Still, all this is hardly the extent of what leagues could be doing to pull their weight during this disorienting, scary stage of the pandemic. The most useful thing they could do is what restaurants, music venues, and some office buildings are doing across the country: requiring proof of vaccination for all fans in attendance. Only one NFL team, the New Orleans Saints, will make fans show vaccination cards or proof of a negative test, and they’re going that far only because the mayor has mandated it; many teams, including the New York Giants, have explicitly said they won’t do so. The NFL’s official policy has a “Fan Health Promise,” which makes all ticket holders “agree” to not attend a game if they’ve had a positive COVID test in the previous 14 days and haven’t been vaccinated. In the NHL, only the Winnipeg Jets are requiring vaccines for fans.

This is particularly frustrating to see in college football, which has a fan base heavily concentrated in the South. Not many policies in the South would make vaccination numbers shoot up faster than mandating vaccines at big venues across the region. Kyle Field, Texas A&M’s stadium, holds 102,733 fans; Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium holds 102,455. There are 102,077 at Alabama; there are 93,246 here in Athens, Georgia. It’s highly unlikely that the policy will be enacted. After all, none of those universities is requiring vaccinations for its students, let alone its football fans. The only top-tier team currently requiring fans to be vaccinated is Tulane, which falls under the same city policy as the Saints. But if teams — not only in college football but in the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL — truly wanted to make a difference, they would start treating their fans as they are starting, at last, to treat their players and employees: If you want to be a part of this, get your shot.