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Appearing on Fox News Radio, columnist Mike Sielski argues that the coronavirus pandemic – and its politics – have ruined sports, perhaps permanently.
Sielski, who covers sports for the Philadelphia Inquirer, slammed the “wokeness” of professional spots.
“Can we just play the games?” he asks, suggesting that the NBA, NFL, MLB, and other organizations need to drop the constant politicization of sports.
Sports used to be a way for fans to escape things going on in the world such as politics, their difficult jobs, and many other things. Not anymore, Sielski says.
Sports used to be entertainment. As the country shut down during the pandemic, fans quickly became starved for sports and entertainment.
However, when sports returned, fans learned that it wasn’t going to be enjoyable as it used to be.
“I just – I have to admit,” Sielski began, “I don’t enjoy watching sports as much anymore since the pandemic hit, and I’m not sure why that is. I have some theories about it.”
“I think that sports fans have reached the point now where — and this is not just the NBA, this is the NFL, this is Major League Baseball, whatever sport you want to pick – I think they are at the point now where they’re kind of like, you know what? Can we just play the games?” he asked.
“Believe me, I write about sports from a very kind of sociological angle as much as the next person. I ended up writing a lot about Colin Kaepernick. I’ve written about those issues, too, as much as anybody. But at the core, sports fans want to watch their teams and their favorite athletes play,” he continued.
“And to most of them, it’s a respite from everything else that’s going on in the world – politics, their job that they don’t like, any of those things. And I think that the farther a sport gets away from that, the more trouble that they’re going to have in retaining an audience.”
Sielski also noted how players like Michael Jordan used to stay with the same team. Kobe Bryant stayed with the same team for 20 years.
This created a close bond for fans who felt an exclusive relationship surrounded their city and favorite athletes.
This also helped forge “tribal city-to-city rivalries.” Again, this has all changed.
Today’s NBA stars like Kevin Durant or LeBron James hop around from team to team. The rivalries don’t matter nearly as much anymore.
Athletes, coaches, executives often inject themselves into the latest left-wing social justice cause in the U.S. while ignoring their own connections to disturbing human rights abuses in China.
The combination of all these factors developing during the pandemic have changed sports significantly and possibly forever.
