Sports slowly waking from its pandemic hibernation

I’ve been of the mind that once one league came back online, others would soon follow and that is starting to look like the case. First, it was Asian baseball leagues starting up their season a couple weeks ago. That was followed this past weekend with the return of German soccer, NASCAR and a charity golf event and now we’ve seen the immediate future of sports. As long as the participants are willing to go through protocol to ensure they are not carrying the virus and can find a way to keep it that way, there’s no reason games can’t be played.

Judging from the few minutes I spent watching soccer and NASCAR at the famed Darlington track in South Carolina, having no fans had no impact on the events themselves. While it was initially strange not to see tens of thousands of fans sitting elbow to elbow, it soon was replaced by the action on the track.

That appears to be the last hurdle for pro sports to clear — when is it safe to allow some fans into stadiums and when can stadiums be filled again? Both those questions will be answered later, but right now, the fact sports are ramping up again is a sign that the world is starting to shake off this pandemic — slowly but surely.

Are we going to be back to “normal” this summer? Probably not. In fact, it looks like baseball is shaping up to have a pretty good fight on its hands between owners and players over money. But if basketball and hockey come back online with their playoffs, that could help cover up the lack of baseball through most of the summer. And once August and September roll around, football will be filling the airwaves again.

I realize it’s not ideal. But given many who are looking to get back to normal, the return of sports in any fashion can certainly begin the normalization to our pre-pandemic world.

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Apparently the Madden football video game championships were held this weekend and in the title game, the winner did not throw the ball once.

I don’t want to go too deep into this. I don’t know the name of the guy who won or any of the other particulars. It was just a story on saw on my web feed. But apparently hard-core Madden players have noticed that the run game in the 2020 version is given better results than throwing the ball. This tournament was one in which gamers had a “salary cap” for players and the amount was based on the player’s ability. In this case, the winner used the punter from the Baltimore Ravens as his quarterback, not wanting to waste money at a position he knew he would not be using other than to hand the ball off.

His main running back was former Chicago Bears great and football hall of famer Gale Sayers. He then used the rest of his salary cap on offensive line and defense.

Just goes to show you that even in this pass-happy era of football, a strong running game and stout defense can still win championships.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117.