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Navigating Sports Action Amid A Global Pandemic

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Pandemic or no pandemic, European soccer goes on and successfully crowned its latest club champion over the weekend.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CLIVE TYLDESLEY: Joshua to the far post. And the header is in by Kingsley Coman. Breakthrough for Bayern Munich. And the goal scorer is a Parisian.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Bayern Munich beat Paris Saint-Germain, 1-nothing, in the Champions League Final. The tournament is played each year between Europe's top club teams. Stadium fans, though, were absent for Sunday's global event. Cheers, boos - they were all piped into the broadcast. CBS Sports broadcaster Clive Tyldesley described the scene this way.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TYLDESLEY: In any other year, the scale of the event would present a unique test of the temperament of those not familiar with such occasions. I guess the eerie, empty stadium is a less intimidating, less nerve-wracking setting for this, the ultimate game.

INSKEEP: Now, how do you do all this safely? Well, the organization that oversees the Champions League, the Union of European Football Associations, issued a 31-page set of safety guidelines. It included this about a time-honored tradition after the game. Players are recommended to refrain from swapping their shirts.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARC MOSER: MacKinnon in the high spot. Shoots - he scores.

(SOUNDBITE OF HORN HONKING)

MOSER: The Avalanche come right back - a minute, four seconds. After the Tyler Seguin goal, we are tied at one.

GREENE: As we're hearing there, professional sports go on in the U.S. as well - sort of. Hockey's in the middle of playoffs, like the game there between the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars. Baseball has been back as well with no fans for a month now. Some games have been postponed because of positive coronavirus cases. It is playoff time in the NBA, with players keeping inside a bubble in Florida to avoid exposure.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MIKE BREEN: Doncic pulls up - three pointer. Bang. Bang. It's good. Doncic wins the game at the buzzer.

(CHEERING)

INSKEEP: The NFL is set to begin games next month. Daily COVID-19 testing turned up some positives for teams over the weekend. The NFL is investigating several false positive results from a New Jersey lab. Avery Williams (ph), a linebacker for the New York Jets, told ESPN, this is all kind of, quote, "crazy." But, he says, I just hope we can stay as clean as possible.

(SOUNDBITE OF STAGE KIDS' "12:14:16") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.