After a long time out, sports of all stripes are back. For lawyers who focus on representing clients in the multi-billion dollar industry, it's meant tackling a wide range of novel issues. You might say it's (wait for it … ) a whole new ball game.

"The first priority is player health," Winston & Strawn co-executive chairman Jeffrey Kessler, who also co-chairs the firm's sports law practice, told me.

Teams have had mixed success on this front.

For example, last week New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton tested positive for COVID-19, as did seven Tennessee Titans players and six of the team's personnel members.

Major League Baseball, which ended its regular season last week after a shortened 60-game schedule, has seen more than 100 players test positive since July, according to USA Today.

Meanwhile, pro basketball and hockey players successfully sequestered themselves in so-called bubbles, avoiding COVID infections among the athletes.

Kessler, whose firm represents players unions across multiple sports, said key questions have included "protocols for testing and how to handle players who wanted to opt out of the season" because they felt it was unsafe. According to ESPN, at least 128 athletes in the major American sports leagues have opted out, including more than 60 pro football players.

If and how much such players will get paid has entailed complex legal negotiations. The National Football League and the NFL Players Association, for example, hammered out a deal in which players who chose to sit out the season will get paid $150,000 as an advance against their base salary, according to Sports Illustrated. The players' contracts will resume in 2021. NFL players considered "medically higher-risk" get a $350,000 stipend that is not counted as an advance.

Fan safety is a major concern as well. In the past, teams and stadium owners worried about things like liability stemming from a fan getting hit by a foul ball or beaten up by fans from an opposing team. Now, they must factor in health data protection and privacy issues as they seek to bring spectators back to the stands.

"As stadiums open, there's a real concern about COVID spread," said Michael Kuh, a partner at Hogan Lovells whose clients have included athletic teams, leagues and major international sports bodies, including the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.

"Sports properties have had a long history of interest in their fan bases — who shows up at the stadium. But the focus was on merchandise — selling fans food or T-shirts," Kuh told me.

Except now, fan health information is suddenly relevant. "The regulatory regime is very different than prior concerns," he said. "HIPAA is now an issue our clients repeatedly ask about."

What about potential liability if people contract COVID-19 following attendance at a game?

It would likely be difficult for someone to prove they contracted the virus at the event, as opposed to at the grocery store or family get-together. (Or, say, a reception for a Supreme Court justice nominee.)

Still, liability is a concern for promoters, teams and venues that host live events, especially since the standard of care to be applied to defendants in COVID cases remains uncertain.

Kuh's colleague Matt Eisler, who co-heads Hogan's sports law practice, said that teams and stadium owners are grappling with whether and how to screen spectators for body temperature, blood oxygen levels or other health data points.

Fans are accustomed to having their bags searched, but this is another level entirely — and it presents a host of questions for lawyers to consider.

For example, "Can you put a thermometer up to someone's head" Eisler wondered, or might that trigger a Fourth Amendment complaint?

Eisler said Hogan and Clear, the expedited airport security program, recently hosted a joint zoom presentation to the sports community. Firm lawyers "spoke about legal and regulatory aspects of return to play, while Clear's CEO discussed technology and programmatic approaches," he said, adding that the "focus was the minefield of issues concerning the return of fans to the stadiums."

On the insurance front, event cancellation coverage has been a hot issue, said Dustin Cho, a commercial litigation partner at Covington & Burling, who noted that both Wimbledon and the British Open tennis tournaments succeeded in getting coverage from their insurers under their event cancellation policies.

The Insurance Journal reported that Wimbledon was expected to receive a $142 million payout from its insurers.

But Cho and his Covington colleague Neema Sahni, a sports litigation expert, agreed that to date, COVID-related litigation in the sports industry overall is "barely past the kickoff point."

New contractual disputes are likely to emerge, Sahni predicted, but right now, "The first goal is, let's get sports back."