Dear Sports,

Let me just get straight and to the point. What the heck are we supposed to do without you?

You’ve always been there for us. When all else was going wrong in the world, we could always count on you to help us forget about it. It really didn’t matter what time of the year it was, you were always there.

Now, it’s past the middle of March, a time when we have always relied on you the most.

We are supposed to be filling out our college basketball brackets just to ball them up and throw them into the trash can a few days later because of all the upsets. It reminds us of why it’s called March Madness in the first place, and it’s one of the reasons it usually makes America nuts this time of year. We just love it, Sports, and it’s no fun without you here.

This is a the time of year we’re supposed to go catch a college baseball game at Swayze or Dudy Noble Field,  or one of our local high school events.

It was a time of watching the home stretch of the NBA, or catching a MLB spring training game on television, not to mention SEC baseball that should be in its third week of conference play.

Yes ,sports, I understand why you had to go on a break for us and I realize that you’re doing it for our health. And the health of those that actually play the games. I’ll  admit it was the right thing for you to do.

My only hope is those people who think you overreacted by taking a break from us will take it as a sign that this whole coronavirus thing is serious.

So I commend you, Sports, for doing the right thing, but that doesn’t make any of this any easier. What are we supposed to watch on TV?

What are we going to talk about in the barbershop? Heck, how are we supposed to fill up the newspaper’s sports page?

It’s been 19 years since 9/11. We’ve dealt with taking a break from you before, and in a way  it is a lot like I felt last week when the sports world came to a standstill.

Somehow we got through our time away from you in 2001, and somehow we will get through this as well. Eventually things will get back to normal as they alway do.

How soon that will be remains to be seen. Maybe it’s two weeks, maybe it’s a month, or heaven forbid it’s several months. However long it is, we will miss you.

An often-used term in sports is  “next man up” which refers to when a key player goes down and someone has to take her or his place. Except now there is no next man up.

All of you are now on the sideline at the same time and it’s going to take some time for us to get used to life without you.

Until then, what the heck are we supposed to do?

Sincerely,

Sports fans