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The richest professional sports leagues in the world spent enormous sums of money and took extraordinary measures to play through the pandemic in 2020. They bubbled, tested, and traced their way to make it to 2021, when there was more optimism about a return to something that resembled normalcy.
But the past week in sports has been a blunt reminder that the virus is still a problem for sports. And the issues in recent days foreshadow more disruptions and stricter measures to thwart rising caseloads.
NBA stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden were among the dozens sidelined by the league’s health and safety protocols this week, absences that threaten to spoil the marquee Christmas Day schedule next week, while the league already postponed its first games of the season in response to a teamwide outbreak on the Chicago Bulls.
The English Premier League reintroduced what it called “emergency measures” as giants Manchester United
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and Tottenham Hotspur had games postponed and their training facilities shuttered because of outbreaks. The Calgary Flames became the third NHL team to have their season paused because of an outbreak.
An expanded version of this story appears on WSJ.com.
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