Marcase: Enjoy the football season while you can
Not that it went anywhere, but COVID-19 reclaimed the top spot in the headlines in recent days.
President Donald Trump and a host of his inner circle have tested positive, sending Inside-the-Beltway types into a frenzy.
COVID also reared its head in a place that more people care about – the NFL.
The NFL had its first game postponed by the pandemic when the Tennessee Titans had 18 players and staff test positive. The Steelers at Titans game was moved to Oct. 25, pushing back a week a division matchup between rivals Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
That news was followed by Patriots quarterback Cam Newton testing positive and throwing doubt on the Chiefs-Patriots game. The NFL ended up moving it from Sunday to Monday night, and the Patriots flew from Boston to Kansas City on two planes – one for players who had been in close contact with Newton and one for everyone else. New England sans Newton fell to the Chiefs, 26-10.
Sunday morning, residents in the Bayou State woke to news the Saints game at Detroit was in limbo due to a positive result from New Orleans fullback Michael Burton. Some members of the Saints also woke to that news, including receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who told SI.com that he ate dinner at the team hotel Saturday night with Burton.
Burton’s sample was tested again and came back negative, as did a rapid test, allowing the game to proceed and Burton to be active in the Saints’ 35-29 win over the Lions in a game the team desperately needed to win following back-to-back losses.
How the NFL handled its first COVID crisis has been impressive and it shows how far testing has come since March.
Remember, the NFL was the lone sports league in this country whose on-field product was not impacted by the initial outbreak. The NFL also caught a break in the scheduling, but the next time it may not be so fortunate as others leagues have discovered.
While major league baseball’s abbreviated season was highly impacted by notable outbreaks among the Marlins and Cardinals, the most accomplished active athlete to test positive so far has been seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, who was forced to miss July’s Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Johnson, who is retiring from full-time NASCAR racing after the current season ends next month, may have missed his final oval race at the Brickyard due to a false positive. He re-tested a few days later and it came back negative.
Utah Jazz teammates Rudy Gobert and Donavan Mitchell were the first two NBA players to test positive, and Gobert’s result played a pivotal role in shutting down all professional and collegiate sports in this country.
The good news is Gobert, Mitchell and most other active athletes recovered and returned to the playing field.
The bad news is high school football just returned to Louisiana, and there is already doubt cast on whether some schools will be able to have a season.
Peabody Magnet had to cancel its first two games due to an outbreak among the team. The Warhorses were not alone as Ouachita, Franklin Parish and Woodlawn of Baton Rouge also canceled games due to positive tests.
It is probably a safe bet that additional schools will join that quartet in having to miss games as testing is not as robust on the high school level as it is on the professional or collegiate level due to cost. You wonder what will happen if a school suffers an outbreak during the playoffs, or even before a state championship game.
Then, there is the case of the University of Houston.
If everything falls into place, the Cougars will play their first game of the season Thursday night against visiting Tulane. Since this is 2020, nothing has fallen into place for Houston so far. Its first four games – Rice, Washington State, Baylor and North Texas – were canceled. Rice canceled its season, the Pac-12’s initial decision to cancel its season wiped out the Wazzou game, while Baylor and North Texas were dealing with outbreaks.
Perhaps the best advice for this football season is enjoy the games while you can because no one can predict how long the season will last.
John Marcase is a former assistant managing editor and sports editor of The Town Talk. He writes a weekly column.