Let’s take a minute and think about the climate out there.
Is it just me? Or has COVID conundrum made being careful seem less important? Are safety protocols turning some people desperate?
On one hand, we thought that sports coming back – even without fans – would get us all excited because we still have teams to follow and games on television. Is that the case for you?
Or are your favorite teams failing to create the same excitement as they once did because the rest of the world has turned upside down? Personally, the latter is a little bit the case for me.
Sure, I still watch the Tar Heels and occasionally the pro teams I root for, but the results of the games don’t resonate in the same way. I get over the losses quicker, and even the wins don’t feel quite as exhilarating as they once did.
While Tar Heel football was fun to watch this fall, I found myself looking as much toward next season because games without fans were weird and I rationalized that Carolina will be even better in 2021.
Basketball in empty gyms is even stranger. The crowd sits closer to the court and, without that mayhem, the atmosphere feels almost vapid. I do like when the players generate their own energy, as the Tar Heels did at Duke Saturday night.
And we’re coming up on Spring Training and Major League Baseball. Does it seem to you that fans will be invited back to stadiums across the country? The silence on that is deafening, and I assume attendance will be limited if not outlawed for another season.
And people are acting strange, too. Maybe because the political climate in this country has gone off the rails with people caring less about personal decency and more about venting on social media.
I thought about that when Armando Bacot’s mother said her son had received a death threat after he violated UNC’s safety guidelines and, with some teammates, caused a game to be called off.
Is there real danger out there, or are people taking license to act like there is? Let’s pledge to all stay sane as well as safe, OK?
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