Sports during a pandemic seemed like a terrible idea, but they have been worth the risk

Spring training is scheduled to open next month, and while no one yet knows whether baseball’s schedule will be limited by the coronavirus, the fact that a World Series was staged last fall — before there was a vaccine — would suggest that another could be staged in October, at which point a significant portion of the population hopes to be vaccinated.

So we mostly can’t go to games, but the games clearly go on. Which brings me to something I find difficult to marry: More than 440,000 Americans have died of covid-19. And yet, unless I’m missing someone — and I don’t think I am — none have been active participants in the major American sports. Not quarterbacks or golfers. Not from the WNBA or Major League Soccer. Not pitchers or power forwards.

“And that includes not just the players,” said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, “but everyone associated with the teams where there are clearly people who are older and people who may have heart disease or diabetes or other conditions. That’s either pretty lucky or pretty impressive.”

Maybe both? Look, it’s not time for a victory lap or to declare sports completely safe. There are still more than 150,000 new coronavirus cases in the United States and more than 3,000 deaths per day, according to The Washington Post’s tracking of the national seven-day average. Plenty of danger remains. Keep your mask on and step back six feet, thanks. Optimism and caution must be taken in equal doses.

But in June, I wrote the following: “Let’s not just tap the brakes on the full-throated return of sports in the midst of a pandemic. We might just have to slam them to the floor. Keep in mind: This virus spreads easily, and this virus kills.” At the time, baseball’s plan to return without bubbles opened with scores of positive tests and seemed risky if not irresponsible. Football at any level appeared to be a non-starter, what with all the close contact and heavy breathing, and for college kids who aren’t paid it felt flat exploitative.

And now the Los Angeles Dodgers have hoisted a long-awaited World Series trophy, albeit at a neutral site. Alabama has a sixth national title under Nick Saban — who missed a game because of a positive coronavirus test. And Tom Brady is about to play in his 10th Super Bowl.

How did this happen?

“The adjustments to the virus have been extraordinary throughout society — including in professional sports,” Schaffner said.

The adjustments have included a willingness to repeatedly push back football games to, say, a Tuesday as well as to overhaul personal behavior. Think about how strange it would have felt a year ago to wear a mask at the supermarket or while walking the dog. Now it’s an important member of the wallet-keys-phone checklist before leaving the house. Yeah, there are still holdouts and naysayers, and their actions have surely and needlessly infected others. But the people doing their part have made a difference.

That includes the people who run leagues and teams who decided early on that to put out a product — and therefore have any chance of making a profit — they had to require best practices in their offices, their practice venues, their stadiums. Players don’t want to wear masks on the bus or the plane or at the hotel? Doesn’t matter. The NHL fined the Washington Capitals $100,000 and held out captain Alex Ovechkin and three teammates for a handful of games because they gathered in a hotel room on the road. What was once normal is now unacceptable. The leagues have taken this seriously, and thus far there is no documented case of spread from a major American competition into the community.

Part of the reason for all the hand-wringing — the “Should we really be doing this?” questions — over the past six or eight months came from the mysteries about the virus. Those best practices — mask-wearing, physical distancing, outdoors is better than indoors, etc. — didn’t arrive in a handbook. They were developed and accepted over time.

But even with the successful completion of seasons, one element nagged and does still: The members of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Clemson football team, Masters champion Dustin Johnson and soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo, all the athletes and coaches who tested positive, recovered and returned to competition — are they in the clear for the rest of their lives?

“The short answer is: We don’t know,” said Matthew Martinez, the director of Atlantic Health System Sports Cardiology at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey who has consulted with the NFL, NBA and Major League Soccer. “But we are investigating it.”

There are, though, encouraging signs. Martinez said that between the pros and the NCAA, there are now thousands of examples of how the virus impacts a young, fit population.

“We’re learned that, by and large, we’re not seeing cardiac involvement,” Martinez said, which is great because lingering heart problems have been a concern. “We’ve learned that if you’re asymptomatic or mild, which is the vast majority of people who have tested positive, they do really, really well. Even those with moderate symptoms, they do well. The severe group — it just depends.”

That’s the part that hangs over everything, with vaccines just getting rolled out and the virus still doling out severe cases for some people. What if an athlete or a coach or a support staffer tests positive — and dies? Would all the games won and lost and the seasons completed and the champions crowned have been worth it?

There’s probably not a right or wrong answer.

This is uneasy territory. In the interest of public health, it’s our job to continue to be vigilant about the virus. We have to acknowledge, as Schaffner said, “The virus has juked right and left,” and we don’t yet know whether the current vaccines will be effective against the variant strains that are appearing.

But for someone whose teeth were completely gnashed as sports returned and whose heart sank and anxiety rose when positives spread through a locker room, it’s worth acknowledging: When we needed a distraction, sports provided one. It has done so safely and without tragedy. I will go back to crossing my fingers and holding my breath that remains the case until we can all safely stand shoulder-to-shoulder at a packed stadium, cheering and jeering like we used to.