You would think that sports would always be our one ray of sunshine when the world around us goes to hell. At least it was always the case for me. No matter what was happening in my day, playing and watching sports always made me feel at home. It always made me feel better.
I’m not saying that sports aren’t like that anymore. That they don’t light up the night like a high-powered flashlight cutting through a piece of darkness. It’s just that almost all current sports news is bad.
Let’s lead off of this depressing ride with our very own Portland Trail Blazers. Trevor Ariza plans to sit out of the games taking place in Orlando to tend to his son during a one-month visitation period. (Ariza has been involved in a custody battle this season.) While this will hurt our starting lineup and Ariza’s bank account (he stands to lose $1-$1.8 million because of sitting out), I think we can all agree that he should definitely go spend time with his son.
Staying with basketball, the plan of the games being played in Florida may be somewhat in jeopardy because the cases there are shooting up as shown below (Google).
There isn’t really much to say—it doesn’t take a genius to realize that over 4000 new cases reported in a single day is bad news, which could put the resumption of the season on halt.
Nextly, for those who follow tennis, I’m sad to inform you that many of the top players have tested positive for Covid-19. José Morgado tweeted that “Novak Djokovic and his wife Jelena tested positive for coronavirus.” Since this is all sad news, I might as well call Novak not the brightest apple as he decided that hosting a 4000-person charity tournament with no requirements for social distancing or wearing a mask would be a good idea. Sure, he had good intentions but that’s what everyone has nowadays: good intentions. I bet you a 5th grader would say “yes” when asked if social distancing right now is a good idea. Maybe that’s why Novak’s kids didn’t test positive — because they had some common sense.
What’s one college you’ve probably never heard of? If you guessed Bowdoin College, a D-3 school, then I’d ask you how you knew who they were and tell you that you’re correct. This pretty irrelevant school brings some bad sports news because they canceled all their sports for the fall season. That means no football. I’m not informing you of this college because I expected you to watch them. Instead, I highlight them because they may not be the only college cancelling their fall season, they are just the start. And maybe before you know it, the Ducks and the Beavers will close their stadium doors and their fall season may also be canceled.
I also want to give a quick shout out to the MLB for being such good negotiators. I’m not sure if they realized this yet, but if they were able to use their expert negotiation skills well, they would be the only major league to have games occurring. They finally agreed yesterday but way too late. They could have raked in millions of views had they figured it out earlier.
And lastly, to end off our round of despair, somebody decided that it would be a good idea to get in a plane and fly a “White Lives Matter” banner over a Primer League soccer match while the players of both teams were taking a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Honestly, I’m not even sure what the purpose of that banner was. I checked to see if there were White Lives Matter protests occurring anywhere in the world and wasn’t able to. According to the Anti-Defimation League (ALD), “‘White Lives Matter’ is a white supremacist phrase… [that]became a staple among white supremacist mantras.” I don’t think that parading around with a white supremacist slogan is a good idea, especially when our black comadres are protesting for their lives.
I surely hope this will be the first and last time I ever write about such depressing news about sports (sports of all things people!!). I know I don’t want to see sports going away right as we were just starting to open up the country, and I’m sure you don’t want to as well.
