Inside The Vikings

Donald Trump, Gavin Newsom Give Conflicting Opinions About The Return of Sports

When will sports return? No one knows for sure.
Will Ragatz|
Donald Trump, Gavin Newsom Give Conflicting Opinions About The Return of Sports
Donald Trump, Gavin Newsom Give Conflicting Opinions About The Return of Sports

It has been several weeks since the last professional or collegiate sporting events took place in the United States. As the coronavirus pandemic spread throughout the country, sports were shut down along with many other facets of public life. When will they return? Quite frankly, no one knows. But given the way things look right now, it's not unreasonable to be concerned about college football and the NFL having their seasons affected by COVID-19.

On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom gave two contradicting opinions about football in the fall, with Trump expressing optimism and Newsom taking a more pessimistic stance.

Trump participated in a conference call with the commissioners of every major American sports league to discuss the leagues' responses to the coronavirus. During that call, Trump said that he believes the NFL should start on time in September, according to Adam Schefter and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. He also said that he hopes to have fans back in arenas by August and September.

"They want to get back. They've got to get back," Trump said of sports leagues during his daily briefing. "We want to get back soon. Very soon."

Newsom disagreed with the president's assessment of the future, which hasn't yet been supported by any medical experts.

"I'm not anticipating that happening in this state," Newsom said. "Our decision...will be determined by the facts, will be determined by the health experts, will be determined by our capacity to meet this moment, bend the curve and have the appropriate community surveillance and testing to confidently determine whether that's appropriate."

For more on this issue, check out the Sports Illustrated news story by Jenna West. Report: President Trump Thinks NFL Season Will Start on Time, CA Gov. Newsom Disagrees

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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