A few thoughts today, sports fans, on masks.
We are eight months into this coronavirus pandemic, and some of us still refuse to wear a mask in public. Are you kidding me?
Public health experts tell us every day that washing our hands frequently, social distancing and wearing a face covering will slow the spread of COVID-19, the virus that has killed 213,000 Americans. Think of sold-out Fenway Park for six games, and that’s how many of us have died.
Still, some of us refuse to wear a mask. Until he spent last weekend at Walter Reed Military Medical Center with COVID-19, President Trump didn’t wear a mask. And the first thing he did when he returned to the White House Monday evening was slip the band from his right ear, then his left, and stuff the mask into his jacket pocket. Some example.
Dozens of attendees at the White House lawn party for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett were maskless. Close to a dozen, including the president of Notre Dame, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, are now infected. White House staffers, maskless for months, have become infected.
In Sports World, even the mighty are vulnerable. Cam Newton and Stephon Gilmore of the Patriots have it. The Titans have it. MLB’s Florida Marlins had it big time in July. Yet we still refuse to don a mask when we go out.
People, this is about safety, not vanity. Learn a lesson from the pros, for whom safety is a necessity. Football players wore primitive face masks, or nose guards, 90 years ago. Clear Lucite bars were screwed to leather helmets in the early 1950s. With the advent of plastic helmets in the late ‘50s and Lucite’s tendency to shatter, single bars became popular among quarterbacks and kickers, Double and triple bars preceded the cages we are familiar with today. Clear plastic panels behind the bars provide further protection and safety.
Baseball catchers have worn masks for 144 years. Alexander Tyng of Harvard wore the first, a modified fencing mask, in 1876. Over the decades the bird-cage look evolved to the Darth Vader helmets favored by many catchers today. Still, a mask protects the mug.
According to USA Hockey, goalies have worn masks since 1927. Elizabeth Graham of Queens University in Kingston, Ont., was the first, a woman ahead of her time. She wanted to protect her teeth. Clint Bennett wore a nose guard for a few hockey games n 1930. Teiji Honma of Japan packed a wire-cage mask for the 1936 Winter Olympics in Germany. Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante took a puck to the face in a 1959 game, got stitched and returned to the ice only on the condition that he could wear the homemade fiberglass mask he had used in practice. That mask and Plante are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Gerry Cheevers of the Bruins defined the most prominent fiberglass mask of the early 1970s. He had the B’s trainer paint stitches on the mask every time a puck or stick hit him in the face. Before long the white mask was covered with black stitches. Also in the ‘70s, Ken Dryden’s brother Dave added a cage to the fiberglass mask, and the great Russian goalie Vladislav Tretiak screwed a cage to a hockey helmet. The cage better protected the goalie’s eyes. Goalie masks today are hybrids. Part helmet, part cage. The colors and designs are stunning.
NBA players have worn clear plastic masks for three decades to protect facial injuries. Bill Laimbeer of the Pistons was the first in 1990. Kobe Bryant, Richard Hamilton, and LeBron James also have worn plastic.
So what’s the big deal about masks when all of us are at risk? Our sports heroes wear masks for protection. Shouldn’t we?
