Life is often a game of risk.

People don't like that, especially the supremely politically correct types. It doesn't make it less true. Adventuresome people take risks. Occasionally, those risks backfire but that's often a chance those types of people take. They crave the adrenaline, live for the experiences.

There are also what I call Meatloaf Monday types. Monday night is meatloaf night. It is served with mashed potatoes, lima beans and a roll. It is served at 6 p.m., not 5:57, not 6:03. Tuesday night is chicken night. It is served with rice and a salad and again, it is served at 6 p.m. No risk is taken. Ever.

I'm not saying one way is the right way or one way is the wrong way. Different people evaluate risk in different ways.

That's going to be, at least in my opinion, the necessary narrative of the 2020 football season. Players, coaches, administrators and fans are simply going to have to decide how much risk they're willing to take.

I'm asked all the time, "Will there be a football season?"

My answer, which has meandered over the past few months, is yes, there will absolutely be a football season. Ole Miss said as much in an email to fans this week, saying it planned for a full-capacity Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, while at the same time explaining to fans the protocols that would be taken if it was deemed necessary to limit capacity at games this fall.

I'm not an epidemiologist, so I won't sit here and tell you the coronavirus and COVID-19 are going away this summer. I can't tell you if there will or won't be a second wave. I don't know.

I do know this: It's out there and I've likely been exposed to it. So have you. The rumor on the proverbial Oxford streets is there has been a breakout of sorts at Ole Miss and in Oxford this week. Clinics were full of young people getting tested throughout the week. A medical person I spoke to wasn't remotely concerned. Young people, this medical person said, weren't getting sick. They were all asymptomatic. If anything, this medical person said, getting this over with this summer and out of the way before the school year begins is a positive development, no pun intended.

I agree. I'm 50. I'm fairly healthy. I exercise daily. Just yesterday, at the start of my. 30-minute Tabata ride with Ally Love, the virtual high-5s started rolling in. Turns out it was my 45th straight day of Peloton activity. In other words, I'm doing my part to try to keep my immune system strong. If I get COVID-19, it probably won't kill me. If it does, well, I guess it was just my time to go.

It's a risk I'll live with. Shutting society down is a mistake. It's just one guy's opinion, but we have to be willing to accept some risk. Open the stadiums. Make it very clear, via signage and on tickets, that there is risk and the stadium/school/franchise doesn't have liability. It's my opinion stadiums will socially distance themselves, especially early in the season. Some will be cautious and sit back and watch how things go early, and there's nothing wrong with that. Some will decide to sit this season out, watch the games from the comforts of home and breathe a little easier, and there's nothing wrong with that either. And some will go racing through the gates, eager to get back to something they love, and there's nothing wrong with those people either.

The season is going to get played. It has to be played financially. It's as simple as that. If there's no college football season, for example, I think some underestimate the financial damage that would befall towns like Oxford and schools like Ole Miss. Further, I think it has to be played for the overall mental health.

My field has milked this fear. It's been, at least in my opinion, irresponsible. Real damage has been done to mental health with very little consideration given to that particular risk. Football -- and sports in general -- represent normalcy. Sports always carry inherent risk.

The coronavirus just adds a new level of risk to be assessed.

I asked Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin Wednesday about his confidence level in the 2020 season occurring.

“I don’t know how confident I am,” Kiffin said. “That changes kind of weekly to me. I sometimes think, ‘Oh, it’s going to be fine because our kids are coming back here and starting to work out,’ and there are other times when I think, ‘How are we going to play if this is still going on?’”

Kiffin then painted a scenario where a team is down 15 players, including eight defensive backs, because the coronavirus infected the DB room in meetings.

“Now you all have no idea who’s playing that week or sitting for two weeks until you get more figured out,” Kiffin said. “Now, if a DB gets it, you may have to sit everyone in that DB room for two weeks. How do you play?”

That got me thinking about a conversation I had with another Power-5 football coach earlier this summer. The coach, who works in the Big Ten, told me this was going to be a challenging year for his profession. Coaches, he said, are hard-wired to look for competitive advantages and exploit them. They're hard-wired to win.

This season, for all of the reasons we've discussed over the past three-plus months, is not really about winning. This season is about simply finishing the race. Get the season in the books, get the TV money, mitigate the loss of gate revenue, put a Band-Aid on the bleeding and look to brighter days.

The answer to Kiffin's hypothetical, by the way, is limiting team gatherings as much as humanly possible. Be efficient with practices. Limit standing-around time. Conduct team meetings and positional meetings via Zoom. Be creative with roommate assignments on the road. Pray to whichever God you worship that all of that works.

It's the job of athletics directors around the country this fall to make that clear. The goal is to get the season in. Winning is simply a bonus. That's never been the case before and it may never be the case again, but this year, just making the finish line equates survival.

The NBA is going to resume its season in Orlando on July 30, with 22 teams returning to a bubble-like environment. Each team will play eight regular-season games and then the traditional 16-team playoffs will begin.

Not all of the NBA's players are thrilled, according to a story on ESPN.com published Thursday. From ESPN.com:

As players have started to come to terms with the restrictive and isolated nature of the Orlando bubble --- including no visitors until after the first round of the playoffs, nearly seven weeks after the opening of mid-July training camp -- there has been increased dialogue about the prudence of restarting the season for a number of players, especially those on non-championship contenders, sources said.

Executives and coaches around the NBA have had significant concerns about how players will adapt to an environment unlike any they've ever experienced and how those hurdles could impact the sustained competitive drive for teams. Many have worried, too, especially on teams that aren't title contenders, whether some players will start to seek avenues to bypass the resumption altogether.

Players are citing a number of concerns, including family situations, the inability to leave the Disney World Resort campus, the coronavirus pandemic and the implications surrounding the emergence of social justice causes in the country, sources said. Participants in Orlando -- including players -- will not be allowed to leave the bubble environment without a 10-day quarantine upon their return to the Disney grounds, sources said.

Players with medical issues that might put them in high-risk categories could seek an independent examination to learn whether they would be excused from participation, sources said. Even those told that they're fit to play would be allowed to bow out of Orlando, but without pay for the final eight regular-season games, sources said.

Players deciding against the Orlando resumption would not be paid for missed games, sources said. The league started withholding 25% of players' paychecks on June 15 because of the force majeure provision in the collective bargaining agreement that will repay teams for canceled games.

Players who decide against participating in Orlando could be replaced by a substitution player, sources told ESPN. The NBA plans to allow replacements for players who test positive for the coronavirus or suffer injuries, sources said. Those players who are replaced become ineligible for the rest of the 2019-20 season, sources said.

That story has drawn ridicule from some. It won't from me. I get it. For some players, it's too much risk. A bubble away from their families, playing amid a pandemic, isn't what they signed up for. Don't give me the military comparison, by the way. Signing with the Denver Nuggets is not akin to signing up for the Marines. If a player deems the risk or the familial inconvenience too great, I have no issue with that.

The NBA, apparently, doesn't either. Not to be repetitive, but the quest to crown a true champion died in March, despite public protests to the contrary. There are 900 million reasons the NBA is resuming and playing until someone wins The Finals. As it will be for college football, it's a unique season, even if no one wants to say so in so many words.