President Donald Trump shot down infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci’s suggestion that the NFL season may not happen this year.
However, Trump added that he will not be tuning in if the players are not standing for the national anthem.
Trump wrote on Twitter, “Tony Fauci has nothing to do with NFL Football. They are planning a very safe and controlled opening. However, if they don’t stand for our National Anthem and our Great American Flag, I won’t be watching!!!”
His remark comes after Fauci’s remarks shown on CNN Friday where the expert said that he does not think there will be an NFL season this year.
Fauci said, “Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall.”
The expert also noted, “If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”
Football may not happen this year, Dr. Anthony Fauci tells @drsanjaygupta.
— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) June 18, 2020
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble – insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day – it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall.” pic.twitter.com/mDcTRMBucU
Already, people have gone months without sports and the Olympic Games, which were supposed to begin in late July in Tokyo but have been pushed back to 2021.
The Major League Baseball season would already be well underway if it were not for the coronavirus pandemic. However, the league and the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (the players’ union) are currently in a negotiating standstill about how to salvage a season this fall.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has even cited Fauci when discussing how the season might be played, saying, “Fauci says we shouldn’t be playing in October, and the proposal contemplates lengthening the season.”
Fauci and Trump regularly appeared together at the White House podium during the coronavirus. However, those daily briefings with the White House Coronavirus Task Force have gone away and Fauci recently said that it has been two weeks since he spoke to the president.