Sports Column | Les Winkeler: Canceling sports is the right decision - The Southern
I charted the course of my life at about age 15.
As a kid, nothing approached the joy of chasing a baseball on a summer day, battling with friends and neighbors in ultra-competitive games of hayloft basketball or street hockey.
If I competed in any sport, at any level, at some time in a 24-hour period, it was a good day.
Unfortunately, it was at about this age that some horrific truths became apparent — I couldn’t hit, I lacked the quickness to play basketball. And, although I loved to play street hockey, I could barely stay on my feet on skates.
It was at this point in my life I came to an important realization. I could maintain a close association with athletic competition by becoming a sportswriter. That notion was reinforced when I took the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey as a junior in high school.
The test results suggested a career in journalism would maximize my abilities.
I’ve never truly regretted that decision, although I second-guessed myself a few times while driving home from prep basketball games in driving snowstorms.
Over the course of a 40-year career, I’ve probably averaged covering 150 games a year. That comes out to 6,000 games. In the meantime, I stayed active in recreational sports, playing more than 100 softball games a year well into my 40s.
Now, despite a pronounced lack of ability, I still enjoy playing golf.
Suffice it to say, sports are an integral part of my life.
Yet, I am struggling to understand people complaining about prep, college and professional sports being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Folks, it is the right call. There is no need for replay. There is no need to change the rules.
Our games aren’t a matter of life and death. The coronavirus is.
I’ve said this before. I understand the disappointment the kids are feeling. When I was young, every rainout or every injury that kept me off the field felt like the end of the world. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.
There was always a game the next day, the next week. The injuries eventually healed and the games resumed.
This virus is too dangerous. Too unpredictable. Our doctors and scientists don’t know enough about it. It is irresponsible to put young men and women and their coaches at risk. And, given the incredible contagiousness of this illness, the athletes and coaches extend that risk to their families and friends. Ultimately, that includes all of us.
And, for more than 160,000 Americans, there will be no do-overs for COVID-19.
I feel comfortable in saying the vast majority of Americans want their worlds to return to normal. For millions of us, that means turning on the television at night and finding a baseball game. Normal means throwing a few bucks in the kitty and filling out a NCAA tournament bracket.
If we take a step back from the initial disappointment of losing most of the MLB season, the prospect of no NCAA football, it seems clear that most direct line between what we are experiencing now and normalcy is sacrifice and discipline — coincidentally two attributes coaches preach.
We have to give up our games for a while — think of it as Lent-extended. We have to wear masks, minimize human contact and social distance when it is impossible to avoid contact.
Granted, that’s no fun. It’s probably not fair, especially to the young men and women seeing their dreams disappear.
But, it is important to remember. Football is not a matter of life and death. The virus is. Our sacrifice now will allow the games to return.
LES WINKELER is the former sports editor of the Southern Illinoisan. Contact him at les@winkelerswingsandwildlife.com, on Twitter @LesWinkeler.
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2020-08-13 23:30:00Z
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