ONE DAY AT A TIME
Sports world is back to as close to normal since March 2020.
It is amazing how far we have come and how far we still have to go.
Everything that we have already accepted and dealt with. Everything that still must be confronted and resolved.
And I’m going to include this part right now, because I want to get it out of the way: I don’t want to jinx anything.
Tweeting about a no-hitter after five innings? Who cares? That’s a fact and living in the moment.
Predicting in this newspaper that the Texans will win in Week 1, then writing about a loss to Jacksonville inside NRG Stadium on Sept. 12? If it happens, blame the bad Texans, not me.
But writing a “positive” coronavirus column in August 2021 while adults are still fighting over masks, elementary schools are emotional battlegrounds and proof of vaccination (or a recent negative test) is required to attend an outdoor music concert?
As I said, I don’t want to jinx anything.
I, like you, remember how depressing and numbing life became in March and May and July of 2020. When sports stopped, arenas and stadiums became eerie ghost towns, and simply going to the grocery store required personal courage.
I almost wrote this column a couple weeks ago, then held off.
Don’t say anything stupid, stupid. Just keep moving forward. Enjoy the burning sunshine and semi-normalcy.
But … I was driving along Kirby Drive earlier this week, on my way to NRG again, when I was reminded for the thousandth time since March 2020 that our sports world — as silly, absurd and overly complicated as it can be — is often preferable to the real world.
And our sports world, unlike the real world, is working right now.
A year ago, the Astros were 15-12 (in August!) and the James Harden-Russell Westbrook Rockets held a 2-1 lead against Chris Paul’s Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs inside a Florida bubble.
It was something and it was better than nothing, but it wasn’t much.
Right now, the American League West-leading Astros are allowed to pack Minute Maid Park. The Texans theoretically can fill more than 72,000 seats inside NRG Stadium for their season- and home-opener against Urban Meyer, Trevor Lawrence and the Jags. Texas A&M, Texas, the University of Houston and the buzzing return of college football are less than two weeks away. And high school football is about to light up Friday nights across this huge state yet again.
That is the definition of progress. Daily momentum. Hope.
If my internet math is correct, I’ll have to get a booster shot in mid-December.
But other than that, the sports world is as close to normal as it’s been since March 2020.
Major League Baseball is rolling through a full 162-game season and recently had enough modern firepower to knock down a bunch of corn in Iowa, build a literal Field of Dreams, borrow Kevin Costner from “Yellowstone” and play a beautiful throwback game between the Chicago White Sox and New
York Yankees that was decided by a Hollywood-like walkoff home run.
The NFL is a relentless steamroller. Names are placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list but The Shield keeps moving on.
Big-money college football has been dominated by another round of ridiculous conference realignment.
On a big-picture level, masks, hand sanitizer, social distancing, Zoom interviews, near-empty stadiums, postponements and cancellations are out. Full schedules, screaming fans and 24-7 highlights are in.
So, of course, I’ve occasionally found myself waiting for the other shoe to hammer us in the head as the delta variant spreads, local and national TV news are dominated again by breaking COVID-19 updates, and parents are forced to decide whether their children should get vaccinated.
New Orleans is more conservative than Houston right now. The real world is still upside down.
The Saints and Las Vegas Raiders have enacted seemingly strict coronavirus policies for upcoming home games. But overall, the rest of the NFL is plowing toward Week 1 like it’s still 2019 and real-life pandemics only occur in sci-fi movies.
Maybe you love that. Maybe you think it’s risky.
A year ago, I was receiving heated emails from readers insisting that sports were selfindulgent and pointless, while too many sportswriters were playing doctor and insisting that games could not be played and events could not be held because they were too dangerous.
I’d be a darned fool to proclaim that I was right. The story (and facts) keeps changing on us.
Heck, while I was writing this, a nearby electronic device started making crazy noises. My brilliant dog — who was born during the pandemic and has lived his whole life believing that human beings wear masks — kept sleeping. But the public safety alert made my eyes pop.
“Highly contagious Delta COVID-19 variant is spreading rapidly in your area. Receive $100 when you get your first COVID-19 vaccine from Harris County Public Health. Record high hospitalizations. Get vaccinated to protect yourself and your family.”
I want our sports world to keep moving forward. And I’m far from the only one.
Seventeen months after all the chaos and confusion started, I hope our real world can eventually move past March 2020 one day.