While Omicron continues to ravage through communities and hurt a variety of industries, the sports industry has to be one of the hardest ones hit. In the past month, the NFL, NBA and NHL have rescheduled a long list of games to many people’s dismay. The NHL even decided to not participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing this year. This news comes shortly after 50 NHL games were rescheduled from this past December to February. 

While the NBA has only needed to reschedule 11 games so far, the NHL rescheduled a whopping 95 games and ended up canceling three. The games will take up the calendar spots that have been left free by the NHL opting out of the 2022 Winter Olympics. The NFL has rescheduled 15 games in all, which would have been altogether canceled if it wasn’t for the NFLPA’s executive committee. The affected games included the Cleveland Browns vs. the Las Vegas Raiders, and the Seattle Seahawks vs. the Los Angeles Rams, among others. If the games would have been canceled, about 18% of players wouldn’t have received a paycheck that week, which is a growing concern amongst many athletes as Omicron cases continue to rise.   

The recent news of these games being rescheduled is due to the large number of professional athletes becoming sick with COVID-19. Due to the increased number of cases and the frustration of needing to reschedule games, many sports associations and leagues have changed their COVID-19 protocols. 

The new protocols for the NFL involve vaccinated players being tested for the virus less and making it easier to return to the field after testing positive. 

The NHL on the other hand, has decided to not test vaccinated players at all anymore unless they are crossing the border for games. The NBA decided that asymptomatic players should be able to return to games and practice sooner and will require teams to have replacement players on 10-day-contracts so that the games can still go on.  

Professional sports teams aren’t the only ones that are being affected by the extreme uptick in COVID-19 cases. College sports have also taken numerous hard hits this season. An example of this can be seen in men’s and women’s college basketball, which has had over 120 cancellations. 

While many colleges are also deciding to ease up on COVID-19 protocols, there is still a hot debate going on about whether the current protocols should be followed or should be tailored. 

One of these protocols involves contact tracing. When a player on the team has a positive test, every other player who was exposed to them for at least 15 minutes needs to be isolated for 10 days, according to the CDC.  

Even though the large number of cancellations and reschedules are disappointing to many in the sports community, data suggests an end to Omicron may be in sight. 

With the number of COVID-19 cases dropping in South Africa, some experts think that cases in the United States and other countries will follow suit. This would be a huge sigh of relief for sports teams and fans alike, who have already been put through the ringer with constant schedule changes.