STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS
1 – SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION – I won’t do this often, but I feel this is warranted for those who are interested in it: check out my own blog at stackhousesoapbox.wordpress.com and read my latest entry about the impact of sports on people’s lives. A couple of weeks ago, I put out a call to people and asked them to share with me the importance of sports as I feel young athletes are being discriminated against during this pandemic and there are a lot of people out there who just don’t understand this isn’t only about going out and blowing off some steam and getting exercise. A few of the stories really struck a chord with me and made me wonder just how much of a bad situation would some of us be in if we didn’t have sports as a major part of our lives.
2 – REDUCED PAY – 17 National Hockey League teams have reduced pay of hockey operations staffers, including presidents, general managers, and coaches amid the China-started coronavirus pandemic. This news alone should be enough to quell any possible fishtales of a 2021 season without fans. I think it’s clear we will either have a season with fans in regular arenas or no season at all.
3 – NEBRASKA – Nebraska has loosened Covid restrictions almost entirely in the majority of the state, and that includes mass gatherings where weddings and funerals may proceed as they would have prior to Covid. In addition, outdoor venues will be allowed 100% capacity while indoor ones will be permitted to fill up to 75%. Hopefully the province of Saskatchewan is paying attention to what’s happening in many other jurisdictions when it comes to this situation as the time has arrived to green light sports to move forward as well as providing the blessing of fans to attend if they so desire. Even if we dipped our toe in with 25% for the first couple of weeks and gradually increased it to 2/3rds and leaving it at 2/3rds for most of the rest of the season, I think that should satisfy all involved.
4 – COLLEGE FOOTBALL – It wasn’t the easiest stat to uncover from the weekend, but most of the NCAA football games last week were played in front of fans ranging from 10% to 30% capacity. I think Marshall had the largest with 12,000 of a possible 38,000 on hand. South Mississippi had 9,000 of a possible 36,000 while Texas State played in front of 7,500 of a stadium designed for 30,000. On the low end of the scale, Army registered 4,300 of a potential 38,000 and Memphis had 4,500 of a possible 58,000 (just under 10%).
5 – NEW JERSEY STYLE HOCKEY – Is it just me or is the NHL moving towards another dead puck era? God love Barry Trotz and the New York Islanders, but you could make a case that three of the four teams remaining in the playoffs are there because of the smothering style of defense they all play. I’ve also never seen so many fluke goals as I’ve seen over the last month with pucks going in off bodies in front of the net or an errant stick. It’s not good to have the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Auston Matthews, and Artemi Panarin on the sidelines. Compare that to the NBA where Lebron James and Kawhi Leonard, arguably the two biggest stars in the league, are still going and there’s a clear lack of star power left in the NHL while the NBA has plenty of their best that can draw eyeballs.
6 – NFL OPENER – Speaking of star power, I believe Patrick Mahomes is the current day Wayne Gretzky/Michael Jordan/Tiger Woods. Mahomes wasn’t even spectacular on Thursday, but he was flawless in leading the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs to a convincing win over the Houston Texans. Fantasy wise, Chiefs RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire looks like the real deal. I wouldn’t be putting a lot of money down on the Texans this year. David Johnson looked decent but they’ll miss the game breaking ability of Deandre Hopkins and I haven’t felt they’ve been overly well run from the player personnel end of things. I could easily see Houston dropping to 5-6 wins this year.
7 – NFL FANS – The one league that will push the envelope with regards to fans is the NFL. The Chiefs played in front of 17,000 on Thursday night and nearly ⅓ of the teams will have fans for their respective home openers this weekend and next. The question for any government to consider should be this – if you have players, coaches, trainers, fans, and anyone else that it takes to put on a sporting event prepared to assume some risk in order to make an event come to pass then how can a government in what is — officially at least — a free country stop you from playing your sport or holding your event at this point?
8 – MJHL MOVES FORWARD – The Manitoba Junior Hockey League is ready to go and appears to be set for their regular season to commence on October 9th. There have been two press releases from the league indicating the format to which the teams will operate under. The regular season has been reduced from 56 games to 40 and there will be three self-imposed breaks in the event there is a Covid situation that needs to be dealt with. I haven’t seen anything publicly as far as fans being allowed to attend, but my understanding is that the season will start with buildings at 35% capacity and if things go well, it will be bumped up to 50%.
9 – DJOKOVIC BAN – Tennis star Novak Djokovic was kicked out of the US Open last weekend after he batted a tennis ball in frustration and it ended up striking a sideline official in the neck. Perhaps the disqualification was warranted I won’t proclaim to pay enough attention to tennis to really form an educated opinion on it but I do know there are people who have it out for Djokovic because he has been a bad role model for those who like being scared as he didn’t take Covid seriously and tried to stage his own tennis tour a number of months ago only to have it stopped after a couple of players contracted the virus. Djokovic, himself, contracted the virus a number of weeks ago but as you can see he has recovered nicely and is back playing tennis at its highest level and not suffering from these supposed long term effects that we are hearing about now. In fact, aside from one baseball player who ended up with myocarditis (a condition that can manifest as a result of any viral infection) there have been no instances of long haul covid amongst pro athletes.
10 – VIRUS DOESN’T SPREAD EVERYWHERE – We know school sports is a high risk activity and there is super spread potential for the virus, yet club sports seem to be immune from the virus. In Yorkton, the Blitz Volleyball program is allowed to conduct various skills training sessions (virus only spreads during games too, not during practice sessions) so check your local area to see if your young athlete, who is being discriminated against by school and government officials through having sports taken away, is maybe able to salvage a season to some degree or, at the very least, keep up with skill development through a club if school isn’t an option.
(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)
