Are sports really important
Published 4:08 pm Wednesday, April 29, 2020
While recently talking sports with a good friend of mine, Tom Taylor, on his sports show, the conversation seemed to always revolve back around to the same focal point on when will sports actually get back into a normal rhythm and the same answer kept popping up in the fact that sports may never get back to normal in the sense we may think.
Playing in empty stadiums, kicking off football in December or the first of the new year, will there be enough players to fill high school football teams and basketball teams especially at the Class A level – just so many questions that really have no concrete answers.
Now, right now I know that sports are far from the minds of most Americans as there are more pressing problems like businesses on the brink of closing or already closed, people having employment and being able to provide for their families, and getting back to being able to worship together in a group setting versus online, Facebook, or drive-in church.
I have priorities in my life as well – God, family, friends, and myself in that order. However, Tom said something during our conversation that really stuck in my head.
Why are sports really important?
Both of us had to concur that being able to take in a local high school football game, a college basketball game, or a NASCAR race along with many of the other sports was a way that we are able for just a little while to escape the day to day problems and frustrations that we face and even just for a couple of hours refocus our thoughts on something else away from life issues.
And not having live sporting events for almost two months, I believe that this is truly the basis why people enjoy sports. There has been no live NBA basketball, high school baseball and softball, soccer, or Major League baseball.
For the most part, society has been staying home and looking at the four walls of their homes and watching countless hours of television, working in their yards, and just looking for something that might take their mind off what has transpired in our country and worldwide while asking the question when will things get back to normal.
With the recent live coverage of the 2020 NFL Draft blowing ratings through the roof, I believe that it proves my point because for three days people watched as countless names of collegiate football players were called out as they found a new home in the NFL.
I do believe when sports, no matter what they might be, start to get back on track that ratings will explode whether there is anyone present or not in the stands to watch.
As Americans, we need something to take our mind off life and that is exactly what sports do.
I, for one, wouldn’t mind if it was a soccer game, NASCAR, baseball, or golf – it doesn’t matter, I am ready.
My job is something that I have passion for and sports is an absolute part of it. In the past, I have been like most others where I have gotten tired and have grumbled a little about having to go to work to cover a game that I would much rather have passed on.
But I have learned through COVID-19 not to take anything for granted and that it is a privilege and not a problem to be able to step on the field where baseball, softball, football, or soccer is being played or the courts of basketball and tennis.
I am excited for things to open back up to some sense of normalcy no matter what that might look like.
Everywhere I go it seems that I have people asking my viewpoint on what is going to happen with the upcoming high school and college football seasons and truthfully I don’t have an answer just a guess like anyone else.
One thing I do hope is that somehow we can have these activities because I know as a society we need them. Not to the point of life and death but to the point that we need something to take our mind off daily life even for a short time.
And it may not look like what we are accustomed to but anything is better than nothing.
