{"id":9425,"date":"2020-03-16T21:08:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T21:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=9425"},"modified":"2020-03-16T21:08:14","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T21:08:14","slug":"the-elephant-in-the-sports-room-who-should-really-be-covering-his-trunk-when-he-trumpets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/sports\/the-elephant-in-the-sports-room-who-should-really-be-covering-his-trunk-when-he-trumpets\/","title":{"rendered":"The Elephant in the Sports Room (Who should really be covering his trunk when he trumpets)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY ADAM GREENE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Thursday night, pretty much all the sports world ground to a halt as the NBA, NHL and NCAA either cancelled or postponed their seasons in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic currently sweeping the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would do no good for me to go through the most recent news on the outbreak, because it\u2019s changing by the minute and by the time I put the last period on the final sentence of this column, everything I would mention would likely be outdated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are obviously better news<\/a> sources out there<\/a> to stay informed. One of them isn\u2019t Facebook, or really any social media, so be careful. Don\u2019t let your toothless cousin who just got out of rehab for mixing meth and sizzurp convince you that the entire country of Italy has joined the Deep State to get Donald Trump voted out of office. Trump is doing a great job of that all by himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which, frankly, is something you can still wager on if you\u2019re so inclined<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While sports has taken a much-needed knee in the wake of a possible global apocalypse, there\u2019s no reason to feel that every season will be affected. And, frankly, the actions we, albeit reluctantly, seem to be taking now are just the kind of thing that will allow Major League Baseball to eventually roll out the first pitch and the NFL and NCAA football to kick off in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea right now, as we socially isolate and hopefully your local school systems shut down for the next few weeks is to \u201cflatten the curve.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What that means is that we spread out an infection that, let\u2019s be honest now, we\u2019re all probably going to get or be exposed to, and keep it under a certain number of cases at a time so it doesn\u2019t overwhelm our health care system. If we do that, sit upon our hoards of Nestle Pure Life and Charmin Ultra, we can ride this out and be watching Tom Brady take the field as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer come Fall without fear of anything other than a 43-year-old quarterback suffering a catastrophic knee injury that Sunday Night Football will show in slow motion replay 47 times in a row. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we do this right, and a lot of that has to do with your local officials and public school systems, we can slide right through this and be fine. Yes, there will be no Final Four this year and probably no NBA or NHL champion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT, there\u2019s an excellent chance that your NCAA spring sports next year will be loaded to the gills with talent as the league is planning to give every player a redshirt<\/a>. While your higher up MLB draft picks won\u2019t return, there are plenty of elite college athletes that were never going to go pro (or had no avenue with which to do it) that will make for some stacked college baseball and softball teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s even talk about tossing in some extra eligibility for players in winter sports<\/a>, that means we could have some insane super teams in college men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball next year. Plenty of these men and women who end up in Europe after not making the NBA and WNBA cut could easily elect to stay in school and go after another title with an incoming group of talented freshmen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the thing, though. If you want sports back, you need get behind everything that\u2019s going on right now. You need to help flatten that curve. Don\u2019t be the guy trying to keep your kid\u2019s softball team rolling because your stepdaughter is hitting .295 that kicks off The Walking Dead. Let\u2019s team up and save ourselves, save our most at risk groups and, by doing that, we can save our sports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you want to place some bets, Adam Sandler winning the Razzie Redeemer Award<\/a> looks like free money to me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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