Mark Madden: Don't expect sports to return in the next year

I originally thought greed would drive big-time sports leagues to return soon. Perhaps sooner than they should.

Now it seems covid-19 is stronger than greed. Isn’t that one heck of a statement?

It’s not Vietnam, as per the parallel drawn by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Schefter wants the NFL Draft postponed because he cares more.

Hey, Schefty, I just talked to Charlie, and he’s not mad anymore. So let’s call off Operation “One of Us is Crazy.” (But the draft should proceed as scheduled. No reason not to. If it didn’t, Schefter might cease to exist.)

Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney says, “I have zero doubt that we’re going to be playing and the stands are going to be packed.”

Wow. Sounds like Operation “One of Us is Crazy” is back on. Swinney talks like our great nation can flat-out outwork covid-19.

Maybe researchers at Pitt can do exactly that. But it might take a while. If Pitt is missing a key ingredient to its vaccine, just don’t let Pat Narduzzi recruit it.

President Trump hosted a conference call that included the heads of major sports leagues. He’d like sports to restart ASAP by way of returning to even a small semblance of normalcy. Like Swinney, Trump fairly boasted football would start on time.

It won’t. That decision will be up to medical experts and, ultimately, the players, who seem unlikely to participate in any resumption that indulges even the smallest risk or, to be honest, inconveniences them in any way.

For example, having the NBA playoffs in one city (Las Vegas) with all the teams quarantined reportedly has been mooted. But NBA players wouldn’t go for that even if absolute safety could be guaranteed. (It couldn’t, but let’s pretend.) The players wouldn’t tolerate time away from their families. (Then again, by that point, they might be begging for exactly that.)

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said the NBA will not resume until all the experts say it’s absolutely safe.

That means a vaccine or a cure. That means sports won’t return for at least a year (if Narduzzi doesn’t screw it up).

No sports for another year. That’s hard to imagine.

What isn’t hard to imagine is the citizens getting restless in two to three months if they’re still trapped in their homes with nothing to do or watch. Society could turn ugly, perhaps before then. Close the city and tell the people that something’s coming to call …

It seems unlikely that any window opens for the resumption of the NHL and NBA anytime soon.

But if one does, both leagues should complete the seasons covid-19 interrupted, even if they resume in July. Minimal (re-)training camp, trimmed-down regular season and then quickly to playoffs. Use empty arenas and common sites as conditions dictate.

Do that if the curve flattens and experts allow. If the current season is canceled in favor of starting a new campaign using the preferred timeline, what happens if the curve un-flattens? (Viruses can run seasonally.) Then you abandon a second season.

Aim short-term. If conditions continue improving, improvise.

But, like any talk involving resumption of sports without a vaccine or cure, that’s all conjecture and highly improbable.

Sports won’t be back for a year. Pa.betrivers.com should set an over/under. At least we could bet on something.