The Sports World Meets COVID-19 – One Year Later

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It truly feels like yesterday, but we have nearly revolved around the sun one full time.

One of the most remarkable and unbelievable time periods the sports world has ever seen was only getting started with so many questions and very few answers this time, last year.

COVID-19 was only introducing itself in wake of North American countries beginning to test for the virus when the major sports leagues around the world began to take notice.

The virus was here, I’m also wondering how long it may have been here before things started to change, but reality continued as per how we used to, at least for a little bit longer.

Let’s take it back to March 10th, 2020. A night where the Vancouver Canucks were taking on the New York Islanders at Rogers Arena. A packed house with not one person in the building being aware of how lucky they truly were to be involved in such a historic night for all the wrong reasons.

The Canucks had been struggling, just 1 win in their previous 6 games, but the hockey gods had special plans for the last sold-out home game in Vancouver, and it didn’t disappoint.

https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1237604208649502721?s=20

A thrilling 5-4 shootout victory as the Canucks played an incredible game on the back of Thatcher Demko, and it felt like a little bit of a turning point for the team who was in the thick of the playoff hunt.

That was the final time for the very unforeseen future that Rogers Arena had a full crowd, and we have been through hell and back ever since, because of what happened the following night over 2,100 miles south of where those fans celebrated the massive victory.

Chesapeake Energy Center in Oklahoma City, USA was supposed to just be hosting another night of NBA basketball between the hometown Thunder and the Utah Jazz when the unimaginable suddenly put the sports world on notice.

The game was delayed within seconds of the tip-off, with everyone in the stadium, including both teams very puzzled as to why the game was not getting underway

After minutes of standing around and awaiting an answer on whether they would be playing or not, the teams were told that they had the night off, the reason why? Jazz starting center Rudy Gobert was soon announced as the very first professional athlete to have a confirmed case of the Coronavirus.

Everything went haywire. Social media was in a frenzy about the health status of the players Gobert had been in contact with, from teammates to opposing players in previous nights. TV and radio stations began to flood their programs with anything and everything COVID-19 related and throughout the NBA.

Games that night were told to continue as scheduled, but not even 30 minutes after Gobert’s positive test is when NBA commissioner Adam Silver made the decision to take action by suspending the 2019-20 NBA season indefinitely.

The following day, the NHL announced the suspension of their season, as well.

In the aftermath of all of this commotion, more and more positive tests surfaced among the NBA players and staff. Stories of the Utah Jazz locker room being torn apart and reckoned by the actions of Rudy Gobert, who made light of the virus just a few days prior.

Over in the other sports leagues around the world, the MLB season was already having trouble beginning their season due to an expiring CBA, but COVID-19 forced commissioner Rob Manfred to indefinitely delay the beginning of baseball. The MLS and all European soccer leagues were soon brought to a halt as cases amongst players rose up more and more.

To make a very, very long story short, all hell broke loose in the great world of sports due to the pandemic that was only just beginning its ravage through North America.

The games we all love and are privileged to take in on a nightly basis were stripped from up, money was being flushed down the toilet for hundreds of multimillion-dollar organizations, and the waiting game was on.

The fix to all of these problems was not just going to randomly appear. This wasn’t a situation that anybody was willing to wait-out. It was now up to the head management of all of these leagues to concoct a plan for combatting an invisible enemy.

Slowly thereafter, we have worked our way to where we are today, almost a full calendar year since the moments that we entered this unthinkable predicament. A new way of life, we managed and learned about how to live and continue some normality in this situation.

The NFL turned to a live virtual draft instead of the scheduled public draft celebrations in Las Vegas, the first time we had seen such a thing, and it was an astounding success. SO much so that every other league followed in their footsteps, providing some special memories along the way.

The word ‘bubble’ had a new meaning to it.

Seasons resumed within the confines of personal bubbles, the NBA in Orlando and the NHL in Canada. Constant testing for the players and staff and mandatory quarantine periods, all to be able to finish what they had started 10 months prior in their respective seasons.

Overall, it couldn’t have gone any better. Bubble sports were a different experience for sure, but the players embraced the opportunity and the return of sports, in general, was a sight for sore eyes all around the globe.

Fast forward back to the present, where things have settled down and there are a whole lot more answers now than there ever was one year ago. The world isn’t as scared anymore and things have begun to turn over for the better.

Something that will have its own couple pages in our grandchildren’s history books later on in life, being able to be here to tell the tale is part of the reason I haven’t minded COVID sports for the last little while…

With that being said, with vaccines rolling out now and fans slowly making their way back into buildings, I am ready for the first time we get to see a packed Rogers Arena once again.

Evan Power, Evolution 107.9

 

 

 

One thought on “The Sports World Meets COVID-19 – One Year Later”

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