When the Covid shutdown happened in March, it put a hold on sports for awhile which many people weren’t happy about. With March Madness cancelled, sports fans eagerly awaited for the NFL, NBA, and both college football and basketball seasons to return.
Over the summer, players in the NBA played in the Bubble, a facility that had hotel rooms for players to stay in and provided food. This Bubble was completely restrictive and socially isolating for players at all times. They had specific practice times for players and immediate isolation in hotel rooms following the basketball games.
When the NFL and college football season started, both leagues agreed to constant, daily testing of players. Luckily for football players, the sport is played outside.
However, many professional and collegiate players tested positive and missed games. Some games were even rescheduled due to a majority of the team having to quarantine. For some football games, teams played without valuable players which was bound to happen.
Unlike during the summer for the NBA players, football has no bubble so they have to be even more careful and add in extra precautions. The NFL and a majority of the college football leagues were determined to keep this sports seasons alive and would attempt to keep games going under any circumstances. Even if that meant that only a small percentage of their stadium’s capacity would be allowed to the games, mask wearing by everyone except the people playing, and the best attempt at social distancing.
The same few rules were set in pace for college basketball, which just recently started. With the sport being played indoors, college basketball has to be extra cautious.
So far for sports, contracting the virus has proven to be unavoidable. With the lack of control that the NFL and colleges have, they are forced to deal with the circumstances as they occur.
There are still a lot of questions that are being asked from people all across the nation. With the football season coming to a close in a few weeks and college basketball starting back up, it will be a team-to-team decision on what steps they need to take.