A14| Wednesday, December 2, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
sports safe or permissible. They will
play their next two home games in
Arizona.
Then the Denver Broncos were
forced to play Sunday without a
quarterback after their starter and
backups were sidelined by Covid-
or contact tracing. The first and
second quarterbacks to take snaps
for the Broncos were technically
running backs. The third was a wide
receiver named Kendall Hinton who
had never played an NFL game but
played some quarterback in college.
He would complete more passes to
the other team than to his own
teammates.
The threadbare college football
season also threatened to unravel
as more than a dozen games were
postponed or canceled over the
weekend. Ohio State, No. 3 in the
AP poll,could miss the College
Football Playoff because it can’t get
enough games in. And when Ala-
bama destroyed Auburn, coach Nick
Saban was screaming at his televi-
sion from home: He tested positive
last week.
The start of the college basket-
ball season was no smoother. No. 1-
ranked Gonzaga had a positive test
in its traveling party before their
Thursday game, played that day
anyway, then held two players out
of their Friday game when one
tested positive and another was
quarantined as a close contact.
The NBA was preparing for what
might be the trickiest comeback in
sports. The league restarted itspaused 2019-20 season and made it
through the playoffs with zero posi-
tive cases among players inside the
bubble. They’re not doing it again.
When players balked at the idea of
spending a full season away from
home, the league rushed back for a
season that begins on Dec. 22.
What comes next for the NBA
might be much harder than con-
structing a bubble.
When teams received the new
health and safety protocols on Sat-
urday, they learned that anyone
who tests positive could be out for
at least 12 days. Those restrictions
mean that star players missing
weeks at a time is almost inevitable
for an indoor game that may be
more dangerous than most sports
in this pandemic.
The promise of vaccines was an
incentive for sports to play it safe
for the next few months. But when
the vaccine breakthroughs were an-
nounced in early November, the
NBA and other leagues had already
decided not to bubble again.
NFL executives and players never
thought it was feasible to bubble
players for the entire season, which
would have amounted to more than
half a year, and the league isn’t con-
sidering pausing the regular season
to build one now.
But there is no better excuse for
them to reconsider than the Super
Bowl, and the NFL is still in discus-
sions to create bubble environments
for the playoffs, a person familiar
with the matter said.BYANDREWBEATON ANDBENCOHENWeather
Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W City Hi LoW Hi LoWToday Tomorrow Today TomorrowCity Hi Lo W Hi Lo WAnchorage 36 19 sn 23 12 c
Atlanta 54 30 s 57 43 pc
Austin 64 37 pc 57 34 pc
Baltimore 48 32 s 54 38 s
Boise 40 20 s 38 18 s
Boston 4635pc 4838s
Burlington 40 30 sn 44 36 pc
Charlotte 54 29 s 59 39 s
Chicago 46 27 s 45 29 pc
Cleveland 40 26 pc 43 30 pc
Dallas 53 35 r 50 31 c
Denver 2816pc 3921s
Detroit 44 27 s 43 29 pc
Honolulu 84 70 pc 86 73 s
Houston 64 40 r 56 39 s
Indianapolis 44 26 s 44 31 c
Kansas City 47 31 c 38 26 c
Las Vegas 60 37 s 56 36 s
Little Rock 52 38 r 48 33 r
Los Angeles 73 50 s 71 46 s
Miami 74 62 s 76 67 pc
Milwaukee 47 29 s 43 29 pc
Minneapolis 39 25 pc 36 24 pc
Nashville 50 28 s 49 39 pc
New Orleans 65 58 s 69 51 t
New York City 46 38 pc 51 42 s
Oklahoma City 39 31 r 40 26 cOmaha 43 22 pc 38 22 pc
Orlando 62 48 pc 74 57 c
Philadelphia 45 33 pc 50 38 s
Phoenix 70 47 s 67 44 s
Pittsburgh 38 23 pc 41 29 pc
Portland, Maine 41 31 pc 43 34 s
Portland, Ore. 47 35 s 47 35 pc
