Santa Clara County Health Official Doesn’t Expect Sports Until ‘At Least Thanksgiving’

While politicians talk about getting America back to work, and, getting our favorite sports teams back out on the field. One health official in California doesn’t see that happening anytime soon.

Santa Clara County Executive Officer Dr. Jeffrey Smith, told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, that if stay-at-home orders were rescinded in California, the coronavirus would continue to spread. For that reason, Smith doesn’t see a return to sporting events in the Golden State until “any sports games until at least Thanksgiving, and we’d be lucky to have them by Thanksgiving. This is not something that’s going to be easy to do.”

While Smith’s opinion is just that, an opinion. He is an executive in Santa Clara County, which is home to the San Francisco 49ers.

“There will definitely be individuals who will get sick,” Smith continued. “And because there are individuals who get sick, there will be individuals who die after the order is released, unless we come up with a foolproof immunization, which is highly unlikely.”

Another option, however, other than the availability of mass immunization, is the idea of holding games without fans. Presumably, under this plan, the league would mandate testing for all players, coaches, staff, and whatever scaled-down media and stadium personnel would be necessary to play the game. Falcons Owner Arthur Blank recently told Peter King that if he had to guess, the 2020 NFL season would start on time, but possibly without fans.

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn