Here’s the email I sent to my Communication and Sport class at the end the of the quarter:
Hi class.
I hope this email finds all of you well.
This has been a crazy time for all of us, and I just wanted to say how thankful I am to have been in the classroom with you all during the winter quarter.
One of the things I tried to impress upon you all is that sports is the biggest consistent media spectacle in America. And that *was* true, up until two weeks ago. I never would have imagined that almost every single professional, collegiate, amateur, and youth league in the world would shut down, with no re-start date in sight. This has never happened before. It’s just simply unprecedented. Check out the biggest disruptions to sports in the last 100 years. None of them, not even war, come close to disrupting sports worldwide like coronavirus has.
Thinking about sports (because this is a class about sports), I’m certain this has hit some of you especially hard. I feel for Marisa who was ready to work for the Tokyo Olympics. She may still get that chance but it will be in 2021 (and wow, will that be a sweet Olympics for everyone to enjoy together). I feel deeply for the athletes who were in the first month of their season, including Alex, Hannah, Jason, Locke, and Sammy. And everyone else who was looking forward to playing and watching sports for all the reasons they do so.
It’s affecting our entertainment, our cultural touchstones, the livelihoods of so many people, the seasons of those athletes who were just getting started, and the social calendar of so many families across the world. For me personally, the NBA season being suspended was shock, but my kids’ little league seasons being suspended was a change to our entire lives, if I’m being selfish about it. What would we do after school 5 days a week? Then came the school cancellations, and “after school” didn’t mean anything anymore. And then the cancellation of twice-weekly soccer games that are often my favorite parts of the week. There are no more sports to watch, talk about, manage, or play right now.
It’s gotten so ridiculous that my friends and I are watching, in their entirety, our church league basketball games from 2007 over Zoom (we had some games recorded that season). We’re watching them as a joke, but also: we need sports in our lives! We need something to talk about! And right now, we’re talking about how we all shot 27% in meaningless basketball games in a junior high gym 13 years ago.
Sports will return, and when they do, don’t ever forget how much they mean to all of us. They are a huge part of our social lives and our livelihoods and our health and our economy and our culture. They are not the most important aspect of our lives, but our lives are not the same without them.
And now I have a request: please keep me updated on how you are staying connected to sports during this time. I want to know! And I hope to see you all on campus soon.
-Andrew