With 2020 Hindsight

There is something I learned in juvenile court. The judge I appeared before liked to lecture some of the young men and women. 

He had this line about those who were about to cross the threshold to become adults in the eyes of the law. His admonition was simple: you may be 18 on your birthday and under the law, but you are no smarter than you were the last day you were 17.

This truism has applicability in a sense to sports and 2021. It may be January 1, but the people who are involved with the games did not magically become smarter now that this is a new year. 

Realistically, nothing has changed in the global community, save Britain leaving the European Union. And that was decided way before 2021 and we’ll see how that turns out. 

The pandemic rages on. Sure, we are beginning to administer multiple vaccines. This hasn’t ended the dying and illness that has run amok. Sports will continue to navigate the journey, with fits and starts, with an eye on stemming further economic loss. 

It was a sight I never thought I would see. Times Square virtually vacant for a New Year’s Eve celebration, except for a smaller than usual contingent of NYC police guarding the first responders, entertainers and media. J-Lo was the highlight. 

That was exactly the point. When it was 12:00:00, it felt no different than it was at 11:59:59. 

While there were celebrations in homes and some random places, the usually joyous event was muted. Families opted not to see each other in most instances, observing governmental guidelines. Safety over stupidity was definitely in vogue. 

First kisses had more meaning this year, largely because of the specter of the coronavirus. Our precious lives still require vigilance and mask wearing.  

When the incessant guarding against the virus will end is pure speculation. TV shows us empty to partially filled stadia, partisans, players and coaches eschewing masks and sitting together closely while cheering on their beloved teams. 

Contrast that with the unending images of ICUs filled to capacity, tent hospitals emerging from parking lots and cold-storage trucks at the ready, to act as temporary morgues. The news footage doesn’t lie. 

Sports is there as always, as escapism from so many of life’s travails. Although its place in this pandemic has been questioned by many, the different tiers and types of sports have soldiered on, in the face of tremendous odds. 

Even with the news that supermarkets are having great difficulty keeping their employees COVID-free, the New Year’s bowl games, including the College Football Playoff semi-finals, continue. Even with the troubling report that 30% of the Ohio State athletes who competed this fall in a variety of sports have heart issues related to COVID-19 infections. 

I saw a New Year’s Eve crowd in Auckland, New Zealand. I was jealous. The large gathering in the streets was raucous and not wearing masks. Because their government was able to shut down the country and continues to insulate its citizens from the virus. 

That was never going to be the case in the United States. Our heritage is that of being dissidents. It’s in our DNA. And in our politics.

How many times have I heard it repeated that sports is a microcosm of everyday life? Too many times even to begin to count.  

Games and teams brought together diverse segments of the country, with divided loyalties, some regional, some by choice. Television was responsible for this occurrence. 

I don’t believe that there was as much interest in most major professional sports until TV superseded radio broadcasts. I would say this was true in Canada, with the CBC and Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts transmitting Foster Hewitt depicting the action at Maple Leaf Gardens on a cold winter Saturday night. It took the sudden death overtime CBS broadcast of the NFL Championship between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants from a cold Yankee Stadium in 1958 to start the popularity of the National Football League. 

Americans love to celebrate. Fireworks on July 4 are a staple. We have holidays for our workforce, for Presidents, war victims, civil rights leaders, to give thanks and for religious celebrations. 

New Year’s Day is a holiday. Maybe because the need to sleep off alcohol is part of it, along with people abnormally staying awake into the wee hours of the morning. 

Yet we traditionally have pageantry and football to start the year. In my youth, the Orange, Sugar, Cotton and Rose Bowls were played in the daylight of January 1. Now they are part of the Bowl Championship Subdivision playoffs, with bowls in Atlanta (Peach) and Arizona (Fiesta) joined on the road to deciding the best college football team in the land, and not always held on the first day of the year. 

I have watched a smattering of bowl games this season. I cannot get over the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Starting with the name (I abhor any mayo not named Hellmann’s for the record). 

This year’s contestants were the University of Wisconsin and Wake Forest University. The game was held at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, home of the Carolina Panthers of the NFL and where the ACC Championship was held. 

The 3-3 Badgers overcame a 14-0 deficit to Wake en route to a smashing 42-14 triumph. The winners were so giddy in the locker room after their victory that QB Graham Mertz dropped the trophy and it split into smithereens. 

If, like the 18 other bowls that couldn’t be played due to COVID-19, this game had not been played, maybe the trophy would have remained intact. Maybe.

A few bowls relocated, like the New Mexico Bowl to Frisco, Texas and the Rose Bowl to Arlingtton, Texas. The newly established Fenway Bowl was not held in Fenway Park in Boston. Instead, the Montgomery Bowl became the Fenway Bowl for this year only. Besides, three of the four new bowls weren’t played because of the pandemic. Plus the NCAA allowed teams to schedule an extra game if they so wished, to be held before December 21. Got it?

I am not going to lie. I checked out the Peach Bowl, where Georgia came from behind to win 24-21 over the previously-unbeaten Cincinnati Bearcats on a field goal and a safety in the waning seconds of the event. I also watched the Citrus Bowl from Orlando where the #14 Northwestern Wildcats upended the Auburn Tigers.

