Month: March 2020

This pandemic is not only going to change lives, and unfortunately end thousands, but it is going to fundamentally change society. We’re only a month into this and already, we’re starting to see signs of massive upheaval in world of sports.

Everyone in the world of sports pundits are immediately focused on the halt the NBA and the NHL, and delay of the start of Major League Baseball, which are all viable topics. But I would argue that he speculation about when and if the seasons will continue or when baseball will return are extremely shortsighted. I think we’re so desperate for things to get better that we’re just fooling ourselves.

I don’t write this to be a Negative Nancy or a Debbie Downer. I actually being a pragmatist. We just don’t have the evidence that things are going to get better, and I think we’re short selling the effect that COVID-19 will have on the world of sports long-term.

One of those signs came from an unexpected source. Unless you’re a MAC alumnus like myself, or just really really into college basketball, and most likely a degenerate gambler, you might have missed this news. Western Michigan, home of the Broncos, just made a head coaching hire that I think is a sign of things to come.

Granted, that is WMU or the guy they hired, Clayton Bates, as head coach, are not marquee billed names. But what is interesting (and why I say precedent setting) is that the school openly admits that COVID-19 played a role in his ascension from clipboard carrying associate coach to the face of the hoops program.

“I decided to change leadership of our program days before the COVID-19 crisis emerged. A comprehensive national search in this time of anxiety, despite exceedingly strong national interest in the position, just didn’t sit well with me,” athletic director Kathy Beauregard said in a statement. ESPN

Steve Hawkins, who retired after 17 seasons, was let go rather abruptly after two losing seasons, with just eight conference wins in those two years and MAC West division finishes of fifth, sixth, and fourth in the last three. But that move just came roughly three weeks ago. That WMU moved this quickly without a true national search is remarkable… and telling.

The school has also suspended external hires and cut funding for the head coach position; Bates is making a lot less money. But here’s the take-away: this is for basketball. Not football. Not the golden sport that college athletic departments depend on or prop up as their reason for existence. This is basketball; which doesn’t start until late October.

And there are still people who think we are going to have football this fall.

It appears that more and more leagues have figured out a way to return to action as this weekend saw both the German Bundesliga and NASCAR return to the pitch and the track respectively. We’ve seen other football leagues return including the K-League which I wrote about just a few weeks ago.

NASCAR held its first race in two months on Sunday in Darlington for the Real Heroes 400, as Kevin Harvick won a hotly contested race announcing the roaring return of motor racing from a coronavirus forced hiatus.

But what struck me in most about the run-up to the race is this desperation to return to normalcy, despite the desperate headlines and rising death toll. Most of the media previewing the race focused not on the action to come, but on what this wmeans withom the larger context of the current crisis.

Cynically, it bothers me.

Don’t get me wrong. From a point purely of WORD self-interest, I’m ecstatic sports are back. Not only is my sports fandom fed, but it certainly makes writing a twice weekly scholarly sports blog much easier.

But what I find disdainful in this drive (pun unintended) to return to normalcy, is the blatant pandering and commercial interest. NASCAR drivers are never one to shy away from promotion but the events this weekend seemed a bit more egregious and frankly crass.

“We know we are on a big stage this weekend,” said Erik Jones, driver of the No. 20 Toyota. “There is not really any other sport out there. … “We have a huge opportunity Sunday to bring a new group of fans in, people who maybe have never watched NASCAR. The pressure is there to keep it clean and put on a good show,” Jones said” (Butler, 2020).

Perhaps I would be less critical if not for this tactless display of opportunism. but NASCAR has a long history of valuing spectacle over safety, despite arguments to the contrary. Jones says as much here despite his acknowledgment of the difficult balance, “keep it clean and put on a good show.” 

In other words, “We know we’re the only show in town, and we hope we can take advantage of that.” Granted, there were no fans in attendance, there changes tro the pit stops, and travels crews were limited by membership, but the overwhelming desire to be visible as the only game in town scoffs at the notion NASCAR values safety above all else. All I’m asking is a very simple question.

Did we really need sports that much?

NASCAR is doing extensive contact tracing, and drivers and crews are constantly tested, but all it takes is one member of one crew to bring the virus to the track and there goes the race, or worse, they take it home and infect someone more vulnerable. And for a league that exists in part due to sponsors, that kind of bad publicity seems a bit too much to take, even if the number 49 car is sponsored by Lysol.

NASCAR desperately wants to take the lead here, especially for a sport that is often mired in its complicated social dynamics, somehow putting them on par with the other major sports leagues beyond their perception of a small regional circuitthey have fought against for decades to overcome. 

The difference is, the wider net cast by those leagues (NFL, NBA and MLB) captures just as many of the progressive left clamoring for sensible approaches to pandemic management as the conservative right hoax-subscribing mouth breathers screaming for everything to return to normal, which to be honest, are far more prevalent within the crowds at Talladega and Bristol. How long before those voices demand NASCAR open up, medical science be damned?

I think you know the way the wind blows on that one.