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By Jim Caltagirone
For the Mirror
The Covid era in sports deserves a great big asterisk in the record books.
With cancellations shortening the length of seasons and health protocols sending athletes to the reserve list, team and individual records, from attendance and win totals to games played and scoring, cannot be compared to pre-pandemic years.
In some venues across the country, sporting events are again being contested without fans present.
At colleges and universities, teams are scrambling to fill open dates created by Covid concerns in their own program or their opponent's.
The UCLA men's basketball team played only one game between Dec. 12 and Jan. 6, and that was a hastily scheduled rematch with Long Beach State, which made its second trip to Pauley Pavilion in seven weeks.
In a 16-day stretch, UCLA's schedule absorbed three cancellations against non-conference opponents and two postponements against Pac-12 foes.
"We were desperate to get out on the court, mentally and physically," said head coach Mick Cronin, after his then No. 5-ranked Bruins defeated the Beach. "You've got to start playing games to find a rhythm...You can only simulate so much in practice."
All things considered, college football was fortunate to complete even an abbreviated season in 2020. The nine games that Penn State played were the program's fewest since 1957.
One year later, pro athletes are on and off the gameday roster like pieces on a checkerboard.
Every team is playing under the same protocols, but there comes a point when the question has to be asked if the eventual champion is the greatest in the sport or the luckiest.
If quarterback Aaron Rodgers of NFC top seeded Green Bay is not able to start a playoff game because of the toe injury he dealt with all season, that's considered part of the game.
If an asymptomatic Rodgers is relegated to the reserve/COVID-19 list to observe a protocol, that could be viewed as a competitive imbalance which invalidates the final result.
That was certainly the case when Denver played New Orleans in 2020 with Kendall Hinton, a practice squad wide receiver, at quarterback for the Broncos because all four signal callers on the roster were ruled ineligible due to Covid concerns.
The Broncos lost, 31-3. Hinton completed just 1-of-9 passes for 13 yards and threw two interceptions.
Covid is the variable that is out of a team's control in every sport.
The typical factors that separate winners from losers, such as superior coaching, talent, depth, conditioning and motivation, are negated to a significant degree by the unpredictable nature of the virus.
More than 500 NFL players tested positive for the virus in December, which is approximately one-quarter of the players in the league.
On Jan. 1, Jacksonville listed a league-high 20 players on the reserve/Covid list.
The coronavirus is not going to halt its spread because the NFL postseason has arrived.
Few are going to remember any extenuating circumstances surrounding the claiming of an individual or team championship during the pandemic, including the Super Bowl.
The general belief will be that the playing field was level and the same rules applied to everyone.
However, the truth is that the stats and results produced during the last two years reflect inequity and imbalance.
By rights, it should be left to a tiny symbol in the record books to demonstrate that the problem was expansive.
Just like the virus.
Jim Caltagirone is a monthly contributor to Voice of the Fan. He resides in Altoona.