COVID and Sports

 

I obviously cannot write a sports blog and not have a post about the impact COVID is having on sports. This post is not going to be about how COVID impacted last season, it is going to be how it is still impacting sports this season.

The reason I decided on this post today is because of what is happening with the NHL and what happened with the WNHL. So far since the delayed start of the NHL Season 66 players have entered the COVID protocol lists. At least one player who had COVID ended up opting out of the rest of the season so he could go back home and recover from the after affects of the disease. Last week the Avalanche announced they were taking a two week break to get their team back on track after an outbreak. This week the Washington Capitals ended up with a full week off from games as they had to postpone games with the Flyers and Senators. I could go on and on with what is happening in the NHL. The NHL COVID protocols are a joke or at least to me they seem to be. You can see some of the new protocols here https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-adopts-additional-covid-19-preventative-measures/c-321080966. When the Washington Capitals had 4 players enter the COVID list the team still had to play on but almost every other team has had games postponed if they have any players enter the list. That is something for a different day. Sadly due to an outbreak at the Lake Placid "bubble" the NWHL had to cancel the rest of their season just as they were getting ready to start the playoffs. This was due to two teams the Riverters and the Whale both having substantial outbreaks on their teams. 

We have seen multiple NBA teams having games postponed or having players pulled mid game due to contact tracing. In College Basketball we have seen multiple games postponed or cancelled due to COVID. My conference along with a few others have fully cancelled competitions this year due to COVID. Protocols are in place to help teams and athletes which is great but it seems like so many of these protocols are haphazard or seem to target one team over another. Granted that could just be my belief vs fact and I am not denying that. We do not know the long term affects of COVID or what it can do to people. We know that it affects people differently and that the world is suffering from a COVID hangover, but we cannot stop being vigilant in how we deal with COVID. Now that we have vaccines we see hope on the horizon but let us not push that hope further away by not being as vigilant now as we were in the beginning.

I hope you enjoyed this post and keep following my love affair with sports.