President Trump trumpeted his TV ratings over the weekend, comparing the numbers to a “The Bachelor” episode or a “Monday Night Football” game.
Wow, I wish we could listen to the droning clichés of Booger McFarland right about now. Heck, a NFL preseason game between the Redskins and the Cardinals sounds downright blissful considering our state of affairs.
We’ve all made wisecracks about our sports-starved culture. Heck, I often question whether sports fandom teeters on fanaticism on a random college football Saturday.
This is different, though. It’s different because everything is different now with the uncertainty, even fear, that COVID-19 has spawned. It’s different, too, because there is no end in sight.
That was made even more clear by the weekend discussions about how social isolation recommendations and quarantines may linger to affect football season. Yes, through the summer and into the fall.
The hunger of sports is more than a need for entertainment. It seems more about a yearning for a return to normalcy and familiarity.
To their credit, almost every league is looking for ways to present safe options of competition for our consumption.
NASCAR has found a niche with simulators and iRacing virtually. Social media interactions over the weekend revealed at least some early talks of a Tiger vs. Phil Mickelson 18-hole match to be streamed to the masses. Wild ideas like playing basketball games on a isolated cruise ship or moving college football up into the hot summer months to help prevent the spread of the virus have been floated.
Because the need for normalcy is real.
There have been a lot of comparisons involving this pandemic and the struggles in the days and weeks after 9/11.
This, though, is bigger, and much more alarming because the enemy is unseen and as of right now can’t be killed.
Still, the emotion and the aftershocks of 9/11 were finally calmed in a lot of ways by the return of sports. I think that will be true about this fight as well.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter at @jgreesontfp.
Jay Greeson