Sacramento 63 37 s 63 35 s
St. Louis 50 33 pc 44 32 sn
Salt Lake City 39 20 s 40 20 s
San Francisco 60 45 pc 60 44 s
SantaFe 3413pc 3715s
Seattle 50 35 s 48 36 s
Sioux Falls 38 22 s 38 21 pc
Wash., D.C. 48 33 s 53 40 sAmsterdam 43 40 pc 44 39 sh
Athens 59 48 pc 61 54 c
Baghdad 65 53 s 67 50 pc
Bangkok 85 75 pc 87 71 s
Beijing 39 17 pc 39 18 s
Berlin 35 24 s 33 27 pc
Brussels 44 40 pc 43 40 sh
Buenos Aires 81 65 t 80 61 s
Dubai 84 68 pc 83 72 pc
Dublin 45 35 pc 40 29 sh
Edinburgh 46 34 pc 39 29 shFrankfurt 37 31 pc 36 32 pc
Geneva 40 28 pc 37 31 pc
Havana 77 65 s 79 65 s
Hong Kong 75 59 s 71 56 s
Istanbul 50 44 c 57 45 s
Jakarta 91 76 t 88 77 t
Jerusalem 57 42 s 59 41 s
Johannesburg 82 53 s 73 55 pc
London 44 37 pc 43 35 sh
Madrid 51 26 pc 48 39 pc
Manila 84 76 sh 85 76 t
Melbourne 67 50 pc 76 55 pc
Mexico City 72 48 pc 74 47 c
Milan 38 31 r 42 34 pc
Moscow 25 18 pc 26 21 c
Mumbai 93 76 pc 92 75 pc
Paris 46 40 pc 44 41 r
Rio de Janeiro 81 75 t 89 79 pc
Riyadh 73 61 pc 77 63 pc
Rome 56 43 r 56 45 sh
San Juan 84 74 pc 83 73 sh
Seoul 42 25 pc 41 24 s
Shanghai 56 43 pc 52 41 pc
Singapore 87 78 t 87 78 sh
Sydney 7762pc 7869c
Taipei City 69 61 sh 68 62 r
Tokyo 50 48 r 56 48 pc
Toronto 39 30 s 40 33 pc
Vancouver 44 34 pc 45 38 c
Warsaw 30 25 s 35 31 c
Zurich 36 28 pc 36 26 pcToday TomorrowU.S. Forecasts
International
City Hi LoW Hi LoWs...sunny; pc... partly cloudy; c...cloudy; sh...showers;
t...t’storms; r...rain; sf...snow flurries; sn...snow; i...ice
Today TomorrowWarmColdStationaryShowersRainT-stormsSnowFlurriesIce<
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HoustonSan Diego PhoenixLos AngelesLas
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Washington D.C.BostonCharlestonMilwaukee HartfordWichitaIndianapolisClevelandBuffaloAustinHelena
BismarckAlbuquerqueOmahaOklahoma CitySan AntonioDes MoinesSioux FallsJacksonBirminghamCheyenne PhiladelphiaRenoSanta FeColorado
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20s
20s20sBEASTLY BELONGINGS|
By David Alfred Bywaters
Across
1Itmaybe
troubling
5 Tiffany creation
9 Bring on
14 Unit of loudness
15 Gas leak
giveaway
16 “Isn’t it funny
how a bear likes
honey?” writer
17 Equine
gardening
equipment?
19 Novel features
20 In need of
massaging,
perhaps
21 Charge
23 Wonder24 Works with
numbers,
perhaps
25 Walruses?
27 Remain unused
28 King succeeded
by Joffrey on
“Game of
Thrones”
30 Confined
31 Haw lead-in
32 Zapforafew
minutes
33 Weakens
34 Mice, maybe?
37 Makeup of
some keys
40 Col. neighbor
41 Saucer
occupant44 Imitated
mindlessly
45 Out of the
lockup
47 “Not ___ bet!”
48 Bolos for boars?
50 Doorman’s
directive
52 De Armas of
“No Time to Die”
53 Dolt
54 Confessor’s
determination
55 Bad dog
57 Implement for
an amphibian?
59 Game with
numbers
60 “The First Lady
of Song”TheWSJDailyCrossword|Edited by Mike Shenk
1234 5678 910111213
14 15 16
17 18 19
20 21 22 23
24 25 26
27 28 29 30
31 32 33
34 35 36
37 38 39 40 41 42 43
44 45 46 47
48 49 50 51
52 53 54
55 56 57 58
59 60 61
62 63 64Previous Puzzle’s Solutions
Solve this puzzle online and discuss it atWSJ.com/Puzzles.NASA SCAMS GLUM
EDEN TOX I C AONE
WHAT ARENA SCOT
JEDIMINDTRICK
ORO ODE MADGE
BEGAN TOPHONORS
SEE UKE WI T
L I GHTN I NGROUNDS
ONO I CC SWF
T I TLEDEED IOTAS
STOOL REN RUN
SOMETH I NGTODO
ABET LEAVE EPIC
FREE SALEM META
TODD EMERY PSST61 Being in
Burgundy
62 Pass,inaway
63 Cease to labor
64 Tear
Down
1 Wisconsin city
with a rhyming
name
2 Marshmallow-
chocolate-
graham cracker
confection
3 Coming
4 Egg holders
5 Suffers a
disadvantage
6 Ritalin’s target,
briefly
7 Stock answer?
8 Be partial to
9 Drive forward
10 Zero
11 Hidden, like a
Klingon starship
12 Tease out
13 Takes umbrage
at
18 Without end
22 Take in
25 Harry Potter,
Cedric Diggory
and Cho Chang,
in Quidditch26 Mud bath
purveyors
29 Gen., Ex. and
Lev., e.g.
