The President is hospitalized with COVID-19 and the SMU student section still doesn't get it

This isn’t working, and it’s hard to say what will.

If the President of the United States, the person who would figure to be most insulated and protected from harm at a level beyond anyone else on Earth, is in the hospital with COVID-19, it should be a blinking neon light to everyone who hasn’t taken it seriously, “YES! CORONAVIRUS IS REAL AND IT’S A BIG DEAL! ALSO, THIS IS AN AWFUL LOT OF NEON! CLEARLY THE NEON LIGHT COMPANY IS JUST RUNNING UP THE PRICE ON THIS SIGN!”

Like, he might still die. That’s a real possibility. The words “ not yet out of the woods” were used and approved by a man who has dismissed, ignored, or flat-out mocked the severity of the pandemic at every turn. It’s not just the flu, and it’s not no big deal, and it’s not going away as long as people keep acting like, well, this.

The student section at SMU got cleared out by police, but not before they had a chance to share all their germs with each other. In a statement, the school said it had “consulted with local government and health officials on our continued commitment to social distancing and masking to provide a healthy game day experience.”

The way to provide a healthy game day experience right now is to stay the hell home and watch on television. There were 3,346 new cases of COVID in Texas on Saturday, the fifth straight day over 2,000 in a state that hasn’t had fewer than a thousand new infections in a day since June 8. As of Saturday, 83 percent of hospital beds in Texas were occupied. They’re not a huge spike away from the dire situation the state faced in July, and flu season is approaching.

But the state of Texas is run by Greg Abbott, who’s too busy suppressing votes to care. The lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, said in April that “there are more important things than living,” although oddly he has so far refused to lead by example and live up to his words by dying. Just for good measure of the state’s top brass, the attorney general, Ken Paxton, now stands accused of “improper influence, abuse of office, bribery, and other potential criminal offenses.”

These are the people who are allowing crowds at games, while states run with borderline competence are not. Guess which one Georgia is.

A lot of cities’ sports media have a reputation for running players out of town, but it’s not every day that the actual mayor does it. Well, Pittsburgh’s Bill Peduto wants to know if it would be possible to get Matt Murray and Jack Johnson out of his city.

WHAT’S ON TV?

6 AM ET

French Open (Tennis Channel)

9 AM ET

Fulham at Wolves (NBCSN)

11:30 AM ET

Tottenham Hotspur at Manchester United (NBCSN)

Noon ET

North Carolina at Duke field hockey (ACC Network)

Intercontinental GT Challenge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (CBS Sports Network)

1:00 PM ET

NFL RedZone (NFL RedZone)

1:30 PM ET

Boston College at Louisville field hockey (ACC Network)

2:00 PM ET

NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega (NBC)

PBR Bull Riding at Lincoln, Nebraska (CBS Sports Network)

2:15 PM ET

Liverpool at Aston Villa (NBCSN)

2:30 PM ET

NHRA Drag Racing at St. Louis (FS1)

3:00 PM ET

WNBA Finals Game 2: Storm vs. Aces (ABC)

Miami at Virginia women’s soccer (ACC Network)

Texas A&M at Arkansas women’s soccer (SEC Network)

5:00 PM ET

Clemson at Duke women’s soccer (ACC Network)

Alabama at Florida women’s soccer (SEC Network)

7:30 PM ET

NBA Finals Game 3: Lakers vs. Heat (ABC)

8:20 PM ET

Eagles at 49ers (NBC)

10:00 PM ET

Guadalajara at Tijuana (FS1)