The Day Sports Stopped
by Nicholas Ziino
Friday, March 20, 2020, would normally be the second full day of the NCAA tournament, one of the Holy Grails of sports. But it’s not happening. As we all know, nothing is happening in sports on any level currently. Games and events are being cancelled or postponed right and left. The sports world has not seen anything on this scale before.
Sure, there have been world events that have impacted sports before to some extent. One such event was, of course, World War II. Many famous athletes went to serve in the Armed Forces. That interrupted their careers, but they did it without question. Baseball helped Americans deal with the war, during and immediately after it. To find out more, check out these great books:
The Victory Season: The End Of World War II And The Birth Of Baseball’s Golden Age by Robert Weintraub
https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/1010608
The Presidents And The Pastime by Curt Smith
https://livebrary.overdrive.com/media/3982119
Another such event was the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The annual Army-Navy football game was postponed one week, and most regular college football games were cancelled. The NHL decided to go ahead with its full weekend schedule. But what was most notable is what happened in football. There were two leagues at the time, the NFL and AFL, which were embroiled in an intense rivalry. The AFL immediately scrapped its schedule that weekend, but the NFL did not. Pete Rozelle, the NFL commissioner, said the games should go on as they had during other national tragedy (they did, with a moment of silence and flags at half-mast). Boy,did he pay for it. The decision was widely criticized, and Rozelle later called it his worst mistake.
Perhaps the most recent example was what happened after 9/11. MLB cancelled all games for one full week. NASCAR, the PGA, and the NCAA all cancelled or postponed events. And having learned from its 1963 failure, the NFL moved its scheduled Sept. 16 games to the end of the season.
But sports has never faced anything like this before. The teams and leagues are doing exactly what they should. Public safety is the most important thing now. Sports should not matter. The games will resume some other time. And that’s as it should be.