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I had an amazing, thoughtful, long conversation this week with @kurtstreeter @nytimes about the disaster that has been this @nfl season. Here's his great piece (also with insights from @EricTopol) about why we should rethink finishing the season. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/sports/football/nfl-covid-ravens-steelers.html
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE football. I attended my first Seahawks game in the Kingdome as a 7-month-old fetus. My grandfather bought season tickets when the franchise started in 1976 before I was even born. I hate saying this. I wish we could have NFL football.
But the NFL has done a terrible, inconsistent job at making sure they remained COVID-free. Unlike the NBA, WNBA, and NHL, which had detailed plans for player/staff sequestration, test/trace protocols, and contingency plans, the NFL's plan is evidently "make it up on the fly".
As a result, there's been crazy schedule changes to try to salvage games when huge clusters of players and staff test positive. This has impacted nearly every single NFL team.
"But Angie, weren't you just bragging that your precious Seahawks haven't had any COVID cases?"
Yes, but that doesn't mean they won't. Honestly it's mostly luck, given that the players aren't "bubbled" and community prevalence is high everywhere. https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1333622652641021953?s=20
Yes, but that doesn't mean they won't. Honestly it's mostly luck, given that the players aren't "bubbled" and community prevalence is high everywhere. https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1333622652641021953?s=20
"Well these are highly paid professional athletes, they can decide to assume the risk for themselves." This is also not just a risk to players or staff on the field. It's a risk to everyone in the communities that the teams play in and travel to.
It's also a huge risk to the fans who are encouraged to attend in-person games by some team owners who willfully and recklessly disregard the severity of the pandemic (looking HARD at you, Jerry Jones).
And do NOT get me started on college football. It's reprehensible to demand that unpaid amateur athletes are being put in objectively dangerous situations when there have been huge outbreaks on many D1 college teams.
"It is possible to love the N.F.L. and stand against the arguments for continuing the patchwork approach heralded by football enablers fixated on profits."
I could not agree more, Kurt.
I could not agree more, Kurt.
Kurt is a fellow Washingtonian and a Seattle native (enough to know that I am not, being from Puyallup, 45 min outside Seattle proper). When he asked me for the interview, he noted that I'm wearing a Seahawks jersey in my profile pic. He is hardly anti-football.
But the cold, hard truth is that this season is a catastrophe playing out week by week, and we have to ask ourselves, is it worth it to finish the season for the sake of NFL owners and executives' revenue, despite the risk to players, staff, and the communities they are in?
There's not even a huge benefit to teams or fans. Whoever wins the Super Bowl, if there IS a Super Bowl, will have a metaphorical asterisk by their name. Is that worth continuing this risky enterprise as we approach 300K deaths from COVID-19?
I've said many times that the COVID deaths we've suffered have been preventable if we took decisive, effective action. This is one area where we can. There is no excuse for continuing the NFL season, especially when it's doomed to fail anyway. Football shouldn't cost lives.
