Sports are returning, but for how long?

On the night of March 7, with temperatures in Seattle hovering around 50 degrees, in front of a crowd of 33,080 at Centurylink Field, the Crew stood toe-to-toe with the defending MLS Cup champions. The game against the Sounders ended in a 1-1 draw.

It was an excellent showing for the visitors from Columbus. It titillated Crew fans as they watched from their favorite soccer bars in Grandview, the University District, German Village, Downtown and other corners of the city. This was but a few days before the sports world paused.

At the time, there were 437 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 19 deaths from the virus in the whole of the United States.

Four months later, the Ohio Department of Health on Thursday reported its count of COVID-19 cases was up to 10,879 and the number of deaths from the virus was up to 439 — in Franklin County alone.

On Saturday, the Crew returns to play after a 126-day sheltering. The Crew will face FC Cincinnati in a rejoining of the Hell is Real rivalry. The game is the first for the Ohio teams in the MLS is Back tournament, being played on the Walt Disney World campus near Orlando, Florida. Kickoff is 10:30 p.m. on FS1.

The MLS tournament started Wednesday. The National Women’s Soccer League’s Challenge Cup tournament began late last month. WNBA players have reported to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for their restart. NBA players are entering the Orlando bubble as you read this.

The Blue Jackets are to open their Columbus training camp Monday. They’ll fly to a Toronto bubble sometime around July 25. The NHL’S playoff tournament — Phase 4 of the league’s Return to Play plan — is scheduled to begin on July 31 or Aug. 1.

For weeks, European soccer leagues have had the airwaves to themselves. Now, amid the doldrums on another continent, the return of American pro sports is coming in gusts. Hell is Real is about to get real again. Seth Jones’ ankle injury is healed and, as far as we know, his coronavirus test results have been negative. Bring on Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Word is percolating that the NHL may broadcast as many as six games a day, staggered from its hubs in Toronto and Edmonton. We could have hockey from noon to midnight for the first two glorious weeks of the tournament. August Madness! Nielsen, the TV ratings outfit, is going to need bigger calculators.

It’ll all work, right? It has worked with the European soccer leagues, right? There have been a few hitches — but there they are, running around in empty stadiums on the HDTV, keeping score.

The thing is, Europe has crushed their virus curves and we have not.

The U.S. leads the world in COVID-19 cases and related deaths. The U.S. accounts for about 4.2% of the world’s population and 26% of its overall cases, 23% of its new cases, 24% of its deaths and 36% of its active cases. The U.S. is the superpower of hot spots. It has six times the rate of cases per million compared to the rest of the world.

The NWSL has provided a successful template. It has only eight teams in its Utah bubble; one team, the Orlando Pride, was ordered to stay home before play got underway.

Its tournament is of a small scale compared to others — so its rules were and are easier to enforce. Pretournament protocols for testing, contact tracing and judging exposures were clear and stringent. The Challenge Cup has moved along smoothly and drawn record ratings on CBS All Access.

By comparison, the MLS tournament has been a mess. Two teams, FC Dallas and the new Nashville club, have been sent home after being tested in Orlando. The group stage had to be rejiggered on the fly.

According to the epidemiologists I’ve spoken with, the MLS plan has loopholes that can be exploited by this very tricky virus. The quarantining period within the bubble was cut in half. The propensity for tests to show false negatives had not been taken well enough into account. Florida is among the hottest hot spots in America. And so forth.

Unlike the NWSL, MLS doesn’t have a clearly defined policy for halting or calling off its tournament. It just has commissioner Don Garber saying he will do so if he deems it appropriate.

The NHL and NBA have the advantage of more lead time — and the NHL has the bonus of playing in Canada, which has crushed the virus — but their policies for assessing danger are equally nebulous.

How sick is too sick? Gary Bettman will let us know.

Rapture awaits as we look forward to watching something other than reruns of the World Series of Poker. Just be prepared for more poker. marace@dispatch.com @Michaelarace1

A global pandemic prevents large, indoor gatherings such as the one that annually honors central Ohio’s top high school scholar-athletes. But that won’t stop this year’s Dispatch and Encova Insurance scholars from being celebrated.

