‘We want our sports back’
A statement we can all get behind — if only it were that simple
Before the first major American sporting event since the coronavirus pandemic stopped sports in its tracks, President Donald Trump appeared on screen with a message for everyone watching UFC 249 Saturday night.
“We love it. We think it’s important. Get the sports leagues back. Let’s play,” Trump said in a video recorded with the White House in the background. “Do the social distancing and whatever else you need to do, but we need sports. We want our sports back.”
Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, whether you support Trump or not, it’s a message we can all get behind. Or at least we should be able to get behind it.
But that’s what makes this global health crisis so difficult to reconcile for sports fans who just want to watch sports again. It’s why this virus has morphed into another political issue instead of a cause the whole country fights together.
There just isn’t a right answer to solve what we’re going through.
There’s no cure to the virus yet, and there’s no cure to the economic problems this country is enduring as it searches for a cure. Unfortunately that applies to sports, too.
What might have worked for the UFC this past weekend won't necessarily work for the NBA or Major League Baseball. What might work for professional golf and NASCAR in the coming weeks isn't guaranteed to be a solution for the NFL or college football.
“We want our sports back,” channels what we're all feeling right now. It's encouraging to hear the President acknowledge that without the full return of major sports like the NBA or NFL or college football, America's economy can't completely rebound to what it once was. Sports generate too much revenue to be overlooked.
But “we want our sports back,” also ignores the complexity of this situation. It ignores what the players and game day workers involved in those sports, the people who would be risking their health for our entertainment purposes, feel about returning. It ignores that re-starting is the easy part.
It ignores the details involved in testing and contact tracing and quarantining, and what happens when someone inevitably tests positive for COVID-19, that go into making sure these leagues don't stop again,
It also ignores that not all sports are alike.
The NBA and NHL and MLB, for instance, are encountering a far more urgent dilemma. If they can't soon figure out how to compete in the midst of the virus, they are in danger of not finishing – or in the case of baseball, not even starting – entire seasons. It would be devastating, to the owners and players who would lose millions, and to the fans who have been holding out hope.
So the best developments in weeks came the past couple days with news that MLB'S owners approved a proposal for an abbreviated 2020 season and the NBA'S biggest stars, including Ja Morant, appear steadfast in figuring out how to complete their season. It could also just as easily turn into false hope, a lesson we've had to stomach seemingly every other day.
The questions, and potential answers, change with every Woj bomb.
This logic, however, shouldn't apply to college football.
Over the past week or so, we've heard from conference commissioners and athletic directors about the possibility of certain leagues, or even certain schools within leagues, moving forward with their seasons this fall even if others aren't playing. Even if there are no fans in the stands.
The SEC, for instance, could play and crown a champion while others do not play. Which doesn't make much sense, at least as it pertains to this fall.
What's the harm in a little patience? What's the harm in delaying the start of the season, even until January, if that buys more time to figure out how to combat COVID-19? Playing college football with no fans, or playing college football without some of the biggest teams that normally play college football, will be an option then just as it is now.
Perhaps by waiting, there will be a solution to this pandemic that allows Memphis fans to join together inside Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium and Tennessee fans to fill up Neyland Stadium once again. Perhaps by waiting, the pageantry and tailgating and revenue that make college football so important to the college experience can return along with the sport.
An incomplete season should be a last resort, not a decision made in haste.
“For all of us right now in college athletics, it's too early to speculate exactly what it will look like right now,” Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch said last week. “I am optimistic that we're going to have a football season. It's just a matter of what it looks like.”
That sounds realistic, even if what the President said sounds a lot better.
Our society, our economy, and, yes, our sports, can't just stop and wait for a vaccine. We have to learn to live in the midst of this new health risk by mitigating that risk as much as possible.
“We want our sports back,” but we also must acknowledge it just isn't as simple as that right now.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto