Mark Wiedmer

Before COVID-19 changed everything in all of our lives, Monday night was supposed to be the grand finale of the 2019-20 college basketball season.

Other than the most passionate President Trump haters among us, I'm sure most of us hope he was right in his belief that the NFL season will start on time in September.

March 25, 1978. The clock having just hit 2:30 a.m. that Saturday, the last embers fading to black on a Centre College fraternity party in Danville, Kentucky, my roommate and I were supposed to climb into my Toyota Corolla at that moment and head toward St. Louis, where the NCAA tournament's Final Four would begin later that day.

Kevin Spain had booked his flight weeks ago. The former assistant sports editor of the Times Free Press would fly to Nashville from his home in the Washington, D.C., area, then drive to Chattanooga this past Sunday for one of his favorite events of the year: The annual selection party for the McDonald Farm System fantasy baseball league.

But what if this novel coronavirus stubbornly refuses to recede enough for the Mocs and other college football teams to play come September or October?

Greg Hopkins II had planned to spend the past four weeks eating lean meat and vegetables in preparation for his fourth mixed martial arts bout as a professional.

In a perfect world, a world not completely under siege from COVID-19, the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament's Sweet 16 round would begin Thursday night.

If you believe longtime and long respected International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound, the coronavirus outbreak will force the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to be postponed until 2021, if they haven't been already by the time you read this.

Mike Keith earns his money talking about the Tennessee Titans, but he had some thoughts on the recent roster moves made by the Atlanta Falcons, too.

Bucket list. The Masters. For sports fans the world over, those two entities go together like dogwoods and azaleas, Amen Corner and Rae's Creek, Butler Cabin and the green jacket.

Longtime Tennessee Titans season-ticket holder Dr. Trey Carico has felt a little better about his favorite National Football League team each time he's checked the incredibly shrinking sports wire heading into the start of NFL free agency, which officially begins Wednesday at 4 p.m. EDT.

Welcome to March Madness held hostage, Day Six.

It was 4:40 Sunday afternoon, and a handful of kids were about to start a pickup game on an outdoor basketball goal at DuPont Elementary on Hixson Pike.

This newspaper's Gene Henley and I had just gotten on the shuttle bus that would take us from Nissan Stadium to Bridgestone Arena on Thursday morning when the "breaking news" headlines flashed across various social media outlets.

At an important moment in the McCallie/GPS middle school performance of "Let 'Em Play!" the cast turns to the audience and implores them to join in the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

College football coaches love to coach. Especially when they've been cooped up all winter watching it rain and snow as the wind blows cold.

What if they played the Final Four and no fan could attend?

Truman Smith's love of distance running began from a desire to obtain a Peachtree Road Race T-shirt.

Not that Bruce Pearl necessarily has it in for his former employer. And he certainly shouldn't, because Pearl isn't coaching basketball at Auburn these days only because the University of Tennessee didn't want him anymore.

What if?