The new normal is here…again. The SEC has multiple football games postponed, with very little wiggle room for rescheduling through December 19. Unless the FCS and bowl games are willing to move dates to accomplish these “necessary games” for teams like Alabama and Ohio State, which lost games this Saturday when their opponents couldn’t field teams due to COVID-19. Otherwise, they might not be eligible for the National Championship college football must have (how do I say $$$ drives the bus here?)
I reiterate the “new normal’ for a reason. More and more games have been postponed and/or canceled ASU-Cal went down the tubes on Friday when former Jets head coach and now the Sun Devils leader Herm Edwards tested positive. It is so bad that the NCAA tracker for this weekend’s college football schedule says 13 games have been postponed, canceled or rescheduled. More recent news besides ASU-Cal is Coastal Carolina @ Troy has been postponed, North Texas @ UAB has been canceled and Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech are rescheduled for December 12 due to a pause in football activity by the Panthers.
The number is either at or over 50 games have been affected by COVID-19. It is now November 13-14, putting college football 5 weeks away from the start of the playoffs.
The coronavirus is running rampant in the United States. The totals are rising fast, with expectations that by Thanksgiving or shortly thereafter, the numbers infected will reach springtime figures. And the Pfizer vaccine and any of its cousins may not be generally available until April or May, and the effectiveness won’t be fully felt until the fall of 2021. Provided that this vaccine works as promised. Nothing is guaranteed with COVID-19 except the carnage and resulting havoc it perpetrates.
So expect more games to be postponed or canceled in the upcoming weeks. This is inevitable. Without a bubble, the college player doesn’t have the protection offered by the NFL, and there are big-time NFL names such as Ben Roethlisberger and Baker Mayfield who made the COVID/IR list this week. Cobbling a game at the Rose Bowl on short notice between Cal and UCLA is nonsensical.
And please be careful about spectators. Look at the end of the Clemson-Notre Dame game last Saturday night when hordes of students overran the field, many without masks. Do I dare say super spreader event?
Even if the college football honchos look to rearrange the landscape by pushing bowls and playoff games back into January, the certainty is that there is no certainty how the college season plays itself out. The rush to play, which has given sports fans something to watch in the void since the NBA, NHL and MLB ended their seasons and has left us with the NFL and college football, and the latter is facing more scheduling woes and the former is likely to see some changes in its schedule despite its insistence to fine players and staff for getting COVID as a way of detouring the disease away from the NFL coffers.
From the outset, I have questioned the necessity to play these games. As much as the fall sports are being impacted, the winter sports are going to be even more seriously impacted. Already set to play a truncated schedule, college basketball teams will find that their innovative measures of playing multiple games at one site may allow basketball to be contested in the short term. But it doesn’t bode well when schools like Iona and Seton Hall had to pause their practices due to COVID-19 issues. Just know that the NCAA is hellbent on playing its tournament given the tremendous economic loss it suffered this past season, and the competing teams are all for enriching their coffers.
Plus, the NBA is going at it for 2020-21 at home arenas subject to attendance restrictions in each locale. They do not want to return to a bubble. The NHL is of the same mindset—no bubble for the upcoming season, although there has been strong hints that hockey will have a temporary division realignment, which could include an all-Canadian division, regional play and multiple games in one city for a single visit.
Good luck to those two leagues. What each has working for it is the effectiveness of the vaccine, which could make postponements and rescheduling through the summer and fall feasible to completing a season. Similarly, MLB, with a shortened season, can make it through 2021. They know how to do it—they did it once, even with a plethora of bumps along the way.
Having said all of this, I look to my barometer, the Ivy League. The Ivies have canceled all winter competition for 2020-21. They were the first to eschew fall competition and now, prudently, they are acting in the best interests of their students and student-athletes. Another celebrated group of superior colleges, the NESCAC, has already jettisoned its winter sports competitions.
Perhaps it is their lofty intellectual standing which offers better reasoning acumen. Or maybe it is the fact that the eight Ivy schools, along with the NESCAC institutions are private and have large endowments and ample donors, which causes them not to be money-driven at this time. I haven’t heard from the Centennial Conference, another group of prestigious small liberal arts schools, but I expect them to follow their brethren regarding the winter contests.
The same result is likely for the Patriot League, another collection of top schools.
I hope that the athletes and administrators remain healthy and safe. I also hope that they will know when to fold on the fall season (and winter sports too). Until the scientists and doctors get on top of this virus, is it really safe and necessary to play sports right now when we are in that dreaded winter wave? (Let me add here interscholastic sports and the fact that they are contested in small gyms) With the experts’ haunting warnings about Thanksgiving gatherings, with school systems shutting down and states commencing lockdowns or reinstating preventive measures that were in place in April, the answers are indelible. Except in the sports world.
On Friday I walked into the R.W.J Barnabas Ambulatory Care Center for a yearly medical appointment wearing a Jets sweatshirt and cap. A security officer asked me if I had a plan for the team, still 0 for the season after the disappointing Monday night loss to Cam Newton and the not-so-good New England Patriots. My answer was this “Get rid of all of them.”