Of course, I had more interest in the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowls because they involved the top four collegiate teams (notwithstanding Texas A&M’s claim that they were better than Ohio State and should have been playing Clemson in New Orleans or Alabama in the Rose Bowl). I watched Crimson Tide, as expected, demolish Notre Dame, a team I was certain was not as good as the College Football Playoff committee thought. And the Clemson and Ohio State rematch from last year had my attention due to Trevor Lawrence, the QB for the Tigers. He is all-but-headed to Jacksonville in the NFL Draft, no thanks to the sudden surge of the New York Jets, now possessors of a two game win streak (Note to Jets’ GM Joe Douglas—if you do decide to keep Sam Darnold as your QB even with a new coach, Alabama WR DeVonta Smith is the real deal and would provide instant offense for the team in 2021). Ohio State humbled the Tigers, silencing the critics and A&M. 

We Americans love spectacles and we adore winners. That is why we are enamored with the CFP now and why Super Bowl Sunday is a national festival, from the location, to the teams, to the commercials and the half-time entertainment and the game itself.

Which is why there was greater interest in sports than ever before. We accepted the NBA bubble. MLB meandered through a shortened season and then created a bubble for the playoffs and World Series. The NHL twin bubbles also were so exciting.

Sports became an outlet from the misery played out before our eyes. Championships needed to be won, no matter what the obstacles. Fans wanted to be in the seats, no matter what the peril. Players were exposed to the virus on a regular basis, resulting in numerous postponements and cancellations. 

More reasoned approaches were chosen by revered institutions which thought that the necessity for sports was far outweighed by the protection of its students.  Most of the participating schools felt that the money was more important. 

I look at the Rutgers football team. They managed to win more games in the Big Ten than ever before. More importantly, Greg Schiano managed to keep his squad from falling prey to the virus during the season. This laudatory action was the exception to the rule. 

The Cleveland Browns were on the verge of entering the NFL playoffs for the first time since 2001. Then COVID took over, decimating the wide receivers, affording QB Baker Mayfield little opportunity to connect his passes to pass catchers he hardly had worked with. They now have to win and get help to make the playoffs.

This is the NFL mindset. You play with what you have. Denver was forced to go down its depth chart earlier this season and use a QB with little experience when the other QB’s decided to let down their guard. 

I can only imagine what might transpire if one of the 14 teams in the post-season is suddenly ravaged by the coronavirus. There is little margin for error, just as with the CFP.  

And both entities are not employing a bubble, which worked so successfully in the past.

The NBA has indicated that it will use sophisticated contact tracing to insure that the regular season isn’t disrupted. Yet teams in California, utterly savaged by the virus, play before empty arenas and are traveling out of state to hot spots in the US. 

Commissioner Adam Silver and his subordinates are among the brightest in the sports world. They defied the odds once at Walt Disney World and were successful. They must like to gamble, because they are playing with higher stakes this season, no matter how they schedule multiple games in one locale in an effort to avoid further complications. 

Canadian officials have okayed the all-Canadian division for the NHL. However, that approval was subject to adherence to all provincial mandates. Ontario has been so strict that they wouldn’t’ allow the Raptors or Blue Jays to host teams from the US, forcing them to remain in Tampa and Buffalo to play non-bubble games. Let’s see if the authorities cave to pressure to play the games. (P.S.—nice touch by the NHL to schedule two outdoor games at Lake Tahoe, Nevada for this February; it would be a shame not to play them if COVID takes over)

I want to see Rutgers men’s team make it to the NCAA Tournament this year. They are that good. I hope that the same approach that Coach Schiano’s team took can be applied by AD Pat Hobbs and Coach Steve Pikiell. Yet I see numerous pauses in team activities—the latest involving the University of Pittsburgh men’s squad. 

We can take time out to acknowledge that when San Antonio Spurs Head Coach Greg Popovich was tossed by the officials earlier this week, assistant Becky Hammon took over the coaching reins. This made her the first woman head coach in the professional ranks. The loss to the Lakers didn’t matter as much as the achievement.  

Those who watched recoiled at the ugly scene between the Tulsa and Mississippi State football teams at the conclusion of the Armed Forces Bowl. It was disgraceful and cowardly. The coaches and players need to be held accountable. 

Of course, we can continue the DJ LeMahieu watch. The Dodgers, Blue Jays and Mets are more deeply interested in him than previously thought. Which sends shudders through the hearts of Yankees fans. 

Kudos to the San Diego Padres. With a deep pool of young and untested talent, the team upgraded their pitching by snaring former AL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell from Tampa Bay and then procured ace Yu Darvish from the rebuilding Cubs. 

Already relevant in the NL, the Padres took a great leap forward in battling the Dodgers for supremacy. Provided that the 2021 season can make it to a conclusion.

Thus, I return to what I have written earlier. No matter how and why sports continues for now, it hasn’t changed one bit from the mentality espoused in the previous year. In fact, the leagues and schools have become bolder in the efforts to remain relevant and fiscally viable. Which sparks great fear within me for how this pandemic sports tableau is completed and how lives are permanently altered in the zeal to contest championships. 

Do I feel a bit hypocritical watching these event as much as I do? Perhaps it is the escapism I crave in this perilous time which compels me to watch. I just don’t watch for the crashes, like so many NASCAR enthusiasts. 

After all, I can say this with 2020 hindsight.