It’s safe to assume that most people can recall an epic sports moment that they have witnessed at some point in their life. From John Elway’s first Super Bowl win in 1997 to the moment the Chicago Cubs broke their curse and won the team’s first World Series in 2016 in a nail-biting game seven; there are so many memorable sports moments to reminisce about.
Now we find ourselves in March 2020 amidst a global pandemic due to COVID-19—a public health crisis unparalleled by anything similar since the 1918 flu pandemic. Across the country, but especially here in New York State, measures unprecedented to anyone currently living are in place to mitigate the impact and spread of the disease. People are staying home from work, businesses are closed, social distancing is the new norm and unfortunately, almost all sporting events have been canceled.
The decision to postpone or cancel sporting events was the only option available to league executives across the world, as large gatherings of people are irresponsible in times of a pandemic such as this. We love sports and the entertainment that comes with them; somewhere in our evolution we acquired the desire to watch competitions and pick a side to cheer for. Of course, we are missing our sports—the peer discussion about games or players, the rollercoaster of emotion watching your favorite team play a tight game or just simply the escape from reality, but we know that this is the right move for the safety of millions of people across the world.
As a result of the unique times and isolation of families, sports leagues such as the National Football League and National Basketball Association have offered free trials of their streaming services. These premium services provide you with access to recordings of full-length games, as well as classic games and highlights. In addition, teams and other sports media accounts on social media have also stepped their game up in terms of content production. Nothing comes close to the real thing, but sports fans finally are able to scratch the itch that has resulted from the deprivation of live events.
This gives us the ability to relive the moments that we saw live, but it also gives people the ability to connect with a moment from decades ago that we didn’t get the chance to see. For younger sports fanatics it’s an amazing opportunity to watch the legends they know very well in their prime. It offers a chance for parents and children to bond, as the parents introduce their kids to favorite memories from when they were their age. Maybe somewhere a father and son are watching Larry Bird win NBA championships in the 1980s, or a mom and her daughter are reliving Serena Williams’ path to the top of the tennis world.
No matter what it is, the vault of amazing past sports moments available to us provides excitement and an opportunity to experience something special with someone close to us. Although it might feel like the world has been turned upside-down, we can do our part and stay inside binge watching old highlights and momentous games until the world sees a return to normalcy.