Never have I imagined living a life without sports. Sports are a part of my daily routine. I am constantly watching ESPN, watching highlights, or reading about some breaking news involving trades and free agency. I also work with Mississippi State Athletics in the Fan Experience/Outbound ticket sales department so I am constantly thinking the upcoming football season and how the baseball team is doing. I look forward to this time of the year because of all the great action there is in sports. About two weeks ago I was getting off work, looking forward to going into work the next day, because it was gonna be a chill day at the office. We planned on getting some work done, but also catching some of the SEC basketball tournament games. That is when everything seemed to turn upside down.
COVID-19 took over our lives and put everything on hold. First, the conference tournament games for both men and women’s basketball may be played without fans. Then, in the blink of an eye, power five conferences started cancelling their tournaments. Before you knew it, the NCAA canceled all sporting events. The NCAA basketball tournament was cancelled. I was in total shock, and still kinda am. Think about how people will be looking back in the record books in 30 years and ask “How come it says there was no national champion in the 2019-2020 season?” March Madness was canceled. So began March Sadness.
In the following days the NBA and all other professional sports leagues announced they were suspending the season indefinitely. Businesses started closing and people were out of jobs and told to go home and stay there. All sports were either canceled or postponed. I have never seen anything like this, but I don’t think anyone has. Sports were to never stop, but that is exactly what has happened. I left Starkville thinking everything would calm down in a week or so and life would be back to normal. I was sadly mistaken. Things have only gotten worse and it doesn’t seem like this pandemic will be ending anytime soon.
Now my whole daily routine has been switched up along with millions of other Americans. Sports are a major part of this country and are the reason that millions are employed. Sport is the reason i am employed. There are still sports to watch, but they aren’t live and they just do not fill that void. Having ESPN Plus has been a good way to pass some time and escape from the terrible reality of the coronavirus. I am tired of seeing the news and hearing “social distancing” and “self quarantine”. The news seems to insight more fear and panic so I don’t watch much of it. I have watched a lot of highlights from players in the past and present. All while waiting for the future to get here quickly. I’ll admit, I have spent an ungodly amount of hours playing video games and watching TV, but what else is there to do? Netflix and TV shows have kept me busy. I have been staying on top of my school work. My grades will definitely prosper from all of this. That may be the only good thing that comes from all of this mess. I have been able to work from home so I am still making money and that helps me pass the time. Working makes me miss sports more than anything though. I miss watching March Maddens. I am gonna miss watching The Masters this at this time of the year. The weather is pretty but we can’t seem to really enjoy it. I wanna be at a Mississippi State baseball game right now eating a hamburger and cheering on the Bulldogs, but here we are. Staring at our phones and TVs. Waiting for our sports to be back on. Waiting for the world to start spinning right again.
Although I miss my friends back in Starkville and I miss going out and doing whatever I want, all this has slowed me down and made me realize how blessed I am. You really don’t know how blessed you are until something like this happens. Millions of Americans filed for unemployment last week alone. I am thankful for MSU athletics and that I can still work my job from home. I have been enjoying spending more time with my family and seeing people I don’t get to see that much. This hasn’t been the best of times but we will make it through it. We are all bored but at least we are all bored together. Sports will come back and the stores and restaurants will open again. Our normal lives will be restored but maybe just not as soon as we want them to. Until then, stay safe and Hail State!
Carter Wood Sports 