The resurgence of the coronavirus has exposed class failures and privileges in many places that enable people with means to escape high-risk environments, postpone work, and avoid financial concerns for the sake of staying safe.
The American sports industry may be no different, as leagues move to restart the game. A combination of dynamics (money, status, and job security) could determine which athletes will have the ability to decide to sit down and which will have few more options to play.
Many players, of course, are eager to return to the field. But a wave of decisions this week to choose not to participate hinted at an undercurrent of anxiety that could grow in the coming weeks as more leagues get closer to their returns.
In the NBA, Avery Bradley of the Los Angeles Lakers and Thabo Sefolosha of the Houston Rockets this week joined a small but growing group of players who will sit down when the league restarts on July 30. At Major League Baseball, a handful of players, including Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals and Ian Desmond of the Colorado Rockies, reached similar conclusions.
For the most part, they were wealthy and established players, and in each case a question could be asked: could another player with the same level of concern for their well-being, the same level of fear of the coronavirus and its many consequences, but with less money? and less job security, make the same decision?
The next few weeks could show who feels empowered and who feels handcuffed when making the decision to prioritize security.
“If you are a player who has made $ 30 million a year for the past three years, your ability to say ‘I am not playing’ is different from the guy who has been fighting for the past three years, you are ready to play now in the big show, you have debts coming out of your ears and who needs to show their talents and be rewarded, “said Gene Orza, former general counsel and director of operations for the baseball players union.” Those are two completely different human beings. “
“So having a one-size-fits-all approach is silly.” “It just won’t work.”
Each athlete had, in Orza’s words, “a unique and personal constellation of factors” that supported their decision to play. But it has become clear that those with the financial means or a level of professional status will be better equipped to make the decision to forgo a paycheck and a year of gambling.
Zimmerman, 35, who announced Monday that he would stay “safe at home,” earned about $ 136 million in his career and won a World Series. Desmond, 34, said the same day that playing this season was “a risk I’m not comfortable with,” noting his desire to stay close to his pregnant wife and four children. He has earned $ 76 million in his career.
Bradley, 29, the alleged Lakers starter, said in his own statement: “I can’t imagine making a decision that could jeopardize my family’s health and well-being, even the slightest risk.”
These were reasonable decisions. But are they available for the novice or the official player to make?
The major sports leagues this summer are operating under essentially the same basic work rule when it comes to the pandemic: anyone with a pre-existing medical condition can request to sit down and still get paid; Anyone who simply fears the virus can also sit down, but will not be paid.
“Let’s talk about the ethics of this,” said Charles Grantham, director of the Seton Hall University Sports Management Center. “Is it fair to ask these people to try to go back and try this?”
Many players may not feel like they have a choice.
Athletes have short races. The country’s main sports leagues are made up of the absolute upper crust of talent. The labor market is fierce and therefore time on the sidelines is a waste of time.
“They have three or five years to maximize a contract based on the uniqueness of their talent,” said Grantham, a former NBA executive. “And the uniqueness of their talent almost demands that they play, that they don’t miss a season. So that risk reward becomes an issue with every player. “
The National Women’s Soccer League, in this regard, offers an illuminating case study. While preparing last month to become one of the first professional leagues in the United States to restart competition, officials promoted a policy that allowed any player to stay out and receive their full salary and benefits by 2020.
But ultimately, the only players who publicly decided not to play due to concerns about the coronavirus were Megan Rapinoe, Tobin Heath and Christen Press, three of the biggest stars in women’s football. (The league had an entire team that lost the competition even before it started after six players and four staff members tested positive for the virus)
“I know how lucky I am to be able to make this decision,” Press said in a statement announcing its decision. “I have enormous respect and gratitude for those who do not have the luxury of choosing whether to report to work.”
The press could have been talking about essential workers across the country who don’t have the option of doing their jobs remotely. But she could also have been referring to her teammates and opponents.
It would be hard to believe that the three stars of the national team were the only players in the league who preferred to stay at home. And many stated that they were happy to play. But others undoubtedly felt the pressure to maintain their place in a hierarchical order, to be seen as a good team player.
“If you are not playing, and you are a professional, there will be another harvest of professionals next year,” Grantham said. “Are you losing your competitive advantage, are you losing your ability because you’re not playing?”
However, despite all the inherent pressures that exist, the number of players hesitating to return may increase as the number of coronavirus cases across the country continues to rise.
That tension vividly materialized last weekend in Brazil, which has recorded more than a million cases so far, second in the world behind the United States, where the return of the best soccer league was met with open protests from players. and executives, including a team that walked onto the field for a game holding a banner that questioned why they were playing.
Those kinds of feelings, moreover, could collide with pressure from fans who love their favorite players on the field, no matter what.
On Wednesday night, for example, Eireann Dolan, the wife of Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle, responded to people on social media that they were cheating on her husband after he suggested that his wife’s pre-existing lung problems They could force him to stay home this summer. Dolan, in colorful language, attacked the notion that the players who prioritized their health and family were “weak or unmanly.”
Orza has played sports enough to know that some subgroups of fans would likely be “screaming and yelling” about the players who chose not to play with their teams this season.
“But now close your eyes and imagine that boy is your son,” he said. “Now how do you feel?”
James Wagner and Scott Cacciola contributed reporting.
