When a pandemic is responsible for over 90,000 deaths in the United States, anything good is at best a footnote. One obscure footnote is how backup players in team sports may seize an opportunity from the adversity.
First, the NFL, NBA, and all other team sports that are anxious to get back to work will have to take at least one precaution: test players often. This would include pre-training room workouts, team practices and of course games. If a starter tests positive, the coaches would have no choice but to say, “Next man up”! No modern-day players have had such an opportunity to be given a playing-time raise since perhaps the AIDS issues decades ago. Hoping for injuries to starters was the former best route to the top. Starters often played, even with injuries, to avoid losing their precious position.
That means backups with incentive clauses in their contracts may have a better opportunity to meet those productivity benchmarks to get a bonus than ever before.
That also means every player and agent ought to be priming every endorsement opportunity on the horizon. If he wants to die his hair a shocking color, do it now, publicize it, and talk to the product manufacturer and its advertising agency. If the player or agent can craft a rags to riches, from a sitter to starter human interest story, get to the final edits.
And of course, that means if there was ever a need to get in game shape, this is the time. Call it extra incentive. Call it an adrenalin rush. But make the call to reserve the first training slot open, and learn the playbook as if you are the starter. You may be a temperature reading away from being just that.
Roger M. Groves in a Washington DC attorney and business consultant. Formerly a tax judge, he is nationally networked with law firms and financial advisors in the sports and entertainment industry. He can be reached at Roger@sports-apps.com or 1629 K Street N.W., Suite 300, Washington DC, 20006.