About a year ago I wrote an article about being a sports fan. It was so much fun for me to write. I got to stroll down memory lane thinking of my Papa, my children being little in their colored rec shirts, and most of all, the thought of all the memories I would make with family and friends in the future. Fast forward to March of 2020 when for a sports fan, the unthinkable happens…every sport is cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the big ones include the Summer Olympics, March Madness, NBA, NHL, and the MLB, and that’s just to name a few.
For many of us, sports gives us an escape from our everyday lives; we look forward to seasons beginning and ending and all that comes with it. In my article last year I mentioned my “crew.” We go to a lot of Patriots and Sea Dogs games together, and we discuss current sporting events via text almost weekly. I asked my Gorham group their thoughts on what sports means to them and how they are feeling as we navigate this unchartered territory as fans.
Travis Emerson (GHS ’17) is one of my son Seth’s best friends. He has been coming to Patriots games with us for five years. No matter the weather or the outcome of the game, he just wants to have as much fun as possible and he enjoys staying until the very end of the game. He said, “I love the whole production; the atmosphere from pro-events is unmatched. There is nothing like watching on TV or experiencing in person when the crowd erupts in cheers as your favorite team scores a game winning touchdown or sinks a big shot.”
A week prior to the complete shutdown, Travis attended a Celtics game. “If this pandemic had not occurred, I planned to attend numerous spring sporting events. It was definitely a disappointment,” he said. “In my opinion, this is the best time of year in regards to American sports, with many big events taking place: the start of the MLB season, the NBA playoffs, the NHL playoffs, the NFL draft and free agency, NCAA March Madness, and the PGA Masters tournament.”
The lack of sports has left a void. That void is normally filled with gatherings of family and friends around these sporting events, and the impact of the cancellations has most likely driven a lot of fans stir-crazy. While solutions for re-opening safely are being discussed, Travis said, “The product that is broadcasted will definitely look different without fans being in the crowd. For many sports, the crowd atmosphere has an impact on the game and the excitement projected on your TV screen, especially with sports like basketball and football.”
He thinks fans will cope with not being in the stands, however, he understands that a long-term plan will need to be put in place. “A large sum of revenue comes from fan attendance, concessions, and stadium-related sponsorship and advertising partnerships. “Once fans are allowed to attend games again, I believe that fewer fans will be allowed to enter stadiums and social distancing inside and outside the stadium will be enforced,” he said. Whatever it looks like, Travis said, “It will definitely be a different stadium experience, as we begin to try and recover from the pandemic, but these sacrifices will have to be made in order to bring back our precious sporting events.”
Mike (Grizz) Tanguay and I have been sports buddies since college. One of my favorite college memories was during March Madness when I lurked in the background enjoying the energy of Grizz and all the guys watching the games in the main lobby of our dorm. After college, when I first moved to Gorham, I lived with Grizz and his wife Lori. Upon my arrival, she was very excited that he had someone who loved sports as much as he did.
Grizz has followed the four major U.S. sports and NASCAR for at least 40 years. While he admits it’s not realistic to watch every game, he tries to catch as many as he can. As each sport ends and another begins he said, “There’s the anticipation of the start of the season, discovering the talent level that your team has as the season rolls on and then, hopefully, the expectation is for a long run through the playoffs.” Before the unexpected cancellations, he said this was the case for his favorites, the Bruins and Celtics.
“Both were having strong seasons in 2019-20. Then came COVID-19 and the first shoe to drop was the NBA’s postponement of the season, followed quickly by the NHL, NASCAR and nearly everything else in society,” he shared.
Grizz added, “That loss of my outlet, my distraction, my source of camaraderie with friends and family has been a change as meaningful as anything during this pandemic.” With sports, there is never a break of more than a few weeks and here we are at more than two months with no live sports.
There was a recent glimmer of what might be to come in this new sports world for fans. “Finally, on May 18, NASCAR ran its first race again, albeit without fans in the stands. Once again I got to feel that emotion, that excitement of watching competition, except I was by myself at home. While it was enjoyable, I still was missing the camaraderie piece,” he said.
We are just entering summer and the unknown of baseball season, but Grizz’s thoughts also drift to fall and what that might look like. “Will there be some form of normalcy that allows me to attend my true favorite, a full day of traveling to and from Foxborough, to experience Gillette Stadium with my friends and family?”
While he is certainly missing sports, he also expressed compassion for the current situation. “I’m extremely thankful, first and foremost, that those around me have remained healthy during these crazy few months, and for those that have worked to keep the rest of society safe and moving forward.”
As we navigate our way to a new normal, he shared, “I long for the sounds, smells and emotions that come with those games, those highlights, and those stadium experiences that I’ve become accustomed to over forty-plus years. At some point things will open back up and we’ll be right back there with those same people, enjoying the games we love.”
I have too many sports memories with my son, Seth Cook (GHS ’17), to count. Among my favorites are when he donated his birthday money to the Jimmy Fund Telethon four years in a row. For his ninth birthday he raised $700, and we took him to a game during the Jimmy Fund Telethon where he presented his check to Mike Andrews (former all-star Red Sox second baseman and Chairman of the Jimmy Fund at the time). As an added bonus, we were able to be on the field for batting practice and Seth met many of his heroes including Kevin Cash, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury and Sean Casey.
Seth shared that it took temporarily losing sports to really appreciate just how much his life had been impacted. “I’ve always loved sports. I love the competitiveness, the teamwork, the way it brings people together.” When the pandemic began and sports seasons swiftly came to a halt, Seth began to reflect on how many games he watched with people he cares about, and how often he talks with the people close to him about the sports world.
He said, “My mom and I always seem like we’re in an unintentional race to break sports news to each other. It’s just so easy to bond over and it is so effective at enhancing relationships, as well as your life in general.”
Seth stated matter-of-factly that with all the bad things that happen throughout the world on a daily basis, sports gives us something to be passionate about that doesn’t have to be too serious. He said, “Politics, watching the news, all of those divisive topics, they can all be too real to have a casual debate about. They’ll break people up, they’ll ruin family gatherings, and they’ll leave you feeling upset with the world.”
He doesn’t like to think about the tensions that cause those types of discussions. “But man,” he said, “I know I’ll never forget the Thanksgiving that we all saw the infamous ‘butt fumble.’ It didn’t matter who had what political stance, or what people thought of whatever international situation was going on. All that mattered was that Mark Sanchez (the former NY Jets Quarterback) ran directly into the buns of another gentleman on his own team, dropped the ball, and gave up a touchdown to the Pats.”
Sports is a temporary distraction from the troubles of the world. While Seth feels the unprecedented absence of sports is so devastating, at the same time he understands that the safety of players, fans, and workers is top priority.
“Being quarantined at home with all the time in the world and having no sports to watch feels like taking a surprise trip to the Bahamas only to find out that all the beaches are closed. I have to think that if we had sports, we’d all be a little more sane,” he said.
My crew understands what had to be done. We know that things most definitely won’t look the same should the seasons start again this year, and we also understand that it may never be the same again. We simply look forward to the start of each sports season, whatever it may look like, so we can get back to watching games together. We can’t wait to get back to chatting via text about the latest topics in the sports world. These small things would bring an incredible sense of normalcy to sports fans.