A total of 201 seniors from the class of 2020 will be honored at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in a Scholar Athletes Awards

NFL players banned from exchanging jerseys after games

NFL teams will be prohibited from postgame interactions within 6 feet of each other, which means players won’t be allowed to exchange jerseys after games as part of the guidelines to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The restrictions are outlined in the game day protocols finalized by the league and NFL Players Association on Wednesday. Among the other rules are:

• Players and coaches are not required to wear masks, but everyone else on the sideline is.

• Anyone who records a body temperature at or above 100.4 degrees on game day will not be permitted to enter the stadium.

• On-field fan seating is prohibited. • Cheerleaders, mascots, flag runners and other entertainers must be approved by the NFL in advance and, if approved, must meet physical distancing and screening and testing requirements.

• Media is banned from the locker room.

San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman wrote on Twitter: “This is a perfect example of NFL thinking in a nutshell. Players can go engage in a full contact game and do it safely. However, it is deemed unsafe for them to exchange jerseys after said game.”

The league and the players’ union still haven’t agreed on testing and screening protocols.

Browns will allow ticket holders to skip 2020 season

The Cleveland Browns told their season-ticket holders they can opt out of the 2020 season without penalty and other plans related to the COVID-19 virus and its impact on the NFL.

The Browns also said anyone attending a game at Firstenergy Stadium will have to follow physical-distancing guidelines and wear “mandated facial coverings.”

The team did not say how many fans will be allowed in the 67,000-seat stadium.

Giants catcher Posey opts out of playing this season

San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey became the latest big-name player to skip this season because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, announcing his decision Friday.

The six-time All-star said his family finalized the adoption of identical twin girls this week. The babies were born prematurely, and Posey said after consultations with his wife and doctor he decided to opt out of the season.

Cindric wins Xfinity race in OT at Kentucky Speedway

Austin Cindric won the first of two NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Kentucky, charging past Chase Briscoe on an overtime restart Thursday night for his first victory of the season and first of his career on an oval.

TV special on WBNS-TV (Ch. 10).

In the course of the 30-minute show, scholar-athletes from 106 participating area high schools will be recognized, and $78,000 in scholarships will be awarded from presenting sponsor Encova Insurance, as well as Ohiohealth, Battelle and the family of Capt. Warren B. Sneed.

This year marks the 39th year of the

Indians outfielder Franmil Reyes, who was kept away from the team for a few days after being around people on the Fourth of July and not wearing a mask

The race ended up going 204 miles. A 300-miler is set for Friday night in the series’ first doubleheader at the track in Sparta, Kentucky.

Rookie Riley Herbst was second in a Toyota, followed by Ross Chastain in a Chevy, Briscoe in a Ford and Michael Annett in a Chevy.

Jimenez shoots 65 to take lead at Austrian Open

Miguel Angel Jimenez moved into position to break his own record as the oldest winner of a European Tour event when the 56-year-old Spaniard shot 7-under-par 65 to take the secondround lead in the Austrian Open in Atzenbrugg on Friday.

He was 11 under par overall, two shots clear of five players: Joost Luiten (70), Marc Warren (69), Craig Howie (69), Renato Paratore (67) and Nicolai von Dellingshausen (67).

Jimenez was 50 years, 133 days when he won the Open de Espana in 2014 to become the oldest winner on the tour.

Court filing alleges $400K paid to Williamson family in ’18

The legal fight over NBA rookie Zion Williamson’s endorsement potential now includes an allegation that his family received $400,000 from a marketing

Dispatch’s Scholar Athlete program. In that time, The Dispatch and its corporate partners have awarded more than $1 million in scholarships.

The show also can be streamed at the website scholarathleteawards.com.

In addition, a special section celebrating the 2020 scholar-athletes will be printed and distributed in editions of The Dispatch on Saturday, July 25. agency before his lone season at Duke.

Prime Sports Marketing and company president Gina Ford filed a lawsuit last summer in a Florida state court, accusing Williamson and the agency now representing him of breach of contract. That came a week after Williamson filed his own lawsuit in a North Carolina federal court to terminate a five-year contract with Prime Sports after moving to Creative Artists Agency LLC.

In court filings Thursday in North Carolina, Ford’s attorneys included a sworn affidavit from a California man who said the head of a Canadian-based firm called Maximum Management Group told him he paid Williamson’s family for his commitment to sign with MMG once he left Duke for the NBA.

ASSOCIATED PRESS