COLUMBUS, Ohio -- "Whoa ... this is weird."
Oh, he's got no idea. Just wait.
Wednesday afternoon at Nationwide Arena, Justin Schultz had just walked through the half-dozen or so reporters waiting in a designated interview area and assumed his designated standing spot behind a tall table. The reporters had been instructed to leave their microphones and recording devices on the table, then to stand back behind a black line of tape on the floor, roughly 6 feet away.
That's the distance recommended by the CDC to help avoid catching the novel coronavirus COVID-19 that, just an hour earlier, had been declared a pandemic.
And that above assessment by Schultz will, of course, be nothing compared to what's coming.
The Penguins and Blue Jackets will play here Thursday night at Nationwide Arena in front of no fans, the home team announced Wednesday evening. The only non-participants in the building, per the announcement, will be "home and visiting club personnel, credentialed media and broadcast partners, essential club and arena staff and NHL officials."
So, basically, it'll be me, Taylor Haase and maybe 50 others. Presumably no one to fire off the cannon, either.
Crazy, right?
I mean ... I can't even fathom the scene. And that's after watching the Penguins practice for an hour on that same rink in front of the same number of fans on this day. Because this'll be a game. A real, live NHL game event conducted in a near-vacuum. The first, to my knowledge, in our city's sporting history, and the first in any major league since this outbreak.
For sure, the magnitude hadn't hit the participants before, during or immediately after their 1 p.m. session. Schultz couldn't help but let out a smile as he spoke what's above. Zach Aston-Reese let out a slight cough from behind his table, then playfully glanced about the area as if to apologize. Same happened when Jack Johnson approached the area down the hallway and, upon spotting him, I backpedaled like a quarterback under duress. He laughed, too.
Look, it's serious. I get it.
Actually, it's deadly serious:
.@WHO is deeply concerned by the alarming levels of the #coronavirus spread, severity & inaction, & expects to see the number of cases, deaths & affected countries climb even higher. Therefore, we made the assessment that #COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic. https://t.co/97XSmyigME pic.twitter.com/gSqFm947D8
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 11, 2020
I'm not that guy. I'm not Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye, director-general of the World Health Organization, who declared a global pandemic Wednesday morning.
Nor am I Mike DeWine, governor of Ohio, who, later Wednesday, decreed that all major public gatherings, including sporting events, are done until further notice.
I don't have the educations they do in their different fields, and I don't have anywhere near the information they do.
But I still feel it's fair to wonder: What's the end game here?
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