‘Survive and advance’ takes on new meaning in a sports world that must take a backseat
On Thursday, the ACC men’s basketball tournament declared two winners three days early — common sense and the coronavirus.
What was made very clear over the past few days — and especially since the NBA put its entire season on hiatus Wednesday night — was that it makes no sense right now to play any games, anywhere, no matter whether any fans are there to witness them or not.
As much as you and I love sports, it’s time for them to take a backseat. And I mean a seat in the very, very back, like hanging off the tailpipe.
The world is at war right now, with an insidious virus that does some of its best work when we are in close quarters.
I have no doubt that we’re going to win, and eventually everything is going to be OK again. But right now there’s no sense pretending like it is. You can debate the exact timing — and in retrospect should have come earlier — but the ACC’s decision to cancel the rest of its tournament was the right one.
So this will be the year March Madness will be replaced by March Sadness, because playing the NCAA men’s or women’s tournaments doesn’t make any sense at all. Do you really think that keeping random fans away would keep every single player on every single team from ever getting the virus? It wouldn’t have.
And as soon as one college player gets it, as happened in the NBA, it’s “game over” anyway — self-quarantines, games suddenly called off under mysterious circumstances, postponements, the whole bit. Best to cut bait and get it over with, a fact that Duke and Kansas realized a bit earlier than most. (And indeed, the NCAA realized it, too — about three hours after this column was originally posted, the NCAA officially canceled the men’s and women’s “March Madness” tournaments this year, as well as the NCAA championships in every one of its winter and spring sports for 2020. So there will be no College World Series, either).
Every large sporting event needs to be shut down for awhile. High school games. College games. MLB. NHL. NASCAR races. NFL “pro days.” Rec league soccer. The minor leagues of all sports. Large-scale cheering competitions.
You can conduct the NFL draft by conference call in late April if needed. No one should be flying anywhere. No “One Shining Moment.” No tailgating.
It’s going to be a hard thing, but it’s a necessary thing, and hour by hour, more and more organizations are realizing that. By this weekend, we may already be at a point where the sports calendar for the next few weeks is basically a blank sheet.
And that’s the way it should be. There are no two more important words right now than “social distancing.”
I love the electricity of a big crowd, and the thrill of walking into a packed arena has never abated for me even after all these years.
But at this point we all need to embrace our own personal cocoons instead. Stock up on groceries. Work from home if you possibly can. Find a new show on Netflix. Don’t look at what the stock markets are doing. Enjoy your college students suddenly being home — we just found out our two, both at state schools in North Carolina, are about to be home for a long time. That’s why I put “stock up on groceries” first in this list.
I’ve long thought the old Jim Valvano “survive and advance” motto, while undeniably catchy, has been greatly overused in March. It feels too much like treating sports like life and death.
But this March, that’s exactly what we all have to do — survive and advance. The rest of it doesn’t matter much. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Keep your distance. Don’t panic, but be smart.
And until it gets better — which it will — shut all the games down.
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 2:12 PM.
