I have been gathering the ingredients this week for my annual family Super Bowl party, which occurs on Sunday between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Between the pandemic and virtue signaling, it appears that it is challenging to fill up the stadium, so the National Football League gave away tickets to vaccinated healthcare workers.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced today that the NFL is inviting approximately 7,500 vaccinated health care workers to Super Bowl LV as guests of the NFL to thank and honor them for their continued extraordinary service during the pandemic.The majority of these health care workers — all of whom will have received both doses of the vaccine — will come from hospitals and health care systems in the Tampa and central Florida area. They will receive free Super Bowl tickets and gameday experiences directly from the NFL. All 32 NFL clubs will select vaccinated health care workers from their communities to attend the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay on Sunday, Feb 7.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control issued some fun new guidelines for viewers at home and for those lucky enough to live in states where they can watch the game at a sports bar.
Here are some of the official suggestions, including one to avoid cheering:
- Avoid shouting, cheering loudly, or singing. Clap, stomp your feet, or bring (or provide) hand-held noisemakers instead.
- Keep background music volume low so guests don’t need to shout.
- Have one person serve all the food.
- Offer no-touch trash cans for guests to easily throw away food items
The long list of official rules includes social distancing, avoiding poorly ventilated areas, and masks, masks, masks!
- Wear a mask with two or more layers to stop the spread of COVID-19 to protect yourself and others.
- Wear your mask over your nose and mouth, secure it under your chin, and make sure it fits snugly against the sides of your face.
- Masks should be worn indoors and outdoors except when eating or drinking.
- In cold weather, wear your mask under your scarf, ski mask, or balaclava.
- Keep a spare mask in case your mask becomes wet from moisture in your breath or from snow or rain.
Remember when these same experts insisted it was 15-days to flatten the curve? We now have had over 20 of those 15-day cycles.
Adding to the insanity, two Kansas City Chief players are on the COVID reserve list because of contact with a barber.
Less than a week before the Super Bowl, the Chiefs have a pair of players on the reserve/COVID-19 list because of high-risk close contacts.Their close contact?A barber.A barber tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and gave wide receiver Demarcus Robinson and backup center Daniel Kilgore haircuts, a source confirmed to The Star. The NFL Network first reported the news.
Robinson and Kilgore have tested negative and were wearing masks while getting haircuts, as was the barber. If they continue to test negative, they can return to the team in time for the Super Bowl. But they have been held out of practice while on the reserve/COVID-19 list this week. They were placed on the list Monday.
As Super Bowl LV is being held in Tampa this year, adult entertainment venues have been preparing with pandemic upgrades to their facilities as Tampa’s Mayor mandates more mask-wearing.
“We’re open and we’re going to stay open,” Joe Redner, owner of the legendary Mons Venus, told The Post. “Our employees say they feel safer here than they do at home, because we have masks, disinfectant and we installed UV lights in the ductwork. But this is a new experience for me: a Super Bowl in a pandemic.”While Florida has been generally less Draconian with its restrictions than other states, the city of Tampa requires face coverings in any indoor business, and last week, Mayor Jane Castor extended the mask mandate to outdoor areas where people are expected to gather for Super Bowl-related events.
The next Super Bowl is slated for Los Angeles. Hopefully, by then, California will be done with draconian restrictions and the LA area free from significant diseases…including typhoid and typhus.
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