STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – NBA FALSE START – Word leaked out over the weekend that the NBA would be asking players who play in States that have loosened restrictions to report to their practice facilities on May 1. The players pushed back on that idea out of concern for their safety and now the date is bumped to May 8, at the earliest.  It may or may not be noteworthy that the number of current elite professional athletes to pass away around the world from Covid-19 is ZERO. Not a single person.  

2 – NHL LOOKING AT TORONTO – The National Hockey League has identified Toronto as an ideal central location for housing teams to restart the season. Bill Daly points to how Toronto was able to accommodate the World Cup of Hockey teams so there is already a formula in place for how this all could come together. I guess my feeling is that if Toronto is a suitable place, then just open up the whole thing and let’s get back at it. Last I checked, Toronto was the second worst hit city in Canada for the China-originated coronavirus. If it’s safe to go there, it’s safe pretty much anywhere.

3 – CFL SEASON – Would the Canadian Football League have any teams that could be in danger of not surviving  in the event of a wiped out season? On one hand it’s nice for struggling teams to have no expenses; but there is no income either.  

4 – RIDERS – When Scott Moe announced a gradual reopen plan last week, a number of mainstream media people started questioning about the Roughriders. This is amazing to me. How dumb do you need to be in order to work for a conventional paper, radio, or tv station in 2020? Let’s pretend Moe says, “Yeah we think that by July 1st we will be in a position to host Rider games with fans at Mosaic Stadium.” Look around.  Who are they playing and where are the players coming from? You don’t see any other province with CFL teams opening up do you? Furthermore, unless Cody Fajardo is isolating in Regina, he’s not getting here because he’s not a Canadian citizen. 

5 – GO FIRST – I give Premier Moe a lot of credit for being the province to ‘go first’ on the reopening phase.  A couple of days after Moe made his announcement, we started seeing similar plans from other provinces and some of them have even decided to get going on their plans immediately as opposed to waiting for May 4th. I think professional sports is going to be much the same. Nobody will want to go first and risk the hate and venom which is sure to follow from media and the general public. I’m not a betting man, but if I was, I’d put money on the National Hockey League to go first. They are run by a man who is ruthless when it comes to making money and I can only imagine what his off the record thoughts and comments are right about now.  If there is a way to play at all, Gary Bettman will figure it out.

6 – NOT PLAYING – I still don’t think any of these leagues will play and the NFL is finally admitting they are going to need a contingency schedule and are looking at an October 15th date in order to get in 16 games.  They’d eliminate bye weeks as well as the off week in between the conference title games and the Super Bowl and the plan would be to finish by the end of February. When politicians talk about ‘new normal’ I feel it means with no professional sports and it remains to be seen what that means for our youth sports. My guess is the WHL season is in jeopardy already although smaller leagues that can play in front of 250-500 may have a chance.

7 – ITALY PLAN – May 18th is the day Italy allows people to play team sports. It’s unclear as to whether this means professional teams will be allowed to have organized activities or not. But, it’s a signal that youth organizations will be able to get some of their seasons fired up and running. I’ve seen some images for what air travel may look like in the near future and it involves plexi-glass in between each seat with the middle seat turned around facing the seats behind. Could the same happen in sports stadiums, at least as far as the plexi glass is concerned?

8 – EVALUATE OTHER AREAS – At some point, it may be fair to question if Georgia can open up their entire State and if Florida and California can have thousands of people lined up near one another on the beach, how much harm is there really to having a sports game with fans in attendance? Or at the very least, what’s the damage in holding games with partial crowds and reduced concessions, etc?  

9 – MOVING GOAL POSTS – The ever changing narrative on this virus changed yet again this week. What started as a ‘flatten the curve to allow our health system to adapt and not be overwhelmed with the guaranteed surge in cases’ turned to ‘defeat the virus’ and now we are hearing ‘there may be no immunity’ so it’s best for everyone to maintain their isolated basement existence until a vaccine is developed. 

10 – PERSPECTIVE – I’ve randomly picked New York State, but for those who are fearful of passing away here are some numbers that you need to be aware of: As of Monday night, there are approximately 7000 deaths in that state attributed to Covid-19. The number of deaths of healthy people aged 0-to-17: 0. Not a single one. Healthy people aged 18-44 who have died: 25.  Healthy people aged 45-64:  59.  Healthy people aged 65-74:  26.  Healthy people 75 and older:  27.  That’s a grand total of 137 healthy people out of the 7000 who have died that were deemed ‘healthy’ before contracting the virus. Everyone else had underlying health issues. Every life is important to be sure. But, let’s use some perspective here. Especially as I see people my age wearing masks while driving their car. 

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)