By Kevin Wing — Content Editor
We live in an unprecedented time right now.
Whether we are Millennials or Baby Boomers, none of us would’ve ever guessed this. It’s a situation that all of us are grappling with every day around the world.
But through it all, it has become a very humbling situation for society and humankind.
Think about it for a moment. We are being ordered to stay home and shelter in place. Not just for a few hours, or a few days, but for weeks on end.
Most of us have been sheltering in place since the second week of March. And now, our entire country is being ordered to stay at home at least through the first week of May.
Sure, we can still go out for a walk to get some fresh air. We can go to the store for food and other necessities. We can do our banking if we can’t do it remotely. And we can go to work, if our jobs are not only considered essential professions, but if we cannot work from home.
Humbling, you ask? Sure. We, as a society, don’t like to be told what to do. It goes against our norm. It goes against the way we think in America.
It, too, is humbling for the world of sports.
Our regional, state, national and world leaders are telling us every day how important it is for all of us to take the COVID-19 outbreak seriously.
As a result, the world of sports has been affected.
Sports is often thought of as a release from the world’s problems. But, COVID-19 is not only a world problem, it’s a huge world problem. It’s a problem for life as we know it.
Life. An important word. And, many people are dying from COVID-19. It has become that widespread.
So, the world of sports has needed to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation.
Don’t you wish you could turn on ESPN and watch a game? Well, you can, but it’ll be a repeat of the 1989 World Series between the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants.
Or, if you wanted to relive the U.S. Open matchup in 1981 between Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, you can certainly do that now.
Live sports don’t really exist right now. Everyone has shut down their season for the time being.
That includes San Jose State.
Every Spartan season is over. The Mountain West announcement came on March 12. The same applies, of course, with professional sports.
There’s no hockey. The basketball season is postponed. We’ll have to wait until 2021 to see if the Golden State Warriors can return to their championship years. Baseball is kaput.
We didn’t even get to see the A’s and Giants in spring training. And on April 1 — and this was no April Fool’s joke — the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament canceled its 2020 Grand Slam appearance.
That’s right. No Wimbledon tennis from London until June 2021. No Breakfast at Wimbledon. No strawberries and cream.
If the global health crisis has done anything to the sports world, whether collegiate or professional, it has humbled athletes.
It has humbled sports.
Sports is yesterday’s news until the world can push through the global health crisis.
And, by the looks of it, it’s going to be a while before things start getting better. One thing’s for sure though: sports will make us feel better again, whenever that day comes.
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