RUSH: Here’s Steve in Boca Raton, Florida. Great to have you, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello. How are you today, Rush?

RUSH: Good. Thank you, sir.

CALLER: Been a long time. First time I ever heard you was driving Highway 99 from Sacramento to Fresno back in 1980.

RUSH: Wow. I mean, you’re going back before lifer days.

CALLER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s been a long time. Well, now I’m down in Florida like you are. But I’ll tell you why I’m calling. I see all this craziness going around, and I just keep thinking to myself with 40 million people unemployed and people running on the streets, what I really feel would help is if we had sporting events again like baseball, like basketball, like something that takes people’s minds off of it.

The American people need sporting events. There’s nothing for them. Nothing to occupy their time except the pandemic, except race riots, except negativity. Nothing gets their minds off of it. Nothing. So I really think it would be very important if somehow, some way, we can get sporting events back again to at least help people alleviate something off their minds.

RUSH: Well, do you think that it’s possible right now to, say, play an NBA season or a Major League Baseball or a partial or to start the NFL in September?

CALLER: I think that you could start basketball. I think you can do social distancing. I don’t think you have to sell every seat. I think you can do some kind of social distancing —

RUSH: Have you seen the guidelines for baseball? No spitting? Do you realize that’s impossible to enforce, no spitting, no crotch grabbing? Those guys gotta reposition the cups.

CALLER: No, no. That can’t be. They have to stop it. You always bring up the point, and you’re so right — the whole thing was that we got into the lockdown because we were afraid of hospital (unintelligible).

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Now we have plenty of hospital rooms. My God, there are hospital rooms that are empty. All right, they’re laying people off. We don’t have that problem anymore. Let’s face facts. People are going to get sick. Most people survive. They’re fine. Most people like me who are a little bit older, we have to be a little more cautious. But we’ve gotta learn to live with this. We cannot destroy it, so we’ve gotta learn to live with it or else we’re gonna destroy ourselves.

RUSH: Yeah. And, believe me, there are people hoping to benefit from that, Steve. Now, I saw a piece today in a Millennial publication called Axios on the NBA plan to return to action at Disney World in Orlando. And I looked at the requirements and how they’re gonna do it. They’re gonna allow a, you know, 40 people per team, up 17 players, and then support staff. I’m telling you right now, I don’t see how the guidelines and the procedures they’ve set up can possibly work.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. The NBA. The NBA details life inside it’s Disney World bubble. I can’t go through all this. It’s very detailed. But I want to go through enough of this so that you all hearing it can ask yourselves, can this really work? These are guidelines for 40 people. Every team will be comprised of a 40-person traveling party. Fifteen to 17 players. You got a PR person. You got medical people. You got coaches and so forth. So 40 people. They’re all going to be at a different resort at Disney World for the entirety of the season.

Players will be tested for COVID-19 regularly. When somebody tests positive, they’re in isolation for 14 days. Once they test negative twice in a span of more than 24 hours, they can leave isolation. The NBA will use video to help with contact tracing. Anybody who is within six feet of somebody who tested positive for at least 15 minutes or had direct contact with infectious secretions and excretions — i.e., was coughed on — will be considered a close contact and also have to be tested. Everybody’s gonna be videotaped at every moment of their lives in these resorts.

Players and staff will have the option to use wearable rings that track their temperature, their heart rate, their respiration rate, and other variables. They will also display an illness probability score, the rings. Mask usage will be required indoors except when eating or when in an individual’s room. During games, players, referees, bench players, and coaches in the first row of seating will not be required to wear a mask. Why not? If they gotta wear a mask every other time — “Well, Rush, you can’t play basketball wearing a mask. It would impair the breathing.”

I thought this was to protect people getting the virus. The mask did that. What the — let me continue. The NBA will establish an anonymous hotline to report violations with discipline ranging from fines to suspensions to removal from campus. Players will be told to not spit. Players will be told not to clear their noses. Not to clear their noses? They will not be permitted to wipe the ball with their jerseys. They will not be permitted to lick their hands or touch their mouths unnecessarily while playing.

Now, a player will automatically twirl the ball up against his belly while holding it in his hands. It’s a common move. But if he does that, he’s in violation and could be fined. Key dates. June 22nd deadline for players to report to home cities. June 23rd to 30th, players begin being tested. June 24th, deadline for players to inform their teams whether they plan to participate in the return-to-play plan. July 1st through 11th, mandatory individual workouts at team facilities. July 7th through 21st, teams travel to Disney World.

Once they arrive, they will self-isolate in hotel rooms for up to 48 hours until they have two negative tests. July 22 through 29 teams play three scrimmages against other teams staying at same hotel. July 31st to October 13, the games are played, and once the first round of playoffs ends, each of the remaining eight teams can reserve 15 to 17 additional hotel rooms for guests. Teams will stay at three resorts based on seating. Each team will have a travel party of 37 people. I said 40. Anyway, I’m up against it on time. Folks, I’m barely halfway through the restrictions.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Living conditions for the NBA, for all teams that are gonna participate in fishing the season, teams will stay at three different resorts at Disney World. Each team will have a travel party of 37 people, 15 to 17 players, 18 to 20 support staff, a PR guy, and a content creator. The three resorts are The Grand Destino Tower at Coronado Springs, Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, and the Yacht Club Resort.

“There will be 24-hour VIP concierge, players-only lounge (TVs, gaming, card tables, ping pong),” ladies of the night. No, I’m just throwing that in. “mental health services, pools, barbers, manicurists, salon services, yoga, meditation.

“Each team will have a dedicated Disney culinary team and players will get ‘three freshly-prepared meals a day, and four meals a day on game days.'”

There will be free movie screenings from Disney before they’re ever released in a theater, which may never, ever happen again. The point is that the testing and the results for somebody tested positive, doing this for 37 people, then you add a baseball team with 25 players or an NFL team with 53 players plus support staff, you’re up to a group of a hundred there. Well, it’s a challenge to say the least.

Related Links
Axios: NBA Details Life Inside Its Disney World "Bubble"

        

                        

                        
                                                                        «The Real Story of "Aunt Jemima"                        
                                                

                                                        
                                        Wife of Longtime Listener Finally Sees the Light Herself»