Tim Benz: Coronavirus may be ruining sports world. Does it have to ruin our hope?

I’m no longer simply bored with the coronavirus-induced sports desert of the moment.

I’m now in full-blown depression.

My blues extend well beyond sports and into just about every avenue of how people have politicized and polarized the pandemic.

It started with the chorus of people insisting sports “weren’t important” at a time like this. Extend that trend to those grousing that NFL free agency shouldn’t be allowed to start amid the virus’ grip. Then it bled into the bleating from those such as Adam Schefter insisting the draft be postponed.

This past weekend, that sensation crested with the reaction to President Donald Trump’s conference call with sports commissioners updating them on the prospects of when they may be able to get their leagues back to action.

The headline grabber was that Trump said the NFL should start on time in September.

Guess how a lot of folks on Twitter, in other political offices, and those in the sports media took that news.

And yet this from NFL doc yesterday:
"We have to get to the point that when someone is tested as positive to the virus, that does not mean an immediate quarantine. If that is the case, you can’t think about opening up a team sport.”

Projecting anything is just pointless. https://t.co/sZuwPJ7PfM

— Will Graves (@WillGravesAP) April 4, 2020

California Governor Gavin Newsom's full response when asked if he anticipated the NFL to open in August or September with full stadiums: pic.twitter.com/5gpk76kfsH

— LindseyThiry (@LindseyThiry) April 4, 2020

Please. This is coming from the guy that said 15 cases would go to zero and the country would open by Easter. It’s really okay to call him an idiot and not hinge on every thing he says.

— Cody Cockrum (@OUCody13) April 4, 2020

Geez. I interpreted that as good news. At least Trump didn’t say, “Listen, fellas, shut it all down. Game off until 2021.”

But you know me. I’m nothing but zany, cockeyed optimist. That’s always been my reputation.

How about the reaction to what Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said on Friday?

Dabo: “I have zero doubt” we’ll start the season on time and “the stands will be full.”

— Hi, I’m David (@ADavidHaleJoint) April 3, 2020

Dabo says we’ve put a man on the moon and created the iPhone, so he’s confident someone’s going to figure out a way to beat the virus.

— Hi, I’m David (@ADavidHaleJoint) April 3, 2020

Dabo says they’ve adopted an acronym: T.I.G.E.R.S.

This
Is
Gonna
End
Real
Soon

— Hi, I’m David (@ADavidHaleJoint) April 3, 2020

Is he wrong? I don’t think so. I hope not. At least about the whole beating the virus thing, anyway.

Although, in similar fashion to the Trump quote, I give you USA Today baseball writer Gabe Lacques. Some, like Lacques, are jabbing Swinney for his comments.

Totally
Ignorant
Guy
Epidemiologists
Reign
Supreme https://t.co/K154vatVjN

— Gabe Lacques (@GabeLacques) April 3, 2020

I don’t get this mentality.

There’s nothing wrong with Swinney or anyone in the sports world praying and preparing for the best-case scenario, while bracing for the potential for a worst-case scenario.

I fail to grasp the need so many people these days seem to have to shame others for optimism or trying to maintain normalcy.

That’s not being tone deaf, or insensitive to the moment, or denying the severity of the pandemic.

That’s hope. Only Twitter in the covid-era could turn that into a bad quality.

Take a look at some non-sports examples. I’ll start with this response to a TribLive story on the potential vaccine being developed at the University of Pittsburgh.

In science, there are many treatments for mice, fewer for humans.

— Matthew Stephens (@Durant1899) April 3, 2020

I recalled this reaction to a TribLive thread that gave some positive early returns on how our region’s social distancing efforts were doing, relative to the big picture.

False sense of security

— Erika (@erika_clark5) March 27, 2020

Was it? Or was that an indication that we were doing what was necessary to keep us on pace so as not to get overwhelmed by what was coming?

Check out this subtweet to an MSN post about an anti-parasitic drug that has been found to kill covid-19 in the lab within 48 hours.

In lab in a Petri dish. Nothing shown in vivo (within the living)

— chris (@rxmeds96) April 5, 2020

Here’s my suggestion to news organizations all over world. No more stories about progress. Scrap any headline about science on the path to a cure. Cease answering questions about when normalcy may arrive.

Just give me the infection rates. Scare me silly with the death totals. Tell me how covid-19 is going to last so long it’s going to prevent us from having Christmas trees.

Yup, that’s the good stuff! That’s what everyone wants.

We all need an attitude enema. Is that an elective procedure we can still get done somewhere?

There’s #stayinghome because you have to do so. And it’s smart. Then there’s “#stayinghome” because you are content to just let days pass, get beaten down by this thing, and assume the worst at all turns.

Or there’s “#stayinghome” because your political leanings go toward the left. And since the president was careless enough to make it sound like we’d have quarantine rollbacks in our Easter baskets, you want to rail against any sort of headline from him suggesting progress could be made any time over the next 18 months.

Cuz, you know, winning the political war is what REALLY matters these days. Right?

We can all follow CDC guidelines yet still hope to get outta this mess ASAP, can’t we?

That’s not poor behavior or destructive thinking.

In sports and beyond.