What a year this week has been.
The past few days have been surreal -- and I can’t help to feel so heartbroken for our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans across the country.
This isn’t supposed to happen. Sports are about bringing people together. We provide a place for family, friends -- heck, even strangers -- to be unified for a common good of a winning team. And that is global; it could be at the specific arena of play, at your house or a local bar.
We strive to put together an incredible community, and that’s what is magical: sports bring people together.
Bankers Life Fieldhouse, moments before the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament was canceled.
And for the first time in a long time, that has been taken away from us.
I can’t get over the fact that in tough times, sports have always been an escape for so many of us.
Whether you’re crushing work, school or going through struggles -- sport provides a unique distraction to the real life. While a certain game, match, event, etc. is going on, as an example, it’s the only thing that matters for those three hours.
And it’s not just used to distract people from their ongoing trials and tribulations, but to help folks cope with them, too. Think about the several moments where sports were there to provide optimism. In New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and George W. Bush’s first pitch at Yankee Stadium after 9/11 come to mind.
For the first time in a long time, that has been taken away from us.
As folks who work in sports and digital, we still need to create that community; just in a way none of us have ever anticipated.
When I woke up this morning (Friday, March 13, 2020) -- the day after the NCAA canceled the rest of the winter and spring competition schedule and several other pro leagues suspended their seasons due to the coronavirus outbreak -- I had a strange, empty feeling.
It was unfathomably eerie.
For me, sports are 1) work and 2) entertainment. Only my family life exceeds sports.
But here we are -- in a time where, all of a sudden, sports are no longer.
There are no games to cover.
There is no practice to cover.
There is no ‘end-game’ we’re aiming for and nothing to anticipate at the moment.
It’s as if sports have vanished instantaneously.
There is no target date for what to achieve and there is nothing conceivable for our community to celebrate together.
Truthfully, this is something we have taken for granted. An endless amount of sports content -- 24/7/365.
There are neither games nor practices, but there are stories somewhere. As content creators, it will put us in a unique situation:
How can we entertain our fans?
How can we avoid being tone deaf?
How can we be creative?
Our community remains, even though we’re not watching our beloved teams on their fields of play.
For the first time in a long time, that has been taken away from us.
But those spectacular moments will happen again.
In the meantime, let’s continue to engage our fans (when those appropriate moments come) and take the time to benefit ourselves.
Nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our people -- so the appropriate steps have been taken.
Take care, enjoy this ‘bonus time’ with loved ones, stay safe — and wash your hands.