The Return of Sports as we remember it???

A lot going on, not just in the real world but in the sports world as well. July 2020 is going to be a busy month with seven major sports getting back in action:

So here we are… on the cusp of getting back to normal, in some form or another, the downside of course will be that there will not be any fans in the stands, understandable considering the current climate, but since I advertise myself as “The Sports Nerd”, I am happy to see that efforts are being made to get us back to some semblance of normalcy. Beginning on July 8, 2020, sports are officially back, and most may see this as a good thing, the pessimist in me can’t help but wonder how long this will last. Reports from around the country reflect a populous that refuses to take COVID-19 seriously, people refusing to wear masks, people going about their day as if there wasn’t this deadly pandemic going on in the country.

The RBC Championship was held on Hilton Head island this past weekend and as a result, Nick Watney was the first PGA Tour player to be diagnosed with COVID-19 due to lax precautions, and in an environment in which Justin Thomas called a ZOO, Watney was forced to withdraw from the tournament because of the diagnosis. As the article linked mentions, Beaufort County, the county in which Hilton Head Island is located, had 760 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 15 of those have resulted in death as of Saturday afternoon. The numbers continue to rise in the entire state of South Carolina, as it has in several states like my home state of Florida, as well as Oklahoma (Remember the Rally in Tulsa), Texas and Arizona. All four of these states saw a more than 150% change in cases in just the last two weeks. As for how we are doing compared to the rest of the world? well I think the below chart shows exactly how we are doing:

This isn’t spin, this isn’t “Democratic Talking Points”, this is facts, this is real, and those that choose to believce it is a hoax or a conspiracy, well I challenge you to go to your local hospital, or go to a hospital in a large metropolitan area and speak with the doctors and nurses that have had to treat this disease, what it does to the human body, and how much those that eventually die suffer through the symptoms. I have seen several posts on both Facebook and Twitter where people aren’t taking this seriously, or those that deny the science like the dingbat that spoke before the Palm Beach County Commission. The more the wingnuts or idiots deny the true nature and ramifications of this disease the longer it will take for this country to get through it and get back to normal.

As I mentioned in my open, seven major sports leagues are preparing to open up for business in July and the leaders of these leagues, to include commissioners, owners, coaches, players, trainers, and administration members need to take every and all precautions to ensure that the leagues open up safely, follow all CDC guidelines and make sure that no precaution is too frivolous to follow. Only then can we get through this pandemic and get back to normal. I look forward to watching the Indians and Browns this fall, and hope that we can get through the season without too much trouble, while providing some sort of an escape from all of the bad ugliness currently going on in the country.

Speaking of ugliness… there was this over the weekend:

This became the topic of the week, and a lot of people are criticizing NASCAR’s knee-jerk reaction to the discovery of this noose in Bubba Wallace’s stall at Talladega Motor Speedway this past weekend. After an FBI investigation it was discovered that this “garage door pull” was in place as late as October 2019, and was not specifically directed at Bubba Wallace due to how stalls are assigned for race weekend. Let me tell you, if I had seen this myself in the garage, especially in the current racial unrest going on in the country, I would have raised a red flag and assumed it was directed at Wallace, ESPECIALLY because it is Alabama. Let me say, I am sure there are a lot of fine folks in Alabama that aren’t racist, but the history of the state and it’s role in race relations in this country over the last 150 years allows for a bit of levity in that there would be concerns it was placed there deliberately. My apologies Alabama, but your reputation precedes you. I now believe it was not placed there specifically for Bubba Wallace, but despite all that, NASCAR needs to investigate fully and find out who actually was responsible for tying that knot and their reason for doing so. This was not a hate crime, and of that I am sure, but still, this is not normal. Under the circumstances, NASCAR’s reaction was warranted and further investigation is needed to root out the source of the knot. After investigating all of the other stalls at the racetrack, this was the only stall that had the garage pull tied in this manner.

There is a lot going on in the sports world despite no games, but these are the discussions we will have on “The Sports Nerd” show this Sunday night at 7pm eastern time on the Sports Nerd Nation Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/730158067790783/

Join me and my “Rant Pack” of merry men as we discuss the world of sports and the ramifications of ramping up of the return to live games in July…