Everyone is looking forward to the return of sports. The NHL has a tentative date of July 10th, to begin training camp in preparation to finish the 2020 season.
With news coming that three Lightning players have tested positive for COVID-19, phase two of the Lightning’s plan to return to the ice has been shut down.
The Lightning players that are out of town have been told to stay away until further notice.
Here is the statement the Lightning released earlier today.
How long will camp be shut down? Who knows.
This week, two Tampa Bay Buccaneer assistant coaches, have also tested positive for COVID -19 and two other assistant coaches have been quarantined.
This is not the news you want to hear as a sports fan as we anticipate the return of sports around the globe.
The Philadelphia Phillies baseball team has had six players test positive for COVID-19 and the team has shut down its training facility.
asymptomatic.
All three of theses COVID -19 situations happened in the state of Florida where there has been a huge increase in COVID 19 cases the last week.
There have been other situations around the country where athletes have tested positive for COVID 19.
Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott tested positive a few weeks as did a couple of other members of the Cowboy organization.
Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh has gone on record as saying it is nearly impossible to comply with all the safety protocols that are required. He did say that the team will do everything it can to comply with the regulations while training and getting ready for the season.”
We’re going to do everything we can do. We’re going to space, we’re going to have masks. But, you know, it’s a communication sport. We have to be able to communicate with each other in person. We have to practice.”
LA Rams coach Sean McVay this week is questioning how his team and the league are going to able to prepare for the season with all the safety protocols in place.
“It is a bit mind-numbing. We’re sitting here talking about handless doors? We’re going to social distance, but we’re playing football? I don’t get it!”
McVay was commenting on a media call promoting Hard Knocks on which the Rams and Chargers will be featured.
Dr. Fauci, the nation’s medical expert on the pandemic, is questioning whether there will even be a football season.
The doctor had this to say on CNN, “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 can be played this fall. 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.”
The question to be asked is will we have sports again? The NBA has dates on the calendar as to when their season will begin.
The NHL has a tentative date for their training camp to begin.
Baseball, there are no words to describe what is going on in that sport. You would be better off putting Rob Manfred and Scott Boras in a room and negotiating an agreement since Boras is calling the shots anyway.
Tony Clark has been neutered by Boras and the players. But that is another story.
Everything was going in the right direction until these recent developments. Now it looks as if everything may be up in the air and we may not have sports for a long time.
