COVID-19 and Sports: A Look Back, One Year Later

Year in and year out, we look to the familiar excitement and spectacle of sports.  The magnificent plays, remarkable feats, and the hoisting of trophies have provided a familiar joy for America and the world, while guiding us all through tragedy and uncertainty.  Think of how baseball gave Americans a happy distraction during World War II, or how all sports helped unite the country after 9/11.  However, for several nightmarish months in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic robbed us of these magical moments we took for granted for so long.

On March 11, 2020, the day the World Health Organization declared the rapidly growing Coronavirus outbreak to be a pandemic, the sports calendar was reaching one of its most thrilling junctures.  Baseball was about to begin, the NBA and NHL regular seasons were in the home stretch, and March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament, was mere days away.  But on that night, right before an NBA game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder, Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the Coronavirus.  Days earlier, Gobert had tried to downplay the threat of COVID by idiotically touching every microphone in sight.  The game was called off, and soon after, the NBA season was suspended.  This would be the first domino to fall in the cancellation of sports.  The next day, the NHL season was suspended, baseball season was indefinitely delayed, and the NCAA tournament was cancelled.

For months on end, it seemed as Sports would never come back, and indeed, the sports leagues' seasons were in serious doubt, with more than a few wondering if the seasons would be cancelled.  Even Dr. Anthony Fauci chimed in, questioning if it was safe to hold sports again.

However, in late July, sports restarted.  The NBA resumed in a "bubble" locale at Disney World, the NHL prematurely ended its regular season and went straight to an expanded playoff tournament, to be held entirely in the Canadian cities of Toronto and Edmonton, and Major League Baseball, in limbo for so much of the summer, finally settled on a 60-game season, with the World Series to also be played in a bubble in Arlington, Texas, at the Texas Rangers' just-opened ballpark.

In the end, every sport made it to he finish line.  The Lakers won the NBA title, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup, and the Dodgers won the World Series.  Furthermore, the NFL made it through the entire season without having to cancel any of its 269 regular and postseason games, although several games were postponed due to COVID outbreaks within several teams, and the preseason was canceled.

Now, with the vaccines rolling out and life gradually returning to normal, perhaps we can once again enjoy sports from our homes and perhaps even the stands.  Some aspects of sports will never be the same, but maybe, just maybe, we can continue somehow to enjoy all that we love about the games.