Monday Night Is Missing Its Mojo

Green Bay (4-0) beat Atlanta in an empty Lambeau Field, one of two games Monday night in an N.F.L. that keeps plowing headlong into the pandemic.

There were fireworks but no fans when the Falcons came calling at Lambeau Field.Credit…Joshua Mellin for The New York Times

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By Joe Drape

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The hospitals here are nearing capacity with coronavirus patients. The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese has told his flock that they can stay home and did not have to attend Sunday Mass. Gov. Tony Evers was even more direct about the grip the pandemic has on his state.

He implored his citizens to stay at home.

“We’re losing people,” Evers, a Democrat, said over the weekend. “The death rate is increasing. This is a time to double down as a state; we cannot afford to allow this to rage out of control.”

Inside Lambeau Field on Monday night, however, the N.F.L. show went on: The Packers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 30-16, before no fans.

There were no cheesehead wearing rowdies in the bleachers. Aaron Jones did not take a Lambeau leap into the front rows behind the end zone when he scored Green Bay’s first touchdown. Nor did Robert Tonyan Jr., after catching three more scoring passes from Aaron Rodgers.

The N.F.L. is a made-for-television spectacle these days: three hours of packaged razzmatazz broadcast from mostly empty stadiums.

Inside, Lambeau is a messy sound stage. Barricades and trash cans are stacked akimbo on its concourses. A skeleton screw of security personnel directs no one.

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