Day ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY

• I really want people to get an eye on this.  We are now 180 days, and, though we have sports largely back, it is clear it is a completely different animal, and, frankly, a PERMANENTLY different animal.
• The daily posts will continue (as news dictates -- there has been a rather dulling of the news cycle in the sports world the last couple weeks!)...  and I don't know when they're going to end...  All I can safely probably say is:  Not anytime soon!!!
• Two English soccer players played their first international game on Saturday in Iceland, a 1-0 English victory probably hardly deserved in the UEFA Nations League top tier.
• Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood have been fired from the English team, dropped, and sent home this morning for violating quarantine protocols by inviting women into their Icelandic hotel last night where the England national side was staying before heading to Denmark for their second match in the Nations League.  Fucking STUPID!!!     
• Should've included this in the preview post, but thought it might dull the message.  ESPN reports today these are some of ways the NFL is going to try to get this season in:

1. Electronic push-button whistles
2. No cheerleaders or mascots in the stadiums
3. No jersey swaps or handshakes.  No personal contact post-game, all players must be 6' away.
   
4. Showers must also be at appropriate social distance.
5. Only one captain per team at the coin toss, face coverings required.  (Which led the ESPN writers to propose the XFL solution:  The home team gets the choice to start the game.  The visiting team gets the choice at halftime (sans a home deferral in the first half) and to start overtime.)
6. Pumped-in crowd noise, but only at the limit of about a loud vacuum cleaner.
7. No sideline reporters, per se.  Varying team to team and network to network.
8. Like what soccer has done, all hydration is either from one's own personalized bottle or a disposable cup.
9. Buffets are now a thing of the past.  All game-day meals must be individually packaged and delivered contactless.
10. Players must now stay in the team hotel the night before all games, regardless home or visitor, and are encouraged NOT to need to take the elevator.  Probably also has to do with pre-game virus testing.    
11. All surfaces used to any real extent must be cleaned to standard three times (at least) a day.
12. At least one quarterback every week will be automatically quarantined to ensure the team has a virus-healthy QB.
13. All gatherings must be socially distanced and limited to 15 people, including the gym.
14. For social distancing circumstances, two charter planes are desired per team, and the non-player traveling party is limited.
15. In the unfortunate event someone DOES report virus symptoms, each team is required to have three extra empty hotel rooms so they may be quarantined.  At that point, the league will contract a private plane to get the players home so there is no outbreak.

• John Coates, vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, demands that the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo will go on regardless of the coronavirus.  They almost have to as a condition of the continuance of the Olympic movement.  But the virus may demand you hold it's beer.