Wide World of Sports Is Crazier Than Ever
Here are a few observations after almost a month on the sidelines in terms of live sports.
Creative programming has always been a strong suit of ESPN. But on Sunday, the world wide leader crossed the line by trying to make a back yard game of basketball shooting challenges called HORSE into a prime time event.
NO. Simply No, no matter how much ESPN tries to promote it.
Going back in sports, especially on a quiet Masters weekend is nice, and we got that this weekend with Tiger Woods' victory in the 2019 Masters rebroadcast.
We would have chosen Jack Nicklaus' victory in the 1986 Masters.
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Until we reach a spike in the number of COVID-19 pandemic NO ONE can accurately predict when sports seasons will resume. But college football needs a six week lag time and it also needs campuses to be also opened--by August 1--for the start of the 2020 college football regular season.
That looks like a major reach right now. There is more and more chatter of using the spring and fall of 2020 to play a pair of truncated 10 game seasons, which would give the colleges enough time to resume activities.
The discussion of when to restart college football is ongoing, but at a press briefing last week, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith put it in the proper context.
"I struggle with the concept (of football being played in empty stadium),'' said Smith, who asked a rhetorical question that if it wasn't deemed safe for fans, why should it be considered safe for the players.
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What's going on in college basketball with the transfer portal clogged with an average of 40 players a day since it opened in mid-March? That's a breeding ground for chaos.
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If the NFL gets started, the highlight stories may very well be the Las Vegas Raiders and a Tom Brady led Tampa Bay team. The Raiders will develop in Vegas, but if there is no NFL season or a shortened or delayed system, Brady can not get another year younger.
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How weird will the fall be if we have not only the NFL, but college football, the Boston Marathon, the Kentucky Derby, The Masters and major league baseball playoffs. Seems like that is an overload.
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Bank on this, no matter what happens., Stadiums and arenas will have security areas at entrances in which your temperature is checked and a blood test card, verifying that you did not test positive. And that still may not be enough to get the fans all the way back.
I'm not a gimmick guy, but in a spring or summer of silence watching a golf match with Phil and Tiger paired up Tom Brady and Peyton Manning on prime time television would be fun to watch.
NFL draft next week will be a back to the future event, with no crowds and picks being made in quiet "war room'' just like the pre-ESPN days in which it became a fan fest.