
On Sunday, Nov. 24, 1963, the NFL decided to play a full slate of games only two days after President John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas. As the shocked country was dealing with questions it couldn’t answer, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle stated: “It has been traditional in sports for athletes to perform in times of great personal tragedy.”
This decision has been the subject of debate every time there is a national tragedy. After 9/11 there was no clear path on how the country could get back on track. What role should sports play in a return to normalcy?
On Friday night, terrorism in its most diabolical form brought Paris, an entire country, and the world face-to-face with its barbaric tools. Communities in our country and around the world have been stopped in their tracks and forced to re-examine what places are considered truly safe havens in our daily lives. Sports has often been cited as a salve for our fears, emotional pain, loss, angst and even a cleaning agent for the fog of war. Games often seem to be an acceptable security blanket when we don’t know where to turn for solace as a larger community.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
[RELATED: NFL upping security after terrorist attacks on Paris]
Will there ever be a set of circumstances that takes sports away from us for an extended period of time? Can there ever be a “depression” in sports similar to what has occurred in other realms of our life? Though morbid to consider, the threats to sports as part of our daily lives as we know it are very real:
TERRORISM: Most sports league now require all fans to pass through metal detectors in order to attend games. The suicide vest explosion near an entrance at the v during the France-Germany soccer match is an example of the Black Sunday mass attack at a sports venue that is the worst nightmare. We have all questioned whether walking through a low-frequency metal detector, a pat here, and a wand there can be an effective deterrent to stop someone bent on mass bloodshed.
ILLNESS: Influenza, SARS, Ebola or some other form of contagion could force government regulations to limit the size of public gatherings. Sooner or later the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) will run into a flu that it can’t control.
News
ERRATIC ECONOMY: The Great Depression of 1929-33 and the Great Recession of 2007-09 caused havoc with disposable income -- the lifeblood of sports. We live in a time of increasing uncertainty where even the most brilliant economists don’t have a game plan for what our future will look like. That’s not good news for sports.
CONCUSSIONS: There are more than 2,000 NFL retired players pursuing a class-action lawsuit against the league. The language from the retired players’ lawsuit lays out a challenge that the NFL is taking very seriously: “The NFL, like the sport of boxing, was aware of the health risks associated with repetitive blows producing sub-concussive and concussive results and the fact that some members of the NFL players population were at significant risk of developing long-term brain damage and cognitive decline as a result.”
With $28 billion worth of guaranteed media contracts, the NFL, TV network partners, team owners and sponsors will be following these ongoing cases and appeals with a nervous understanding of what the financial implications of future outcomes could mean.
Youth soccer in the US is now taking proactive measures to cut out heading for their beginning players. Contact sports at every level are dealing with the complicated issues surrounding the most important computer in the world -- the one between our ears.
THE WORLD OF HYPERMEDIA: Millions of fans spend more time at games looking at screens (iPhones, Android communicators and HD mega-video boards) than interacting with the fans sitting right next to them. They spend more time looking down at their devices than up at the world’s greatest athletes.
NATURAL DISASTERS: It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. Hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards and hundred-year floods seem to becoming more prevalent as global warming changes our reality. On Oct. 17, 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake interrupted Game 3 of the Bay Bridge World Series, causing a 10-day interruption until the region was ready to play ball. Weather is becoming harder to predict and is playing a greater force on our sporting interests.
Sports is a global language joining, music, science, art, and religion as a universal form of positive communication. Terrorism’s greatest threat is to have populations change their way of life and bend to the will of those perpetrating these horrific acts. Sports has always been able to act as a unifying force. We need to know that those in charge of our sports venues are doing everything in their power to keep everyone safe. The world of sports is not impervious to the stark reality that is playing out in our everyday lives.