NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on the call that pro sports leagues would “love to lead the way” in boosting a struggling economy once public health officials give the “all clear” for seasons to resume, according to the ESPN report.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Judd Deere confirmed the call took place but did not reveal any additional details about what Trump and the commissioners discussed.
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Unfortunately for anyone stuck inside desperately hoping for live sports to return, Trump’s optimism is misguided. As his own coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci said last month, “You don’t make the timeline, the virus makes the timeline.”
Upon hearing Trump’s comments, California Gov. Gavin Newsom shot down the idea of NFL games in his state proceeding as normal.
His full response (via ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry):
Trump’s belief is also at odds with the NFL’s own chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, who said widespread testing must become available before the league can proceed with a new season.
“As long as we’re still in a place where when a single individual tests positive for the virus that you have to quarantine every single person who was in contact with them in any shape, form or fashion, then I don’t think you can begin to think about reopening a team sport,” Sills told NFL.com’s Judy Battista earlier this week. “Because we’re going to have positive cases for a very long time.”
And then there’s the problem with Trump speculating on anything related to COVID-19. Consider some of his previous public statements:
Jan. 30: “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you. Feb. 23: “Yeah, we’re very much involved. We’re very — very cognizant of everything going on. We have it very much under control in this country. " Feb. 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Feb. 26: “And again, when you have 15 people [with the virus], and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done. " March 4: “Yeah, I think where these people are flying, it’s safe to fly. And large portions of the world are very safe to fly. So we don’t want to say anything other than that. And we have closed down certain sections of the world, frankly, and they’ve sort of automatically closed them also. They’ll understand that and they understand it better, perhaps, than anybody. Yes, it’s safe. " March 16: “They think August, it could be July. Could be longer than that. " March 29: “We can expect that, by June 1, we will be well on our way to recovery. We think, by June 1, a lot of great things will be happening. " March 31: “This could be a hell of a bad two weeks. This is gonna be a very bad two — or maybe even three — weeks. This is going to be three weeks like we haven’t seen before. " April 4: “I can’t tell you a date [when sports fans could attend events again], but I think it’s gonna be sooner rather than later. "
Maybe Trump sticks with that September projection for the start of the NFL season. Or he pushes it back to October. Or he decides he never liked football, a very bad sport, unlike golf, which is a very, very good sport, the best sport, and many people are saying that more and more lately.
The truth is the vast majority of major pro sports leagues are going to be shut down for an indefinite amount of time. Simply giving a random date on the calendar won’t change anything.
