When the sports stop: The sports fan’s guide to surviving the early stages of a sports shutdown
If you are like me, the last few days have been very, very, VERY rough.
No live sports and the absence of the NCAA Tournament, along with the delays to the MLB, NHL, NBA, and Soccer have made things difficult to find a daily sports fix. The coronavirus has impacted basically everything in our lives for the following months. This delay might last up to eight weeks or even beyond into the heart of Summer.
Here is a how-to guide to survive the no-live sports portion of our life in the “Social Distancing” stage of life dealing with the coronavirus.
Surviving the NCAA Tournament
On Earth No. 2, the NCAA Tournament is already underway with the First Four games going on. Well, here in reality there is no tournament of any kind. So what can fans starve for brackets, dunks, and upsets going to do.
My suggestion is to hit up YouTube, or YouTubeTV to watch some of the top college basketball games of this season and tournaments from the past. Sure, it’s not current but there’s games good enough to satisfy the March Madness appetite. You can also find some of the most instant classics in the last season or two on the various networks. Speaking of the networks…
The Networks…What do they do?
ESPN, FS1, you name the sports network and they’re all in line right now. Basically they’re having to go to their archives for stuff. A lot of games and original programming have been on ESPN in the last few days.
League and sports-specific networks are putting together a programming list that gives fans some type of normalcy.
NFL Network: Free Agency coverage.
NHL Network: Vintage NHL games and original content.
MLB Network: Up to date news and classic games.
NBA TV: Original content and classic games.
NFL and NBA Draft Prep
So, it might be awhile before both the NBA and NFL Drafts are actual conversations and some prime discussions can be crafted. In the time between now and when those occur it can be used as solid prep time for your favorite team or see where players from your favorite college team are going.
We do know the NFL Draft will be set from Las Vegas in April as scheduled but will not have an audience. We still are without a new date for the NBA Draft which will be moved up most definitely due to the resumption of the NBA season which is slated for sometime in mid-June. This means the NBA Draft and summer league are probably doing to move down the road as well.
With all that time between both drafts, it’s a great time to research your favorite prospects or check out some of the top mock draft sites for both the NFL and NBA.
Video Games
So, for a segment of the folks who are practicing social distancing there is a great opportunity to get your skills up in two popular sports games.
Coming out just a few days ago is MLB The Show 20 for the Playstation 4.
Another popular sports game that can help feed the sports fan soul is FIFA 20 for XBox, PS4 and Nintendo Switch. There’s no Sounders or any soccer worldwide so while the sports world stands still, get your soccer fix in the video game world.
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
