Every year, at some point, a sports related blog shows up here. In the past I've tackled Bob Costas and his annoying political rants during half-time, the sports team formerly known as the Washington Redskins and their embattled name, and the ridiculousness of the franchise tag in football. I watch sports, a lot, and so I have opinions on things that happen that are sport related. This post is to let you all know that, with the return of all major sports, there will be no sports writing, because I am giving them up, with the exception of the NHL, and that's still up for debate. Why?
I watch sports to escape reality. Everywhere I go, every time on turn on the tv, every time I log into a streaming site, every scroll of Facebook and Instagram, I am pummeled by the reality of what is happening right now. Commercials about how we are all in this together, documentaries on race in America, Black Lives Matters banner on every social media and streaming site, COVID-19 warnings on everything, and I haven't even talked about the news. Sports is an escape from that. It's a few hours to forget the very real problems of the world and just be entertained. A long fly ball that goes over the fence, the buzzer beater in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, the five minute race to score a goal in overtime, the two-minute warning. They are all moments that make you forget, even if for only a little while, the reality outside your door. Except, now, they aren't. They have brought that reality into the games we watch for fun.
I am not advocating for fans in sports stadiums. That isn't going to happen. At this point, unless every city signs on for some level of fan attendance there should be no fan attendance. I don't care that the NBA is playing in a Florida bubble, or that the NHL has retreated to finish it's season in the frozen tundra of our northern neighbor. (Honestly, it's July, it's 95 degrees. No amount of air conditioning makes it cold enough for ice. The frozen tundra is the only place you should play hockey in the summer.) Empty baseball stadiums are fine, and with baseball's fan base, most of these teams will be playing to something only slightly emptier than usual. Football will take a hit with fan attendance (most teams), but they'll survive. It's a multi-billion dollar industry. They can make it one season.
What I'm advocating for, or most likely, simply refusing to participate in, is the politicization of sports. Sports are meant to entertain. They entertain across a wide diversity of people. Different colors, genders, political affiliations, religions, sexual orientations. Sports should be, and always has been, the greatest way to unite people. Maybe not Eagles and Cowboys fans, but most Eagles fans I know would defend their fellow black, gay, transgendered, wiccan Eagles fan against any Cowboy fan. United, not divided, in their hatred for all things silver and blue and from Dallas. But not now.
Sports leagues have decided that in order to appease the rich, white, grievance mongers, they need to play along. So now, we have Black Lives Matter painted on basketball courts, white people kneeling for the national anthem in solidarity, and the NFL allowing social justice slogans (except for ones defending police, innocent unborn lives, and gun rights), on helmets where two years ago the wrong color shoes to honor a dead parent was a reason for a fine. They have opened the door and allowed politics to invade the very space people go to escape politics. They have damaged my calm.
There will be no sports blogs, no score posting, no Facebook posts gloating about a win, because there will be no sports. I will find a good book, a good puzzle, a good afghan pattern, and I will be doing something else with my time. Think I'm just blowing hot air? I gave up football for 5 years to protest bad coaching and a washed up quarterback. That was nothing compared to my safe place being invaded by all the things I wish to leave on the other side of the door for 3 hours. I'm done. I devote half of my day to the real world, 8 hours to sleep and 3 hours to not dealing with the read world, because I need a break. If my escape insists on shoving it in my face, I will remove that escape and find another. If more people do this, sports will get the hint and go back to entertaining us. If people keep watching regardless? Well, I guess sports and I will have reached an impasse and I'll officially file for divorce.
**The NHL has, so far, kept itself out of the political fray, but I suspect that will change. For now, I withhold judgment on that.
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