What will America look like without football?
July 22, 2020
Lee Stubblefield
With the uncertainty of competition casting a dark cloud over sports at all levels, athletes, coaches, parents, and fans are holding their collective breath as we steam into the uncharted waters of the Fall sports season. Everyone involved is hoping for the best, but also preparing for the worst.
The madness started with the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament last March. Since then, the dominoes have fallen in every direction. Baseball, softball, swimming, track. International events succumbed as well. The summer Olympics have been postponed. Boston Marathon, gone. Rose Parade, nixed. A multitude of local 5K’s cancelled or reduced to “virtual races”.
Still, despite the sometimes overblown cautiousness of governing bodies, athletes train because that is what athletes do. But will their efforts ever translate into official competition? Or merely become a log in a training journal?
There can be no better local example than Southwest distance runner, Travis Sickles. A journeyman runner during his freshman and sophomore years, Sickles used an intense off season to become a powerful cross country presence as a junior last fall. Then he posted personal bests of 4:39 in the 1600 and 10:28 in the 3200 last spring, both times that would have placed him in previous Class 2 state meets. But both were solo efforts with his track season erased.
My training partner, Ross Bolding, clipped a 5:59.5 mile just weeks ago at age 74. That is 19 seconds faster than the Arkansas age group record. But there are no meets available for him to display his talents. Although I am not as gifted, I did place 3rd, 10th and 11th in three national championship events last year. But even though I am even faster now after another year of intense training, my racing season is toast.
What will America look like without football?
With no disrespect for other fall sports, the biggest question in the sports world is “What will America look like without football?” Despite the sometimes forced optimism of coaches, athletic directors, and administration, it is an elephant that cannot be confined to the corner.
Cassville’s annual journey to football camp at William Jewel was an early casualty of the cancel culture. The Wildcats will instead conduct all their pre-season training in house.
Meanwhile, some college conferences have already put the brakes on the entire football season. Others have cancelled all non-conference games, a real problem for independents like Notre Dame. Even the NFL cannot seem to reach a consensus on how to move forward with this season.
With all this in mind, the directives from MSHSAA do not look promising.
“As of July 1, the Board of Directors believes it would not be in the best interest of our state to pick and choose which sports/activities would be permitted to continue to have a season while at the same time restricting other sports/activities from continuing due to public health concerns.”
So if we can’t get football right, we will all be sitting this season out.
It is that statement, along with the likely restriction of “tier 3” personnel - parents, spectators, and vendors - that led Bolding, a retired superintendent, to predict that there will be no high school fall sports in 2020.
“How do you justify keeping people away from the games due to perceived risks posed by the virus and then allow the kids to play in that same possibly lethal environment?” he asked. “No one will accept that liability.”
So I ask again.
What will America look like without football?
With the uncertainty of competition casting a dark cloud over sports at all levels, athletes, coaches, parents, and fans are holding their collective breath as we steam into the uncharted waters of the Fall sports season. Everyone involved is hoping for the best, but also preparing for the worst.
The madness started with the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament last March. Since then, the dominoes have fallen in every direction. Baseball, softball, swimming, track. International events succumbed as well. The summer Olympics have been postponed. Boston Marathon, gone. Rose Parade, nixed. A multitude of local 5K’s cancelled or reduced to “virtual races”.
Still, despite the sometimes overblown cautiousness of governing bodies, athletes train because that is what athletes do. But will their efforts ever translate into official competition? Or merely become a log in a training journal?
There can be no better local example than Southwest distance runner, Travis Sickles. A journeyman runner during his freshman and sophomore years, Sickles used an intense off season to become a powerful cross country presence as a junior last fall. Then he posted personal bests of 4:39 in the 1600 and 10:28 in the 3200 last spring, both times that would have placed him in previous Class 2 state meets. But both were solo efforts with his track season erased.
My training partner, Ross Bolding, clipped a 5:59.5 mile just weeks ago at age 74. That is 19 seconds faster than the Arkansas age group record. But there are no meets available for him to display his talents. Although I am not as gifted, I did place 3rd, 10th and 11th in three national championship events last year. But even though I am even faster now after another year of intense training, my racing season is toast.
What will America look like without football?
With no disrespect for other fall sports, the biggest question in the sports world is “What will America look like without football?” Despite the sometimes forced optimism of coaches, athletic directors, and administration, it is an elephant that cannot be confined to the corner.
Cassville’s annual journey to football camp at William Jewel was an early casualty of the cancel culture. The Wildcats will instead conduct all their pre-season training in house.
Meanwhile, some college conferences have already put the brakes on the entire football season. Others have cancelled all non-conference games, a real problem for independents like Notre Dame. Even the NFL cannot seem to reach a consensus on how to move forward with this season.
With all this in mind, the directives from MSHSAA do not look promising.
“As of July 1, the Board of Directors believes it would not be in the best interest of our state to pick and choose which sports/activities would be permitted to continue to have a season while at the same time restricting other sports/activities from continuing due to public health concerns.”
So if we can’t get football right, we will all be sitting this season out.
It is that statement, along with the likely restriction of “tier 3” personnel - parents, spectators, and vendors - that led Bolding, a retired superintendent, to predict that there will be no high school fall sports in 2020.
“How do you justify keeping people away from the games due to perceived risks posed by the virus and then allow the kids to play in that same possibly lethal environment?” he asked. “No one will accept that liability.”
So I ask again.
What will America look like without football?
