What a week, huh?
I mean, what a gosh darn awful/insane/sad week.
I don’t know about you guys but I never thought I’d ever see what happened happen the past couple days and I still don’t think I’ve come to grips with what is going on – basically all of sports have been cancelled and the world is going into lock down to protect ourselves from a deadly and dangerous pandemic.
Which… sucks.
But pressing pause is the right thing to do. Human safety beats out sports every damn time, no matter how angry some dumb people get about it on Twitter. This thing is serious and is only going to get worse. We have to do what’s best for others who might not be able to beat this virus.
This whole thing still sucks, though. And excuse my spotty language here – I should be better than this. I went to college, I’ve made a living being a professional sports writer, and here I am breaking this whole thing down by saying it sucks.
But it does. It sucks that the coronavirus is killing people all over the world, that it’s continuing to spread at what seems like a really rapid pace, and that many, many, many more people are going to be greatly affected by this pandemic.
None of it is good. I’ve been texting with a good friend who is a dentist in the Army and lives just outside of Venice, Italy. Things are truly, truly awful there and some of the info he’s texted me has taken my breath away.
All that serious stuff that’s happening is very heavy and very sad.
And now our sports are gone, which is the right thing to do – even if the Big East and the PGA Tour had to wait too long before calling things off.
There will be no March Madness, which doesn’t seem real just yet but definitely will next Thursday around noon ET when we’re not parking it on the couch to watch 10 hours of college basketball.
There’s no NBA games to watch at night, which was starting to get good as we began to head down the homestretch and toward the playoffs, which may or may not even happen this year.
Hockey is done for the time being, too. Will we even see the Stanley Cup lifted into the air this year?
The start of the baseball season is going to be pushed back, which feels like the delay of spring and nice weather, two things that make a lot of people happy.
The PGA Tour is now done for at least the next few weeks, even after the Tour tried to sneak one through and played the first round the The Players Championship on Thursday. The Masters is now the next tournament on the schedule but that has to be jeopardy, too.
Tennis, soccer, the XFL… are also done for now.
The only things we have left are NASCAR and the UFC, which will hold events this weekend without fans. I wouldn’t be stunned if NASCAR cancelled its race. I would be surprised if the UFC cancelled its fight night in Brazil, because Dana White hasn’t handled this with much concern, which hasn’t been a great look.
Calling a time out on all the sports and Broadway plays and social gatherings are the right thing for us to do, though. We have to think about people who could be greatly affected by this virus. Elderly people who wouldn’t have the strength to fight it. People with immune disorders who could die from it, no matter their age. This isn’t something we should mess with at all and staying away from each other is the 150-percent right thing to do.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.
Because it does.
Quick hits: Barkley takes coronavirus test… Kansas the national champs?… Kevin Love’s awesome gesture… And more.
– Charles Barkley revealed Thursday night that he was being self-quarantined after taking coronavirus test in the afternoon because he wasn’t feeling well. Hopefully the NBA legend will be OK.
– No. 1 Kansas has the best claim to the national championship after the NCAA tournament was called off.
– Kevin Love donated $100K to arena workers in Cleveland, which is awesome.
– Mark Cuban also is acting fast to help those workers who need a lot of help right now.
– Rudy Gobert gave a heartfelt apology on Thursday.
– Gobert’s teammate Donovan Mitchell had an important message for fans after testing positive for the coronavirus.
– “Good Morning Football” co-host Kyle Brandt had a great take on coronavirus “tough guys.”
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