Kovid chaos failure in NFL as ‘business as usual’ | World news

This is one of the worst performances a player has done in recent times NFL History – through his own small mistake.

Last weekend, 23-year-old Kendall Hinton, a practice squad wide receiver who had never played professional football before, Denver ran into the field as a quarterback to the Broncos, Should be relied upon only with four hours’ notice and his college playing experience. Expansion Described as unprecedented in the modern game.

The Broncos, one of the most acclaimed teams in the league, lost 31-3 to the New Orleans Saints, much to the surprise of commentators who inevitably bowed their heads. “Hold the air traffic control to talk to the passenger through the 747 landing. Now you understand the Denver Broncos’ nightmare,” Sam Farmer wrote in the Los Angeles Times.

After testing positive for four of the Broncos’ quarterbacks – Jeff Driskell – Kovid-19, Hinton’s impromptu began to appear. The other three were ordered to disassemble after failing to wear masks around Driskell at the team practice facility in violation of NFL rules.

The Broncos turmoil is far from an isolated event for the NFL this season. As Kovid-19 cases rose across the U.S. and the death toll reached 280,000, the “American game” fought the coronavirus, as badly as the country it represented. The NFL’s troubles have become an expensive and over-the-top microscope of widespread controversy in the US over the virus, shutting down the desire to continue trading as usual despite warnings from health officials. Contact sports.

There are plenty of other examples. One of the most ntic back-to-back games this season between the Baltimore Ravens and their fierce rivals the Pittsburgh Steelers is scheduled for a prime time slot on Thanksgiving. Instead the Ravens had to be scheduled three times after more than a dozen players – including quarterback Lamar Jackson, one of the league’s biggest stars – Tested positive for Virus. The game finally took place on Wednesday afternoon in the apparently “AntiTime” slot.

Meanwhile, on the west coast, the San Francisco 49ers Will play their next two home games in ArizonaAs cases grew in California, the team then issued a temporary ban on contact sports, 700 miles from their regular stadium in Santa Clara County. The virus has spread across the US and NFL, with only the Seattle Seahawks of the league’s 32 teams registering a positive test for Kovid-19.

Although the federal government has failed to provide an effective or consistent response to the epidemic, the NFL says it is taking appropriate action. It imposes heavy fines on teams that fail to wear masks, while players and coaches are tested on a daily basis.

But others say the NFL’s response reflects the country’s chaotic management of the epidemic. 86 positive tests were performed on NFL players And staff for the week ending November 28, compared to seven in the first week of September.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health and Security, told the New York Times this week: “People don’t seem to have a plan for what to do after a positive test. “They’m flying through the seat of their pants, trying to figure out how to actually finish the season.”

The NFL – for the most part in the US – is surprisingly pushing back against sanctions. Broadcasting rights, worth billions of dollars, Reason for renewal in 2022 And the half-finished season will hurt the league at the negotiating table. The canceled or delayed Super Bowl will also be a problem for its broadcast partners: in 2019, networks charged an average of 25 5.25m (£ 3.9m) for a 30-second ad slot during a game.

Considered a better organized, forward-thinking league than the NFL, the NBA has completed its season. Playing in a discrete “bubble” at Disney World in Florida. It is very difficult to achieve in the NFL, whose teams have very large rosters. The league, which expects an increase in Kovid-19 cases in the coming weeks, has called for a halt to the season, but that is unlikely to happen.

“It will not be considered,” an NFL spokesman told the Guardian. “We are focused on finishing 256 regular-season games on our 17 – week schedule, with the next playoffs closing for the Super Bowl on February 7. with fans at the stands in Tampa.

“We are also comfortable and adaptable and are allowed to play games in the 18th week when we need to. But there is no reason to believe at this point that we need to change our plans.”

If there was any relief, it came in the college game, which was more popular than the NFL in many parts of the US. Sarah Fuller was one of the first women to play at the highest level in men’s college football, in a rare and welcome moment, after dismissing several members of the Vanderbilt Commodores due to Kovid-19. Like Hinton, Fuller is a relatively inexperienced man: until last week She is the goalkeeper for the university’s soccer team.