Coronavirus shut down our favorite sports just when we need them most

March is usually the best month for sports. Usually. But March 2020 will not feature the playoff races heating up in the NBA and NHL, nor the winter’s-almost-over glory of baseball’s spring training, nor the noon-to-midnight lunacy of the NCAA Tournament. Nor MLS, nor tennis, nor much of European soccer. March 2020, instead, is the March of the coronavirus.

It’s going to be so boring. I’ve more or less been practicing social distancing for a few days, and cabin fever has started to set in. But at the beginning of this week, I counted on the fact that I could enjoy my afternoons with the sound of bat-cracks of spring training playing in the background and, later in the month, dive wholly into the full-day mayhem of March Madness. In any other scenario, March would be the best month to work from home because of the sheer volume of sports at all hours.

But someone wished on the wrong monkey’s paw and made the reason we’re working from home in the first place the same reason there’ll be nothing to do but work. The World Health Organization officially declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic Wednesday, but what unofficially brought home the severity of the matter to many Americans came a few hours later, when the NBA called a halt to its season. The tipping point was the news that Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus, soon followed by teammate Donovan Mitchell.

It was quickly followed by everything from the XFL to esports to the NCAA tournament. Until then, most of us were blessedly unaffected by the coronavirus; it was a looming catastrophe, unavoidable in the news. But it hadn’t yet touched our lives in any practical, tangible way. And while the loss of, say, Capitals-Red Wings doesn’t hold a candle to the prospect of losing work or having to provide unexpected child care, to say nothing of actually getting sick, it’s still very real, and just as immediate. Millions of us relax every evening by putting on the game, but this sports desert will be daily proof that the coronavirus is no joke.

The leagues tried to avoid this outcome for as long as they could, instituting locker room sterilization procedures and planning to play in empty arenas. But as the extent of the outbreak became apparent, calling off the games became an inevitability. Even without endangering fans, locker rooms are Petri dishes. If one player gets sick, they will infect others. And opposing players, reporters, referees and the myriad support staff needed to run a franchise. Right now, it’s just bad news to have a large group of people gather in one place; there’s, unfortunately, no way to hold a sporting event without that.

But just because this was inevitable doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. The sports suspension will mean lost income for arena staff such as those who work concessions and security, who aren’t salaried and who now have no idea when they’ll get another chance to earn a paycheck.

Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie tweeted the idea, and when one fan suggested that the “millionaire” players instead of the owners compensate the staff, Dinwiddie responded, “I understand the fixation on the M word

... But you do know there’s a B word that’s literally 1000x more powerful.” Since the announcement, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told reporters he was looking at ways to pay arena staff during the suspension.

With people’s health and livelihoods at stake, it can feel a little silly to be upset just because you can’t watch your favorite team on TV. But if sports matter to you, then they matter, period. And having them, especially in a stressful time when we are all cooped up at home with nothing to do, would be particularly welcome. What are we supposed to do at night? Talk to our families?

Even in the best of times, sports are one of the few truly communal experiences we have left. It’s the healthy side of tribalism. So many energies that would otherwise be put to worse use are focused instead on good feelings, on connecting with fellow fans. Had the games been played in front of empty seats, we’d have lost some of that, but we still could have watched games in bars and living rooms, or followed along on Twitter if we wanted to keep a healthy distance.

And in the worst of times, the games, the shared fandom and all the associated pageantry can be a balm for a city or a nation that’s hurting. Think of the Mets after Sept. 11, the Saints after Katrina, the Red Sox after the Boston Marathon bombing. Think of how, if only for a few hours, people’s spirits were genuinely lifted by a solidarity that’s generally missing. Think about how badly we need something like that now, as we’re under siege from an unseen, unanthropomorphizable virus, and the very bonds of trust in our neighbors and our leaders are being stretched to their breaking point.

But think about this in a different way: Sports leagues suspending their seasons because of the coronavirus is the community working together to serve the most vulnerable of us. Yes, we all wish basketball was on, but lives are actively being saved by canceling the games. The suspension of sporting events is the single largest act of social distancing any of us are capable of, and the leagues acted before and beyond even the federal government. Sports are still doing good for the people who care about them by shutting down. In this case, staying away is coming together.

Petchesky is the former deputy editor of Deadspin. He lives in New York City.

THE CALL — Saturday, March 14, 2020