Game Changed: 10 Ways Sports Will Be Different

When sports do return, there are some changes that the coronavirus pandemic has forced that could be permanent.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Frequently before games, Aaron Rodgers takes a moment to pose for a photo with a Make-A-Wish kid.

One of those moments came in 2014, when he met Kellan Meinke, a boy with a condition so rare that it doesn’t even have a name. Meinke spent two days with the team – Saturday’s practice and Sunday’s blowout victory over Chicago – with highlights including a conversation about dinosaurs with Rodgers. Offensive linemen T.J. Lang and Josh Sitton worked on fumble recoveries with him.

Perhaps because of the COVID-19 pandemic, those wishes no longer will come true.

In Tuesday’s SI.com Daily Cover, L. Jon Wertheim and Stephanie Apstein deliver 10 ways our competitive landscape will look different due to COVID-19. No. 7 on the list is the impact on Make-A-Wish Kids.

In a typical year, the foundation says, it fulfills some 500 sports-related wishes for children with serious illnesses. Usually the kids want to attend the NBA Finals or take batting practice at Yankee Stadium or meet Aaron Rodgers. The nonprofit’s top wish-granter is WWE star John Cena, who has met with more than 650 children. But these days most wishes are on hold. Kids who want a gaming computer or an in-home recording studio can still have theirs granted, but anything involving travel or being around other people has to wait. The organization has already postponed about 2,400 wishes; by the end of summer that number will be closer to 5,000. That’s especially painful for children who don’t have the luxury of time.

Make-A-Wish has set the most critical up with video calls with their heroes, and staffers have noted with surprise and delight that some have stretched to 45 minutes or an hour. Through another organization, Cena even paid an in-person visit—wearing a mask and gloves, of course—to a seven-year-old with kidney cancer who lives near his Tampa home.

The most vulnerable children will not be able to take batting practice in the Bronx any time soon. That means, for the foreseeable future, a lot of Zoom calls with Aaron Judge.

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