When is it time to play again?
This is the question that has been hounding the sports world since the terrorist attacks that struck the United States last week, and all of North America’s major sports leagues shut down.
With citizens of both Canada and the US in a state of collective shock and dismay after the attacks, it was felt by many that it was not time to play sports.
It was time to mourn. All major television networks went to 24-hour news coverage about the tragedies, basically giving us an “All Terrorism! All the Time!” format.
Now it goes without saying (although I still feel the need to say it) that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were horrible, unjustifiable acts of terror that we must analyze and discuss, but I wonder when enough is enough.
I know I ran out of patience quickly.
By late Tuesday night, the day of the attack, I was flipping channels,
desperately searching for an episode of The Simpsons, or any other diversion.
Sure, I was concerned about the victims and their families, and what
ramifications these events may have on the future of civilization, but after a while, my head just couldn’t handle it anymore.
What my beleaguered brain needed was sports.
I needed the sound of a helmet to helmet collision, the crack of a bat, or some mindless banter about this stat or that from one of the monkeys they call sportscasters at TSN.
But to my dismay, I could not find this badly needed release… remember, it was “All Terrorism…”
That’s when university sports came in.
I turned all of my attention to Saturday’s Shrine Bowl, in which the now 2-0 Stingers throttled McGill.
Since the CIS decided that all games would go on last weekend, I finally had a chance to clear my head. And now I can dedicate more energy to the concerns of the “real” world.
Sports gave me the chance to have an outlet, to be happy for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. So if the question is ‘when is it time to play again?’ my answer is as soon as possible.
This is the question that has been hounding the sports world since the terrorist attacks that struck the United States last week, and all of North America’s major sports leagues shut down.
With citizens of both Canada and the US in a state of collective shock and dismay after the attacks, it was felt by many that it was not time to play sports.
It was time to mourn. All major television networks went to 24-hour news coverage about the tragedies, basically giving us an “All Terrorism! All the Time!” format.
Now it goes without saying (although I still feel the need to say it) that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were horrible, unjustifiable acts of terror that we must analyze and discuss, but I wonder when enough is enough.
I know I ran out of patience quickly.
By late Tuesday night, the day of the attack, I was flipping channels,
desperately searching for an episode of The Simpsons, or any other diversion.
Sure, I was concerned about the victims and their families, and what
ramifications these events may have on the future of civilization, but after a while, my head just couldn’t handle it anymore.
What my beleaguered brain needed was sports.
I needed the sound of a helmet to helmet collision, the crack of a bat, or some mindless banter about this stat or that from one of the monkeys they call sportscasters at TSN.
But to my dismay, I could not find this badly needed release… remember, it was “All Terrorism…”
That’s when university sports came in.
I turned all of my attention to Saturday’s Shrine Bowl, in which the now 2-0 Stingers throttled McGill.
Since the CIS decided that all games would go on last weekend, I finally had a chance to clear my head. And now I can dedicate more energy to the concerns of the “real” world.
Sports gave me the chance to have an outlet, to be happy for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. So if the question is ‘when is it time to play again?’ my answer is as soon as possible.
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