COVID-19 in the Eyes of the NBA and the NFL
COVID-19 in the Eyes of the NBA and the NFL
By Amira Shehadeh
When news of the coronavirus pandemic struck the United States, many important parts of our lives fell into a pit of uncertainty. This uncertainty extended into professional sports with the NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS, postponing the continuation of games until a solution was reached on how to complete the rest of the games scheduled safely. After months of quarantine, Center for Disease Control (CDC) updates, frequent testing, and of course planning, the NBA was able to construct the NBA Bubble, located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.
Like the name states, this facility was a true bubble in the sense that only the 22 NBA teams invited, as well as the coaches and team & league personnel, were allowed inside. Once they arrived at The Bubble, all players, coaches, and staff were required to self-quarantine in their accommodations until they received two negative COVID-19 tests. I believe this was a smart decision on the NBA’s part to ensure that they could do the very best they could to maintain a coronavirus-free environment. By requiring all attendees to get tested more than once, wear masks at all times, and quarantine before being allowed to train and play, allowed for a regulated, safe environment for everyone involved in the bubble. And the NBA rules and regulations regarding COVID-19 did work; out of the 341 players, only 2 tested positive.
Sidelines at the NBA Bubble
Now let’s take a look at how the NFL set up for this season. Compared to the very minimal number of coronavirus cases the NBA had, the NFL reported approximately 161 players had tested positive for COVID-19. According to NFL League Officials, there has been no evidence of player-to-player transmission of the virus on the field, even though there is close contact between players. The NFL has been implementing social distancing guidelines and requiring those who can during games to wear masks. Still, it seems like players, league, and team members are catching the virus outside their playing environment. The NFL realized this, and as a result, had to postpone games, increase testing, and amplified rules for self-quarantining. Players and coaches can now be fined tens of thousands of dollars for improperly wearing protective equipment on and off the field. Looking back to October, when the Tennessee Titans were hit with 24 positive COVID-19 test results, the origin of this specific outbreak is still unknown. To get a better understanding of how the NFL has been tackling this season, I had a conversation with Dior Ginyard, Senior Player Manager at the NFL Players Association, and part of Forbes’ 2018 30 Under 30: Sports. I spoke with Mr. Ginyard about comparing and contrasting the NBA and the NFL during the pandemic, the NFL’s strong points, and the league’s future amid the pandemic.
AS: What is something you feel the NFL did a good job with in efforts to maintain a safe playing environment for players, team, and league staff?
DG: I think making sure that the facilities were in the best position, implementing sanitation, keeping players away, updating a lot of the facilities with air filtration, establishing contact tracing, and putting proper protocols in place for players to make sure that they are maintaining social distancing. Also making sure meetings are conducted in a way in which players aren’t bypassing a lot of the social distancing guidelines that have been put into place. As a union we have our player directors that are each responsible for 6 teams, and they are at the facilities making sure that the teams are following those guidelines and protocols. So I think from a macro-perspective, the collaboration amongst the NFL and us as a union was super beneficial.
AS: I’d like to ask, when looking at the NBA’s Bubble in which they played the remainder of this season, we see how very strictly regulated that specific environment was. Do you think some sort of similar framework could be used for the NFL during the pandemic?
DG: It’s tough when you look at the amount of players we have on the teams. You look at how the NBA has 32 teams with 15 players each, and then on our side we have 32 teams with 53 players, and that’s not including the practice squad. So you need to think about the capacity, which is just harder to replicate what the NBA is doing because again, the size of the amount of players that we’re working with is just so much different. It's like apples to oranges in terms of how we manage the amount of players that we have in the NFL.
AS: How do you think the pandemic will affect the overall future of the NFL?
DG: So my role is helping current players’ off-field development, and I think in that perspective, one of the areas that I want to focus on is teaching players about remote learning. A lot of the programs that we had in the off-season were more so in-person, so for players going back to school, or players taking on internships or job opportunities, a lot of that was in-person with the different companies. Now, we see a lot of those companies moving to the virtual component of remotely working, so providing players with those opportunities in case that we move in a direction where that becomes the norm. In my role, I think I have relied on (in terms of building a relationship with the player and engaging with the player), the best way to do that is in person. But, I think now I have been challenged to think about creative ways to keep a player engaged when you can’t be with them in person. I think a lot of what we offer, and our resources, and workshops, just getting creative from a virtual perspective. Just like us, players are getting Zoom fatigue too, so trying different and innovative ways to keep players engaged about their off-field development which may not be top of mind. That’s already hard to do without a pandemic, but it's just allowing for us to be more innovative. Now that we are in the middle of a pandemic and looking at life going forward, it may be different in terms of just that in-person contact. I think we’ll have to make some adjustments like getting in front of players virtually and keeping them engaged.
Seattle Seahawks Quarterback Russell Wilson and Coach Pete Carroll
My conversation with Mr. Ginyard helped give me a better understanding of how the NFL’s season and future is and will be affected by the pandemic. In my personal opinion, I do feel the way the NBA implemented their Bubble helped in preventing high numbers of positive COVID-19 tests. Keeping their players in a specific, controlled environment resulted in minimal unnecessary contact, which allowed the NBA ensure a safe environment for players and staff. On the other hand, managing NBA players is very different from managing NFL players due to the game’s nature. One of my main takeaways from this conversation was that because the NFL is so large in the sense that unlike the NBA, where you have 15 players to a team, you have 53 players to a team. So while a Bubble situation may not be ideal for the NFL, perhaps as the pandemic continues, there may be a different strategy for how off-field virus transmission is monitored in the future. The Bubble worked out for the NBA because they were able to regulate the number of players. Another takeaway from this conversation is that as a player-manager, the most important thing to do is keep players engaged and focused in a virtual environment. I appreciated Mr. Ginyard’s point about how just like us, NFL players are also experiencing Zoom fatigue! I am interested and excited to see what both the NBA and the NFL’s futures look like as we continue to navigate the sports industry during the global pandemic.