PHILADELPHIA _ More than 96,000 people in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control, have died from the coronavirus, and still we want sports to return.
In April, 20.5 million Americans lost their jobs, a record for a single month, and the unemployment rate keeps rocketing higher and higher, and still we want sports to return.
We wear our masks. We take our walks. We socially distance. We home-school our kids. We forget which day it is because they all feel the same. We worry when our loved ones cough. And still we want sports to return.
This might sound surprising. This is not surprising.
Spit tests for Major League Baseball players? Hell yes. The NBA and MLS playing games at Walt Disney World? We'd sit through "It's a Small World" a thousand times if it meant we could see Joel Embiid shimmy or Kawhi Leonard load-manage or Stephen Curry flush another 3.
Twenty-four teams in the NHL playoffs? Just tell us one thing: Do the Flyers still have a shot at the Stanley Cup?
Give us golf. Give us NASCAR. Give us shuffleboard. Give us a 10-hour, five-week documentary/hagiography about a man who hasn't played an NBA game in 17 years. Just give us something.
This might sound inappropriate, as if our priorities are misplaced. This is not inappropriate. This is not a sign that we have not taken the pandemic seriously enough. This is natural. This is expected. This is the importance that sports has, the role that sports plays, in our culture.
This is why:
