I think we all need to swallow the uncomfortably hard to swallow pill that sports may not be a thing this year. Perhaps most already have. Perhaps it’s not something that even matters to you. I just wanted to talk about it briefly because the large goblet of denial that I’ve been chugging for months is slowly running out.
Here’s the thing… I know sports shouldn’t actually matter. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a game. These are businesses, it’s entertainment, and the organizations don’t care about the fans nearly as much as the fans care about the organization. All that being said, there are a ton of peripheral ways sports tangibly matter that non-fans often overlook when trying to play the “it’s just a game” card.
Let’s talk about “it’s just a game” briefly. You could “it’s just a game” the world for about 99% of the things that exist. What actually matters? Are we only allowed to care about things that directly keep us alive? Am I only allowed to care about water, love, and the ever decreasing bee population? (side note: the bee thing truly is terrifying, we really should all care more about this). Entertainment, art, cooking, laughter, competition… these things may not be essential to survival but they are the spice that makes life worth living. Somehow this sports blog post became meta and philosophical… moving on!
Sports matter to people because we make it matter… but that’s not a bad thing! It’s in our DNA as a species. Competition and games have been around since we figured out how to live outside of caves. A world without it… well that’s like eating a pop-tart without frosting. I know there are people who do that shit intentionally but I will simply never understand it.
Sports can help create a sense of community. Sports are ingrained in us culturally. There are thousands of jobs and billions of dollars associated with them. They give us something to do and to talk about. Cleveland has seen some rough decades, from economics to politics to sports. It’s hard to watch their NBA title parade in 2016 and not see how much sports can matter. That parade stemmed from game. The memories that Clevelanders will have that year are because of a game. The money that Cleveland accrued during the playoff run and subsequent years is from a game. Should we care about them as a society less? Probably (definitely). But that doesn’t mean the world is a little less bright without them!
This week, we saw the MLB try and restart the season. It fairly quickly fell on it’s face. Three games into the season and entire clubs are basically infected with COVID, games are getting cancelled, and a fairly intensely planned “Plan B” is looking dire. The NBA is going to attempt a form of the playoffs, Hotel California Style. As a Bucks fan, I cannot emphasize how much I hope this works. The NFL is planning on starting as it normally would, albeit with some significant changes. The NFL is my favorite sport by a fairly large margin, I just don’t understand how this is gonna happen. If baseball can’t swing it (solid pun), I cannot fathom how football will. The teams are bigger, it’s more physical exertion, and it’s a fucking contact sport. There is no social distancing.
I hope we figure out a way sports can remain in our lives, whether that’s playing on an island or in a bubble. I hope we don’t look back in 2028 lamenting “remember sports?”. Who knows, perhaps the future simply is betting on marble racing and e-sports. At this point, I’ll take what I can get
Brew City Benjamin 