The 2020 NFL season remains in flux.
Wuhan virus restrictions could put the season in jeopardy at any moment.
Now the NFL could bring down the hammer on one team for something ridiculous.
Sports have taken a beating in 2020.
Major sporting events like March Madness, Wimbledon, and the Summer Olympics didn’t happen, and some college athletic programs have shuttered entirely due to lost revenue.
The sports that have played did so under COVID-19 protocols that have put the seasons at risk.
The college football schedule has seen mass cancellations and postponements, and the NFL has had to shuffle its calendar and eliminate the bye week for the top seed in the playoffs.
Now the New Orleans Saints are likely to get a stiff penalty after celebrating their huge 38-3 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a division rival showdown.
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The win put the Saints in the driver’s seat to win the NFC South and the top seed in the conference.
The game also marked the first time in Tom Brady’s career that he was swept by a division opponent.
From ESPN:
“The Saints are facing stiff fines and the loss of a draft pick, similar to the action the NFL took against the Raiders earlier this month, when Las Vegas was fined $500,000, head coach Jon Gruden was fined $150,000 and the franchise was stripped of a sixth-round pick for COVID-19 protocol violations.”
The Saints have been in talks with the league to reduce their penalty, but it doesn’t seem likely.
ESPN continued:
“One issue the league is focused on, according to sources, is that like Gruden and the Raiders, Payton and the Saints are repeat offenders. Payton was fined $100,000 and the Saints $250,000 because Payton was not wearing a mask during New Orleans’ Week 2 loss in Las Vegas. NFL discipline almost always is more severe for repeat offenders.”
In Major League Baseball, Justin Turner of the Los Angeles Dodgers got chided for celebrating with his teammates after they just won the World Series for the first time in 32 years despite his COVID-19 diagnosis.
The crackdown on the Saints is even more ridiculous because all of the players and personnel would’ve been cleared in order to participate in the game.
There isn’t even compelling evidence that asymptomatic people spread the virus.
Worse set, the hysteria over COVID is only intensifying.
Health officials have signaled that virus protocols will extend through next year.
Another year of lockdowns and mask mandates and draconian protocols will result in defiance from the public, or a sad surrender to authoritarianism.
Pro-lockdown politicians and health officials don’t seem to know or care just how much psychological damage they’re causing with their strict policies, and the science isn’t even on their side.
There’s mounting evidence that lockdowns and masks don’t work.
The only way to beat the virus is herd immunity or a vaccine, but those hard truths are being ignored.