While that may not be feasible, it captures my mood about this moribund franchise. Instead of getting better, they are actually worse that they were a couple of years ago. With no discernible light at the end of this seemingly unending tunnel.
So I thought about what I would do to resurrect the New York Jets. Especially if they obtain the top draft choice in the 2021 lottery. Trade it.
Say what? Trade the top pick, most likely Trevor Lawrence, the top flight Clemson QB currently sidelined by COVID-19.
`Have I gone mad? Have I lost my mind? Nope. Not even close. Before I sound like those annoying callers on sports talk radio, let me explain.
The Jets need far more than Lawrence to make things better. A QB, whether it is Sam Darnold or Joe Flacco, is a better placeholder until there is the opportunity to draft or procure the right QB to take the team to the next level.
Moreover, Lawrence’s health may be in issue after his battle with COVID-19. The fact that he missed two games and could miss more leaves open how well will he be once he hopefully recovers. From what I have seen and read, the lingering effects from this virulent virus can remain with a person for an undetermined period. Plus the fact that there are hidden dangers lurking which may not be immediately observed which could haunt an individual who contracted COVID-19.
This makes the drafting of Lawrence problematic based on health reasons. The notion that he does not want to play for the New York Jets because of their terrible reputation makes sense from his perspective.
Where does this leave the Jets and GM Joe Douglas? In a very good place to make a deal which could easily change the fortunes of the franchise.
There will be plenty of suitors for Lawrence. He will have that can’t miss tag and maybe that is true. Use that to your advantage, Mr. Douglas. I think a place like Atlanta would be a great destination for the Clemson QB, a Georgia native. Get the Falcons first round pick this year and next year plus Matt Ryan, the current QB if Darnold and/or Flacco don’t fit the bill for next season. If Darnold is traded, a second round pick would be just compensation.
` Then go about fixing the holes in the offensive and defensive lines. Find a lockdown defensive back or unstoppable linebacker. Draft a highly-touted, game breaker type wide receiver. Use that second round choice wisely and bring in a quality running back who has speed, strength and can catch passes. The Jets presently have an astounding 18 picks in the 2021 and 2022 drafts, nine of them are in the first round. With the capital that a trade of the first overall choice can bring, coupled with shrewd drafting and a projection of nearly $56 million available to lure quality free agents, the New York Jets could be a dominant force in the NFL for years to come.
Sounds like I am dreaming? Nope. And even if a healthy Lawrence can be convinced to come to the team, there will be enough arriving to change the dynamic of the team overnight. Food for thought, Jets fans. Food for thought.
A few more bits and pieces. It is strange seeing the Masters in November. I miss the azaleas.I do miss the galleries. I was happy for Tiger Woods shooting his best opening round ever at Augusta at -4. I don’t think he will make a run to the top, as he must play 8 more holes on Saturday to complete his second round before diving into the third round. Darkness before 6:00 Eastern Standard Time is not the friend of this tournament.
Let’s talk a little baseball. Now it has come out that newly signed Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa faces a DUI charge and he apparently was quite a bore with the officers who stopped him. He may be bright, but his arrogance and age (76) given cause to wonder why he is better than other candidates to take the Sox to the World Series. Can he communicate with younger ballplayers if he cannot communicate very well with the police? And does he have an alcohol problem? I see this to be a bad fit, one which might retard rather than accelerate the climb of this very young and talented team, which now has the 2020 AL M.V.P. in slugger Jose Abreu.
I liked all of the choices for the baseball awards this year. Some were easy to see—Shane Bieber of the Indians was a unanimous choice for the AL Cy Young Award. Ditto former Indians teammate now with the Reds,Trevor Bauer, for the NL Cy Young Award. Kevin Cash of the Rays and Don Mattingly of the Marlins were the correct choices for AL and NL Manager of the Year. Abreu was the best candidate for AL M.V.P., although I wanted third place finisher D.J. LeMahieu to win. Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman overcame COVID-19 and led the Braves to the post-season; a nice feel good story.
The glass ceiling has been broken in MLB. Kim Ng has bee named the GM of the Miami Marlins. She has spent her working career in baseball. The 51 year old Ng, a Ridgewood High School grad and former star softball player at the University of Chicago, has been successful, first with the White Sox, then with the Yankees and Dodgers. She has been part of 3 World Championship teams with New York and Los Angeles. Brian Cashman relied heavily on her in New York, as did Ned Coletti in Los Angeles. Her disappointments with the Dodgers, Mariners, Angels, Giants and Padres when she was passed over for the GM position, left her to start with a hungry young team in Miami managed by Mattingly, an old friend from LA. She is positioned to be a success and she has more than earned her chance.
I hate harping on so many negatives. With the sports scene in a horrible pandemic, I sound like a broken record, constantly repeating myself.
Which give me no pleasure. And the belief that I will again be howling into the wind. Without a full moon.
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