Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, is not winning any votes with sports fans these days.
On Tuesday, Biden was asked about sports leagues, specifically the NFL and MLB, who were trying to play their seasons amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It seems to me that it’s probably not going to happen, according to what the leagues themselves say,” Biden said, according to the Washington Post.
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To back up his point, Biden referred to the Miami Marlins, who are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak. “I mean, you have the Marlins saying, ‘We can’t do it.’ So I think they should follow the science.”
Biden advocated putting teams into a bubble, as the NBA, NHL, and MLS are doing, indicating that leagues will face coronavirus problems unless they are “kidnapped in one place.”
The NFL is opening training camp this week and intends to play a full 16-game season in 2020. Major League Baseball shortened its season to 60 games, and not all clubs may play as many. The Marlins are in quarantine until at least Sunday after 17 club members tested positive for the coronavirus.
As a result, five clubs were forced to change their schedules on the fly, including the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals.
On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he believes the COVID-19 outbreak in the Marlins could spell the end of the 2020 season. His warning came during an appearance Tuesday in “Good Morning America”. On ESPN:
“This could put him in danger,” said Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert. “I don’t think they should stop, but we just have to follow this and see what happens to other teams day by day.”
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