Imagine a world, if you will, without touchdowns, tackling or tailgating. An existence with no football, three downs or four.
We may go through this summer and fall without any CFL or NFL games if America’s top infectious diseases expert is right in his assessment of how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact the sport south of the border.
We already know that without a major infusion of cash — we’re talking $150 million here — the Canadian Football League will not have a 2020 season.
Commissioner Randy Ambrosie has gone on record as saying the season could start in September at the earliest, but he has also admitted that the 2020 campaign might not happen at all.
The National Football League‘s regular season is not scheduled to kick off until Sept.10 when the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Houston Texans.
That start date is now less than three months away, and even though the NFL has some time on its hands before any games are played, Dr. Anthony Fauci has thrown cold water on the idea of the league proceeding without a drastic alteration to its plan.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN that “unless players are essentially in a bubble, insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day, it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall.”
Dr. Fauci added “if there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”
The news comes just days after Dallas Cowboys star running back Ezekiel Elliott and a number of his teammates, as well as players on the Texans, tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The NFL is the only one of North America’s four major professional sports leagues that hasn’t been forced to postpone its season due to COVID-19, but Dr. Fauci’s dire prediction certainly forces fans to pause and think about what life would be like without any football.
Rick Zamperin is the assistant program, news and senior sports director at Global News Radio 900 CHML.
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