The withdrawal of having no sports has really started to settle in.
There is no finer example than when I went home to see my parents over the weekend.
Like many, my dad, who is naturally a diehard sports fan and Tulane fan, has succumbed to rewatching previously televised games to try and fill the void of having no sports.
On Sunday, he rewatched a Little League World Series game from 2014 and the Tulane-Lamar baseball game from earlier this season.
It’s been helping that NFL free agency has been able to ease the burden, and it’s something to try and look ahead.
I’m sure things will get interesting as ESPN continues to rerun some classic games. While this helps ease the pain of no sports, my dad made a comment that made me think. My dad, who is now retired, said, ‘without any games, I don’t have much to look forward to.’
Naturally, I started to think of what that means for me as a sports reporter and as a fan.
Part of it may be the fact that I am used to working at night instead of during the day, but days feel longer without having things to look forward to watching.
One of the hardest parts of having no sports is adjusting my inner clock and calendar. As weird and maybe as obsessive as it may sound, I use them to gauge the times of the year.
Like everyone else, I use months to judge the time of the year, but in a different way. For me, my sports year starts in August. From August to November is football and volleyball season. November to the end of February is basketball and soccer season. February to June is what I refer to as the ‘greatest time of year’, which includes baseball, softball and March Madness. Summer is the dead time of year similar to now, but is also the time when I catch a break before everything repeats.
I’m very fortunate and blessed to still be working, but it certainly feels strange. I haven’t worked 9-5 since high school, nor have I had back-to-back weekends off since I got into this crazy business.
The thing about sports, and the reason I fell in love with them is that it takes people away from their problems. Sports has a funny way of uniting people. Maybe it’s because we’re Americans, but sports play a massive role in our society.
Sports bring people together, and what I have found to be most interesting through all of this, is the sports community trying to show a sense of unity and normalcy.
We have a new game to play, and that’s all these new rules being placed on us every day as we face off against this pandemic. Enough of my rambling, let’s get through this and play this new game.
Let’s play by the pandemic rules. The sooner we get through this game then, the sooner we can enjoy all of our favorite games.
