Mar 15

Mar 15 A World Without

For So Many Of Us, Sport Has Lifted Our spirits, Or Broken Our Hearts, Taking Us Away From Challenges Or Lifting Us In Victories Once Removed. Now, We See Something Different.

By James R. Estepp

Generation after generation, passed down from parents to their children, we have known a deep, near-indescribable kind of love, not something you’d find in a Shakespearean sonnet, but the kind we’d find in so many other literal and literary homes across the planet.

It could have been found on our father’s laps at the ballpark filling in our first scorecard, or sitting on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon watching footballs gladiators colliding at the line of scrimmage, admiring our heroes of the hardcourt, or on frozen pond.

Every four years, we got together to witness the possibility of a Miracle, or see men and women elevated to legend, names like Spitz, Hamill, Moses, Phelps, Ledecky, and the GOAT, Simone Biles. They have brought us together, as communities, and sometimes as a nation, to cheer on our heroes and the villains they vanquished.

Across the pond, and the entire planet, the world’s most popular sport, soccer, awakens cities large and small, at every level, filling so much of the year with stadiums alive with passion and fandom.

For so many of us, sport has lifted our spirits, or broken our hearts, taking us away from the challenges and stressors of the workplace and real-life and provided a brief escape to see familiar faces living out our childhood dreams of playing games for a living.

From stadiums and ballparks, to sports bars to a friend’s oversize plasma tv, strangers and family alike have come together and celebrated moments that seemingly only sport can provide.

Every time Mother Nature changed the season, an old comfort was there, that same cherished friend greeted us no matter how bad a day had been, able to flip our moods in a magical moment.

Then, over the span of less than 48 hours, every major sports league in North America and Europe closed their doors. So too did professional golf, tennis and auto racing. The biggest sports betting event in the world, the NCAA tournament, along with every spring collegiate sport, were also shuddered.

We’re reminded in this time of worldwide worry, that life and death are far more than words used by television analysts to hype athletic competitions, but they’re reminders of who and what we must cherish and hold dear, as they mean more than any trophy or cup won by our favorites ever could.

Where then do we escape to when a main avenue for doing so has been closed?

This time Shakespeare provided the answer, as we return to the ones we love, using those hours we’ve lost to our sports heroes, and return them to the reasons we make it through every day, our families.

Maybe the loss of sport as the world faces this challenge will remind us that the things that truly matter are always closer to us than our childhood dreams.