On March 11, 2020, the National Basketball Association suspended its season after a player tested positive for COVID-19. Within days, the rest of the sports world similarly suspended play in the wake of the pandemic. This study focuses on sports media storytelling when covering athletic competition was no longer an option. Utilizing four distinct time periods and framing theory as the foundation of our theoretical framework, the content analysis examined shifts from the normal reporting routine and how those shifts morphed as pandemic information dictated. As the pandemic grew more widespread, health and safety became the predominant focus of national sports media. In spring 2020, sports news experienced a significant shift in coverage as economic and fairness frames were replaced with health, safety, and quality of life as the principal frames in the coded articles. By pinpointing the major differences in coverage across time, the study revealed that sports content and frames quickly shifted to reflect the perceived severity to the global health community, while the sources used in those articles stayed largely the same. The theoretical and applied implications of the study are discussed.

2020 年 3 月 11 日，在一名球员的 COVID-19 检测呈阳性后，美国国家篮球协会暂停了本赛季的比赛。几天之内，其他体育界也因疫情而暂停了比赛。这项研究的重点是当报道体育比赛不再是一种选择时，体育媒体的故事讲述。利用四个不同的时间段和框架理论作为我们理论框架的基础，内容分析研究了正常报告例程的变化以及这些变化如何随着大流行信息的指示而变化。随着疫情蔓延范围扩大，健康和安全成为国家体育媒体的主要焦点。2020 年春季，体育新闻的报道经历了重大转变，经济和公平框架被健康、安全和生活质量取代，成为编码文章的主要框架。通过查明不同时期报道的主要差异，该研究表明，体育内容和框架迅速发生变化，以反映全球健康界所感知的严重性，而这些文章中使用的来源基本保持不变。讨论了该研究的理论和应用意义。