Source: Maddie Meyer / Getty
Sports fans are itching for their favorite athletes to take to the field or court once again, but it may still be too soon.
Football, which is one of the most physical professional sports in existence, is slowly but surely coming back, but a new outbreak of the pandemic down is South Carolina has thrown a wrench in the plans. Clemson University, known for its storied football program, has reported that 23 people in connection to the team have tested positive for coronavirus. Of those 23, 21 football players and two are members of the football staff.
This isn’t the first we heard of the school’s connection to the deadly virus, just last week when the school conducted 169 tests it was revealed that two other football players, as well as a men’s basketball player, had the virus. Thankfully, the school noted that those who have coronavirus were either asymptomatic or weren’t gravely sick.
Other than Clemson, there’s been some spreading down in Texas as well between the NFL’s Texans and Cowboys. Ian Rapaport reported that Ezekiel Elliot’s agent Rocky Arceneaux has confirmed that the running back is one of the players who tested positive. If this is already happening before the season begins, it’s going to be tough to prevent spreading due to the team’s hectic traveling schedule.
Just a few days ago, Dr. Anthony Fauci proposed that the only way to truly have a safe NFL season would be to it in a bubble away from everyone else.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci said. “If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”
Dr. Fauci even recommends that if the bubble theory isn’t an option, then a 2020-21 NFL season shouldn’t even be considered.
