DALLAS — I spent the last week in New York where outdoor masks are a regular thing on the streets again, but where few masks were worn by the vaccinated crowd at Madison Square Garden watching Steph Curry break Ray Allen’s 3-point record Tuesday night.
That’s despite the fact we know COVID-19 is on the rampage again, especially the omicron variant, which doesn’t seem to care whether you have been vaccinated or not.
After 21 months of this unpleasant science fiction movie of a life we are living, people are torn on what to do and only guessing what comes next. We aren’t even certain where the lines on these arguments are drawn any more. If former President Trump can get booed at his own rally in Dallas for saying he’s had the vaccine and booster shot, I can’t begin to figure out where those people are coming from.
Our sports leagues — our salvation at times in all of this — appear as two trains steaming in opposite directions. In what served as an eerie reminder to Mavs-Nuggets at American Airlines Center last March, the Stars hosted Minnesota Monday, and it was during that game that the league announced it was shutting down.
In this case — unlike 2020 when all sports were shut down for months after that Mavs game — the NHL is closing doors only through Christmas. But in a league where 16% of the players are in its health protocols, you can expect postponements to mount far beyond the holidays. This is especially true for Canadian teams which have been involved in about 60% of the postponements up until now.
ESPN’s Baxter Holmes counted Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber as the 100th NBA player to hit league protocols in December. In a league of fewer than 500 players, that’s a lot. This is not an East Coast issue. Teams with significant problems range from Boston to Sacramento.
Keep in mind that sports are not a microcosm of society. While we may argue about Kyrie Irving or Cole Beasley or others who pretend to possess uncommon knowledge in their anti-vax stances, a much higher percentage of professional athletes is vaccinated than the population at large. If that many of them are getting sick, even if it’s largely flu-like for most healthy 20-somethings, what does that point to for a much older, unhealthier population that is refusing any and all vaccines?
Then there is the NFL train which, clearly, sees “full speed ahead’' as its only option. Some critics are jumping all over the league for this stance, and the league office does seem to change rules on the fly. But that has been the NFL way as long as I can remember. Now they are going to be testing fewer players, and as long as you’re vaccinated and can hide your symptoms — not hard to do when so many meetings are virtual — you’re free to play.
The league wants its games to go on. Unlike the NHL and the NBA, the NFL is heading into its home stretch. The playoffs start in less than a month and the Super Bowl is less than two months away. Actual postponements (not just two-day delays) would have a profound effect on the NFL. That’s not true for leagues that play 82 games and really can begin the playoffs just about whenever they want.
Remember the Lakers winning the 2019-20 title on Oct. 11?
I do find this an odd time to do away with weekly tests, given the number of players and coaches that have been out with COVID-19 lately. These aren’t just the youngest and healthiest of our species. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy (58) and offensive line coach Joe Philbin (60) are among those around here to recently miss games with COVID.
The NFL is rolling the dice and betting that the early returns on the omicron variant will continue. That is to say it does not appear to be as dangerous as the early stages of the virus were when the vaccine did not exist. At this point, thousands of college and pro athletes have missed games with COVID-19 the last two years, and the percentage that have returned to perform at previous levels is extraordinarily high.
Remember pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, whose case of myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle) as a result of COVID-19 caused him to miss the 2020 season? He didn’t exactly compete for the Cy Young Award in 2021, but he was good enough for Boston to land a $77 million contract with Detroit last month.
I have never been a proponent for shutting down leagues even though many of my colleagues were shouting for MLB to do exactly that when the Marlins and Cardinals and others endured multiple postponements in the short 2020 season. Teams made up of healthy young athletes find a way.
As for the rest of us, I showed my vaccine card at every restaurant I went to in New York. It isn’t hard. It’s about as difficult as punching four numbers into your phone every time you look at it. It should be done everywhere.
I sat through a Broadway play — packed as always — with a mask on the entire time Saturday. During intermission when I took a drink of water and didn’t get that mask back up quick enough an usher advised me to do so. At the time I thought it was funny. But if that’s what we need to live with for (I’d like to think) another year or so, that’s not the toughest thing people have ever been asked to endure.
As for the people booing vaccines and booster shots at a Trump rally at the AAC … just stay off the front row at Mavericks games, OK?
