When I went a full day without checking any scores, I knew nothing would ever be the same.
I was in Boston on the first weekend of March for a work conference when I found out our hotel was the site of the infamous Biogen conference that was an early “super spreader” event of coronavirus.
From that Friday afternoon until I got to an eerily empty Logan Airport the next day to travel home, I did not check a sports score. I forgot the Mountain West Conference tournament was going on. I didn’t know how LeBron or the Islanders were doing. I forgot where the PGA Tour was that weekend.
Instead, my phone time was spent on learning everything I could about covid19. While I had been aware of its looming arrival as international soccer and Japanese wrestling had begun canceling events, I foolishly had not paid enough attention. When I saw Trump’s disgusting press conference from the CDC in Atlanta on that same Friday, I knew we were all screwed.
From that moment on, sports became incredibly unimportant. How could they? We had so many more important things to deal with. I wrote previously about how good leaders made great decisions in canceling sporting events early on, only to be met with protests and derision. Those decisions, in hindsight, may have saved lives. Those protesters and detractors, I hope, feel shame.
In the weeks since, there has been myriad debates about the role of sports in this country and how it will help our recovery. I’ve seen World War II been invoked, as baseball was encouraged to continue to give folks on the home front a distraction. I’ve seen Herm Edwards on ESPN talking about the importance of football in the wake of 9/11.
While those are certainly impressive examples of sports ability to improve our collective psyche, it doesn’t really matter today. Going to a baseball game in July 1943 or a football game in September 2001 did not risk your or anyone else’s life. Covid19 is a contagious virus that we haven’t seen the likes of in more than a century. There is quite literally no comparison.
At first, I thought the lack of sports was going to drive me crazy. I’m the type who will watch any sport, at any time, if I can. Mexican soccer? Heck yeah. Australian Rules Football? Don’t mind if I do. It drives my wife nuts that I can watch sports all the time and never get sick of it. Without sports, what would I do?
It turns out I can do a lot. I've written more. I've tried to exercise more. I'm cooking more. Yesterday, I re-watched Network and The Nice Guys, two of my favorite movies. In past weeks, I’ve been watching a disgusting amount of old pro wrestling, watching shows from years gone by that I missed or took place before I was alive. I rewatched Tyson/Douglas and Tyson/Spinks on ESPN. I’ve survived and done so pretty easily.
The longer the lack of sports has persisted, the less I’ve missed it. Sure, I was glued to my TV for the premiere of The Last Dance on ESPN like everyone else and I’ll be glued to the TV to watch the NFL Draft, despite avoiding it like the plague over the past few years.
But at the end of the day, I don’t really care when sports come back. When WWE announced it was still going live every week, or when Dana White announced his plans to run on tribal land to avoid laws, I was horrified. I love sports, but sports are entertainment and not essential. I want the athletes to be safe, just as I want my friends and family to be safe.
The debates on when and how sports come back have become increasingly tedious. It was reported that more than 4,000 American died from coronavirus this past Thursday. Who gives a flying you know what about sports right now? I don’t remember, as someone living in DC at the time, giving a crap on Sept. 12, 2001 if college football would be played that Saturday.
Sports should only return when it can be done safely for the players and employees involved, like broadcasters, referees, and team staff. It’s that simple.
When it does, it will remind us that sports are everything to us. The promise of better days and the excitement of athletic competition.
Right now though, sports mean nothing, and that’s okay. We have bigger issues to take care of first. Sports is the light at the end of the tunnel, but we need to focus all of our energy on getting through that long, dark tunnel first.
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I was in Boston on the first weekend of March for a work conference when I found out our hotel was the site of the infamous Biogen conference that was an early “super spreader” event of coronavirus.
Instead, my phone time was spent on learning everything I could about covid19. While I had been aware of its looming arrival as international soccer and Japanese wrestling had begun canceling events, I foolishly had not paid enough attention. When I saw Trump’s disgusting press conference from the CDC in Atlanta on that same Friday, I knew we were all screwed.
From that moment on, sports became incredibly unimportant. How could they? We had so many more important things to deal with. I wrote previously about how good leaders made great decisions in canceling sporting events early on, only to be met with protests and derision. Those decisions, in hindsight, may have saved lives. Those protesters and detractors, I hope, feel shame.
In the weeks since, there has been myriad debates about the role of sports in this country and how it will help our recovery. I’ve seen World War II been invoked, as baseball was encouraged to continue to give folks on the home front a distraction. I’ve seen Herm Edwards on ESPN talking about the importance of football in the wake of 9/11.
While those are certainly impressive examples of sports ability to improve our collective psyche, it doesn’t really matter today. Going to a baseball game in July 1943 or a football game in September 2001 did not risk your or anyone else’s life. Covid19 is a contagious virus that we haven’t seen the likes of in more than a century. There is quite literally no comparison.
At first, I thought the lack of sports was going to drive me crazy. I’m the type who will watch any sport, at any time, if I can. Mexican soccer? Heck yeah. Australian Rules Football? Don’t mind if I do. It drives my wife nuts that I can watch sports all the time and never get sick of it. Without sports, what would I do?
The longer the lack of sports has persisted, the less I’ve missed it. Sure, I was glued to my TV for the premiere of The Last Dance on ESPN like everyone else and I’ll be glued to the TV to watch the NFL Draft, despite avoiding it like the plague over the past few years.
But at the end of the day, I don’t really care when sports come back. When WWE announced it was still going live every week, or when Dana White announced his plans to run on tribal land to avoid laws, I was horrified. I love sports, but sports are entertainment and not essential. I want the athletes to be safe, just as I want my friends and family to be safe.
The debates on when and how sports come back have become increasingly tedious. It was reported that more than 4,000 American died from coronavirus this past Thursday. Who gives a flying you know what about sports right now? I don’t remember, as someone living in DC at the time, giving a crap on Sept. 12, 2001 if college football would be played that Saturday.
Sports should only return when it can be done safely for the players and employees involved, like broadcasters, referees, and team staff. It’s that simple.
When it does, it will remind us that sports are everything to us. The promise of better days and the excitement of athletic competition.
Right now though, sports mean nothing, and that’s okay. We have bigger issues to take care of first. Sports is the light at the end of the tunnel, but we need to focus all of our energy on getting through that long, dark tunnel first.
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