Crowds During COVID: Why the Super Bowl shouldn’t have had so many audience members

After finishing up assignments from a Friday filled with lectures over WebEx, I was shocked when I tuned into the Super Bowl on Sunday and saw the stands packed with people. Despite pushing through my sophomore year almost entirely online, it was apparently fine to have a sporting event with 25,000 spectators. 

For nearly a year now, people have been losing jobs, isolating from their friends, pursuing their education online and completely restructuring their lives due to the pandemic. 

Protecting our health will always be more important than any Lombardi trophy — period. And I’m not saying there shouldn’t be sports going on right now, but I’m definitely saying they shouldn’t be going on with that large of an audience. 

It’s possible to host sporting events right now and it’s important to a lot of people as well — especially with how large of a role sports play in the entertainment industry. 

Since the beginning of COVID, people have made it possible to do things from home — they’ve done at-home workouts, watched newly-released films from their home TV and tuned into their home team’s game. There’s even been the option to purchase a custom cardboard cutout of their family and friends to be displayed in the stands. 

But why, all of the sudden, did people have to gather for the Super Bowl in such large quantities? Yes, it’s the one of the most highly-anticipated and profitable events of the year for some, but the pandemic is quite the opposite. 

The large audience was not necessary as millions of students across the country are struggling to learn online and people are losing their jobs and motivation to mental health struggles. 

I’m not a huge football fan, but I also listen to public health officials and made the choice to stay home from a large gathering — as we all should’ve been doing for the past year.