33 Wine vessels
34 Bounders
35 Destination
after the ER
and OR
36 Attacked with
a sword
37 Qualified
38 It’s just what
you think
39 Meet at the
shore?
41 Suggest
42 Startup valued
at over a billion
dollars
43 Like some den
walls
45 Bro’s sib
46 Annoy
persistently
49 The Chariot,
the Tower or
the Lovers, e.g.
51 Western,
informally
54 Buds
56 And the like,
briefly
58 Iberian cheerFROM TOP: ELSA/GETTY IMAGES; DAVID BUTLER II/REUTERSThe Games Go On but It’s Getting Ugly
Leagues are trying to plow ahead as outbreaks and postponements are making it harder to proceed
SPORTS
T
he top men’s college bas-
ketball team in the coun-
try played through a
spate of Covid-19 cases
among players and staff
on Thanksgiving weekend. The No. 1
college football team took the field
for its most anticipated game with-
out the sport’s most famous coach.
And now the NFL has shut down
most of its facilities for two days as
one team had to play without a
quarterback, another was kicked
out of its home and a third had a
game delayed three different times.
The latest coronavirus surge has
crashed into the sports world again
and is slowly disabling the leagues
that are in season. The industry
faces the same problem it did when
sports came to a halt in March—
only this time leagues are trying to
bulldoze through the pandemic.
It was almost nine months ago
when leagues across the country
looked at this situation and came to
the opposite conclusion. A surreal
night in the NBA led to an abrupt
shutdown. Major League Baseball
players were sent home from spring
training. The NCAA tournament was
called off, the Masters was post-
poned and the 2020 Olympics be-
came the 2021 Olympics.
The last time the pandemic was
this grim, sports had no
choice but to stop. It re-
started with extraordinary
safety protocols over the
summer—driven to protect
billions of dollars in televi-
sion contracts at a time
when ticket sales revenue
disappeared.
Now cases and hospital-
izations per day in the U.S.
have reached new highs, but
the economic imperatives for
the leagues haven’t changed.
This time, with all that
money at stake, the sports
world isn’t stopping.
“It’s very, extremely clear
that we as a country, com-
munity and state have to do
what we can,”said Jeffrey
Smith, a doctor, lawyer and
the executive officer of Santa
Clara County, which insti-
tuted restrictions banning
the San Francisco 49ers
from practicing or playing at home.
“Otherwise hundreds of thousands
of people are going to die.”
This defiance is the latest sign of
how sports have reflected American
behavior throughout the pandemic.
In March, when sports were sus-
pended overnight, a frightened na-
tion stayed home. In the summer,
when sports returned with strict
protocols, a fatigued country tried
inching back to normalcy. Now, as
sports keep playing through can-
celed games and closed facilities,
unprecedented swaths of the U.S.
are sick with the virus and sick of
the virus.
Scientists know more about how
the coronavirus spreads and doc-tors know more about how to treat
Covid-19, but health experts warned
that Thanksgiving would accelerate
the spread, and the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention urged
Americans to stay home. But there
was one group of people that par-
ticipated in the traditional holiday
pageantry: sports teams.
The NFL had managed to make it
through most of its season with few
disruptions—but now faces a series
of simultaneous calamities that has
the league teetering.
A matchup between the Balti-
more Ravens and Pittsburgh Steel-
ers that was supposed to be played
in prime time on Thanksgiving was
postponed to Sunday, then again toTuesday, then again to Wednesday
because of Baltimore’s outbreaks
that sidelined more than two dozen
players and personnel.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
canceled most in-person activities
for most teams on Monday and
Tuesday because of the “continuous
increase in positivity rates through-
out the country, as well as our un-
derstanding that a number of play-
ers and staff celebrated the
Thanksgiving holiday with out-of-
town guests,”he wrote in a memo.
That was only the beginning of
the NFL’s problems.
The San Francisco 49ers were
left homeless after Santa Clara
County no longer deemed contactThe Seattle Seahawks and Philadelphia Eagles, above, played a Monday Night
Football game on Nov. 30. Left, Virginia Tech upset No. 3 Villanova on Nov. 28.