The Current

September 1, 2020 | nsucurrent.nova.edu 8 Sports THIS WEEK IN SPORTS IN HISTORY September 1, 1971: First all-black lineup The Pittsburgh Pirates fielded an “all-black” lineup consisting of African-American and Latino players -- a first in Major League Baseball. Presumed to be the most diverse of all teams in the MLB, the team was made up of 13 players of Latin or African-American descent. Most notably, the lineup consisted of Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. The Pirates won 10-7 against the Philadelphia Phillies and went on to win the World Series that season. September 2nd, 1966: Miami Dolphins establishedt The Miami Dolphins started their first-ever season as a part of the American Football League in 1966. The team was founded by politician Joe Robbie and comedian Danny Thomas. This was the first time since 1946 that the region had a professional football team, previously featuring the Miami Seahawks. The original training location of the team was in St. Pete Beach, with practices in August taking place at a local high school in Gulfport. Unfortunately, for their first game, the Dolphins lost to the Oakland Raiders with a score of 23-14. September 3, 1972: The United States wins Gold American swimmer, Mark Spitz, won the 100m gold medal at the Munich Olympics. Spitz earned the world record for the time with a record of 51.22 seconds -- not too far off from the present-day record of 46.91 seconds. By the end of Spitz’s career, he had won nine Olympic golds, one silver and one bronze. Additionally, Spitz went on to set 35 world records in the sport. September 4, 2018: New face of Nike Colin Kaepernick became the newest face of Nike’s 30th anniversary advertising campaign in 2018 after kneeling during the U.S. national anthem. Kaepernick took a knee for the first time two years prior in the 49ers’ final 2016 preseason game. This method of peaceful protest was in response to police brutality, in turn gaining massive traction in the media. Alongside Kaepernick was teammate Eric Reid. Kaepernick has not played professionally since the 49ers’ final game that season in 2017, unofficially blacklisted by NFL owners. September 5, 1995: New consecutive games record Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles tied Lou Gehrig’s long-standing record of playing in 2,130 straight MLB games. Gehrig, who played for the NewYorkYankees, held the record for 56 years before Ripken tied and eventually passed his record. Ripken still holds the record today with a consecutive game count of 2,632 over the course of 16 years. September 6, 2008: Williams wins another title Serena Williams won her third U.S. title in the U.S. Open for Women’s tennis in 2008. Williams beat Jelena Jankovic of Serbia with a score of 6-4 and 7-5. Williams is an accomplished tennis player, holding the most Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, with a total of 39 titles. In 2016 and 2017, Williams was the highest-paid female athlete and in 2015 was named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated. September 7, 1988 : Three new Hall of Famers Guy Lafleur, Tony Esposito and Brad Park were all inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame. Lafluer was known for his time with the New York Rangers and the Quebec Nordiques and for being the first in NHL history to score 50 goals and 100 points in six consecutive seasons. Esposito, who played for the Chicago Black Hawks, was known for pioneering the now popular butterfly style and was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in 2017. Park, who played for the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings, was named to the all-star team several times throughout his career and is also on the 100 Greatest NHL Players list. On The Bench : The false-positive ideology of playing amongst COVID-19 By: Christina McLaughlin Co-Editor-in-Chief 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic will most likely go down in history for the revolutionary wake it left on the medical field, the economy and the entire globe as a whole. As we are still in the throes of those landmark decisions, it seems like nothing has been rocked more in the “will they or won’t they” than professional sports. The NBA and WNBA elected to create what is known as the “NBA Bubble,” an isolation zone or “bubble” that hosts 22 invited teams out of the total 30 NBA teams within the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex with housing at Disney Hotels and games held across a majority of Disney arenas and properties. This provides the NBA and its teams the opportunity to isolate the players from the public in hopes of preventing the spread of COVID-19 and allowing them to compete in a 2020-2021 season. The MLB and MLBPA jointly created enhanced COVID-19 safety protocols involving contact tracing, mask coverings in areas of contact and involved safety protocols during travel with seclusion in hotel rooms while on the road as they enter their post-season and make-up games. With the NFL in the midst of their pre- season training camps and the finalization of regular season safety protocols, recent events have brought up some serious concerns. On Aug. 22, daily COVID-19 tests across 11 NFL teams and 77 individuals were discovered to be false positive. Although the NFL investigated these results and retested those individuals while following proper procedures until it was confirmed, it brought up potential glaring errors in judgment that may affect this upcoming season. It now rests on the NFL and NFLPA’s shoulders as to how this false positive will be looked at and affect future decisions. These governing boards have until Sept. 5 to make a decision as to continue with daily testing and/ or create a policy for weeding out potential inaccurate test results. As it stands, the protocol involves two additional tests within 24 hours after a positive result is found. If those sequential tests are negative, then the first test is deemed defective. Therein lies the problem, not only with the NFL, but with all sports and their approaches to COVID-19 in general. How do we really know that the original test was a false positive? There is potential that the individual was in fact infected with the virus and potentially spread it unknowingly, but now, it is left undetected in the sequential tests. We are still at the infantile stages of understanding how this virus operates that we can’t just assume that a positive test result is inaccurate. Under that same thought process, we can’t assume that a false negative isn’t out of the realm of possibility. I think the hardest fact we have to face is that we truly don’t know what’s the right move here. But, in any case, I don’t believe that outright trying to disprove or dismiss a positive test result is the right move either. This is going to be a difficult path to navigate until we either develop a critical and indisputable understanding of the virus or discover ways to effectively control its spread. However, we aren’t there yet, and at this point, we have to think critically if we are going to protect the athletes we idolize on our television screens and the individuals who make professional sports the exciting world we are entertained by every week.