Longtime sportscaster Bob Costas has shared his thoughts about the direction of professional sports as the US nears the two-year mark of the pandemic with no end in sight.
The legendary MLB Network announcer -- long the face of NBC Sports, including its Olympics coverage, until his departure two years ago -- said during a recent podcast appearance that he could see compulsory vaccinations and boosters becoming a "condition of employment" in professional sports.
Costas, speaking with CNN host Michael Smerconish, on whose shows he has appeared several times, said that the directors of both the NBA and NFL players' unions have told him they are open to considering such policy. Costas added that a vaccine stipulation could first be rolled out in MLB, where a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is being negotiated, thus creating a "blank canvas."
Under the idea floated by Costas, players would be permitted to play even if they returned a positive test, so long as they felt up to it.
It would be much different than people lining up for five hours outside a drugstore. You’d come to the facility, it’s your turn to get boosted, so then if you were able to say that everyone, all the players, and all the people around them, staff, have been protected to the fullest extent that’s humanly possible, I think you could then reasonably say – and even the most pro-vax people would agree, I would hope – you could reasonably say that if a player who’s fully vaxxed and boosted, a young, healthy, fit player tests positive but is asymptomatic or has mild symptoms, that guy would be allowed to continue to play.
I think ultimately, that’s the way forward. Otherwise, you’re gonna have this hodgepodge situation every season with every league, until the virus is completely gone. And the virus may wind up, to one extent or the other, endemic.
Smerconish, a Pennsylvania native and Phillies fan, then suggested that such a move would be likely to provoke resistance from vaccine-hesitant players. He alluded to Phillies star Bryce Harper, whose vaccination status has been less than clear. The Phillies were one of only a handful of teams that did not reach the required 85% vaccination threshold necessary to relax Covid-related restrictions last season.
Costas conceded that compulsory vaccines might be challenged in court by players who are already under contract, so the rule may have to survive some "litigation" before coming to pass.
But going forward, I would think that that would be a condition of employment. Once new contracts are signed, or rookies come into a league, that would probably be a condition of employment.
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