The Unthinkable: How Professional Sports Leagues Prepare for Catastrophes

“It is not one of our favorite topics, of course there are other things that we like to talk about more,” the NFL spokesperson told ESPN while his MLB counterpart did not feel particularly comfortable with the question either: “We have a plan.” , of course. But may God save us from having to use it.” That question set foot in a scenario that no one wants but that, unfortunately, has already happened. Not in American professional sports but in university sports. And also in other places in the world with teams that were lost in a dramatic way. What would happen, ESPN asked, if in the case of an air tragedy, an accident with fatal consequences, or another event that produced a similar result in a team. How would your league react? What options would a franchise have to rebuild itself after something similar.

Because options, plans, there are. Things that no one prefers to have to know, of course. Better that they remain forgotten. But they are there, in the regulations. In the middle of the pandemic, when the NBA was considering a restart while many voices were calling for the definitive cancellation of the 2019-20 season, the shadow of the doomsday provision appeared, something like a provision of the day of Judgment; article XXXIX of section 5 of the collective agreement, which allowed franchises to stop paying a percentage of their players’ salaries due to “force majeure” causes that included natural disasters, wars… and pandemics. It was not used, but its existence (unknown to almost everyone until that moment) overshadowed negotiations that in any case ended, as we know, with a successful restart in the Florida bubble.

In American professional sports there have been no dramatic disasters that have affected teams, cases such as the Superga tragedy of 1949, in which 18 Torino players died, or the Manchester United accident in 1958 in which they lost their lives. eight members of the British team; Or the most recent in 2016, in which 71 people died, including all but three members of the Brazilian Chapecoense. Yes there have been, in the United States, in university sports. The worst claimed 37 Marshall University football players in 1970, a month after 14 Wichita State players also died in an accident. In 1977, fourteen Evansville basketball players died in the last tragedy until 2001, when a small propeller plane crashed in a mishap that killed all ten of its crew, eight related to the Oklahoma State basketball team (two players). and the two pilots. Inside the Cowboys pavilion there is a tribute place with a statue in memory of the ten deceased: remember the Ten.

In 1995, the Bulls feared for their safety on the team’s flights. During one of them, the players had to put on oxygen masks due to the depressurization of the cabin that followed the plane plummeting for several seconds. After one more incident, the president of the company that worked with the Bulls (and with twenty other professional franchises) had to get on one of their planes and make a trip (from Washington to Chicago) so that the players could see that if He did it because the thing was not so delicate.

In the NBA, disaster has never been closer than in 1960, when the Lakers (still Minneapolis Lakers, just a year before the move to Los Angeles) caught a flight (on January 18) that had to make a forced landing , a matter of life or death, after one in the morning in a cornfield in Carroll, Iowa. In the middle of a blizzard flying over a storm, the plane (a DC-3) had an electrical problem and lost its way to Minnesota. The pilot, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, managed to save the situation in what became known as “the cornfield miracle.” There were 23 passengers on board, the entire Lakers staff.

If a competition were to face a catastrophic tragedy in one of those teams, there are extraordinary measures that include holding a contingency or disaster draft, a disaster draft in which the affected franchise could choose players from the rest of the team. competition. That is in the event that this was agreed upon by the commissioner and that it was decided to try to continue competitively in that season since there is also, of course, the possibility that that team would stop playing until the following year.

From MLB to NBA and NFL

The MLB included regulations for these exceptional cases in its rule book for professional baseball. In the event that there are five or more “dead, disabled or dismembered” players on a team, and if you want to facilitate their continuity in that season, a draft (restocking draft) could be held in which you could choose as many players as you have lost. without being able to take more than one from each of the other teams. That is, only one per franchise and with a range by positions that the commissioner would have to approve and apply. Each team would make five (always from its active list, not injured or suspended) at the disposal of that draft. The rest of his squad would be untouchable. From these rules, which have never had to be applied (luckily) for the tragic use that originated them, came the basis of the expansion drafts that were later used in American sports to feed players to the franchises created from scratch when The Leagues decided (the NBA will do it again in the medium term, it seems obvious now) to expand their number of teams.

In the NBA, the rule says that for these contingency rules to apply there must be a minimum of five dead or dismembered players. In that disaster draft, if it is the chosen option, the rest of the teams will be able to protect five players, who would become untouchable. The rest could be selected, also with a maximum of one per franchise.

In the rest of the professional League there are also similar situations considered. In the NFL, for example, two different situations are separated: the “near disaster,” when there are fewer than 15 players affected, or the disaster, if there are fifteen or more. In the first scenario, special drafts would not be used in any case. The team would have preference throughout the season to acquire players via waivers (fired by other teams). Yes, he could get a quarterback from another team (two, in fact) if one of the affected players played in that position and always looking for rosters with three available quarterbacks. Those teams could protect two and leave exposed a third who would also return to his original team for the following season. In case of disaster, there would be a draft with the rest of the teams having the right to protect 32 players. If the commissioner chose to pause the activity of the team that has suffered the tragedy, it would automatically have the number 1 in the next conventional draft, once that season is over.

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2023-11-29 12:57:14
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