As another day at home goes by, so does another day without sports. It is pushing 2 months now since the day the NBA, NHL and MLB closed shop. Hope has resonated throughout the sports fan base but we are reaching a time in which we must realize sports may never be the same. Once a thought of hope and optimism has now turned into one of concern and weariness.
The truth of the matter is, almost anyone you ask will take any form of baseball, basketball hockey etc. Literally anything. Sports are an integral part of who we are as Americans. However, the thought I have been seeing recently that these sports will somehow bring us back to some sense of normalcy in life needs to be altered. There will be nothing similar to what we remember sports to be when they return. Empty stadiums, masks, different divisions, different playoff formats, and the list goes on and on. Whatever it may be, we can not rely on sports as an avenue to bring us back to what we used to be as a country. This is a hard thought to fathom, but so much will be different. It will be like watching a completely different sport. It will take time getting used to, and some may like it, others may not, regardless that needs to be accepted. (And I think it is by most)
Then there are some that will argue that we must wait until there is some type of cure or vaccine before even thinking about beginning professional sports, but I kindly disagree. I truly believe the professional leagues are handling this situation as best as possible. It will be great to see our favorite teams, players and coaches back at it, but the changes can not be overlooked. Let's be honest, it is going to be weird watching the Mets play the Blue Jays in a "division game" inside some spring training stadium in Florida with no fans. Nothing about that will be "normal". It won't be normal watching the NBA Finals in an empty Walt Disney World arena. It will not be normal watching the Stanley Cup from some rural town in North Dakota. None of these from proposed ideas will be normal. The idea of "normal" needs to be taken out of the question here, it leads to false hope and a false narrative. We need sports for other reasons, as a way to escape the tragic world we live in right now, to have some fun, to watch something other than the news. We do not need it for normal.
