playing eight games a night in front of crowds.
"We would recommend that there not be large crowds," Fauci said. "If that means not having any people in the audience when the NBA plays, so be it."
So be it. And that would apply just as easily no doubt, to the crowd at an NHL game, baseball stands, the crowd at the NFL draft and, of course, the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments.
The NCAA should play these games, but not in front of a crowd. Yes it will be strange not to hear the band and the fans, to have the squeaks of sneakers on hardwood the loudest sounds. In a perfect world, you'd be able to test the players and refs beforehand.
The truth is, as contagious as the coronavirus could be in the stands, playing a game where you bump up against other sweaty bodies in proximity too close to avoid coughs means that one player could potentially infect many more on the court.
Which is why the mitigation efforts that MLS, NHL, NBA and MLB put in place were almost comically inadequate. Barring locker room access is arguably one measure, but not in isolation. The court isn't in a bubble apart from fans and staffers. Sportswriters are not a known vector of disease, and leagues shouldn't just be worrying about players catching the virus.
The problem with testing the players beforehand is a lack of tests. How could you justify redirecting those kits from symptomatic people fearing a potentially deadly infection to the outwardly healthy shooting guard in the Sweet 16? As became apparent in the morning briefing on Capitol Hill, the number of coronavirus test kits shipped out has not equaled the number of people tested, or even met the need, according to several state governors.
This problem is way bigger than sports.
This is starting to dawn on leagues. The Mariners won't be playing in Seattle after a local ban on large gatherings. Other mayors and governors are starting to make similar calls. Sports aren't exempt from sensible community measures.
Fauci cautioned that this will get worse. The steps taken now could flatten the infection curve, meaning that those who do get sick don't all go to the ER at once and overtax the health system, which is happening now in Italy. This is 10 times deadlier than the flu, Fauci said, and we won't have a vaccine against coronavirus for at least a year. Keeping people well longer means that lives will be saved.
This is the NCAA's opportunity to set an example for a society that doesn't know how to combat an enemy like a virus. It can't be reasoned with or stood up to. It can't be killed by a drone or defiantly told it will not change our way of life. This isn't a moment for "Keep Calm and Carry On." It's a public health crisis, and in order to keep our grandparents and people with compromised immune systems safe _ think of the person you know with asthma or diabetes _ we need to act in the spirit of public health.
The games we play are meant to develop skills, like leadership, and here's where we need our leagues to show a little. Play the games, but don't endanger public health in the process. Adapt, for now, and in a few years we can all recollect the spring we all watched our games on a screen.
