The 3-2-1!
In an effort to raise awareness of the need for the NHL to go to a 3-2-1 scoring system, I present to you three little nuggets rolling around in my brain as we sit around in quarantine.
3.) FORE!
The PGA appears to have targeted a return to action, and has even laid out a schedule for tournaments. I'll be honest, it's the only sport talking about its season that gets me excited. It's the only sport that I can think of making this work in a reasonably short amount of time.
You can:
- Cut the number of players
- Cut twosomes to single players
- Eliminate caddies
- Eliminate fans
- Have drone camera coverage
- Have announcers in booths commenting to video screens
And you still have the general sport be what it is.
What golf has going for it is the distancing. The tour descends on one course a week, protocols could be put in place. Testing wouldn't have to be obnoxiously high if the course/resort was appropriately quarantined. It seems doable, and that's encouraging.
2.) Gary being Gary
This brings us to the NHL and their usual inability to see the forest for the trees. I'm not sure if that's the right saying, but whatever, right?
In a time where time is dwindling, the resources are scarce, and feasibility of returning to a season as normal is wild at best. The NHL is holding firm that completing their regular season is important.
Regular. Season.
Commissioner Gary Bettman says:
"Our competitive balance is so extraordinary. There are at least seven teams that were on the bubble of making the playoffs and not all of the teams have played the same number of games."
This is the NHL's dream. Misguided, of course. The league pushes back on the idea of a 3-2-1 point system only because it makes the standings look closer. Here the commissioner is pointing to how important it is that the 20th ranked team in the league(?) be allowed to play a couple more games to get to 70 for the year? This is not a strength of the NHL, it's randomness at work. The sport loves its randomness, I suppose. No, it's not "good" that a team that finishes eighth in the conference has the same road to winning the Stanley Cup as a Presidents' Trophy team does. He goes on to talk about fairness and integrity while the league's playoff format does nothing in that regard.
If the NHL wants to come back and award the Cup, it's gotta look more like golf. Pick the best teams, and worry about them. Pick the top-four. Maybe just the top-two. They get the bio-dome, desert island treatment, and play a series.
Every suggestion that sounded like "You take 24 teams, give top-eight a bye" is absurd. The league just wants to endlessly award mediocrity. Here, even in these extreme circumstances, the arguments come out for teams barely hovering around .500.
As usual, I think the NHL has looked slow and silly in this process.
Cancel the season already.
3.) The Battles To Come
Without any sports, I don't have to #sticktosports! So here's something I think about. A lot:
I find that this new normal that we are living in, which is so far from normal, brings so many different challenges for so many different people. Of course, there are those that have or will battle the virus itself. There are families torn apart by loss, or just by the necessary social distancing. There are people that have lost, or still will lose jobs. The uncertainty that comes within each and every day is real, and it's reminded me that one thing sports do for us is present a distraction.
There have been times that I have complained that sports is too good of a distraction. When there's a mass shooting, the local sports team tosses out a hashtag, holds a moment of silence, and society moves on... kinda. The people that suffer those losses certainly don't move on. It's always bothered me that sports are like a coating over so many wrongs in the world. When the NFL became embroiled in the racial injustice commentary brought about by Colin Kaepernick, you'd have lots of sports fans just wanting to get back to their distraction. The issues he brought up, the conversation he started was important, of course. The problem is, it got in the way of sports, right? So while sports soldiered on with Kaepernick, the issues remained ever present.
We are seeing the inequality that exists in this country, and the virus is further bringing that to the forefront. Whether it's about racial disparities in outcomes, or income inequality and just how tenuous anyone's hold on a job, or health insurance is, this virus is doing serious damage.
So when I think about sports coming back, I think "I don't want it to put a coating over these problems that we know we have."
The New Orleans Saints after Hurricane Katrina come to mind. Was it important for the city of New Orleans? Yeah, sure, depending on who is telling that story. It's a coat of paint, for some and a return to normal for others. Mass shootings, terrorism, pandemics. The country has its share of things to try to overcome through strong leadership and good governance. Sports represent a level of normalcy, and serve as that great panacea, too often.
This time, it might be a bit different. This time, with the effects hitting so many more people than an isolated attack in a city, perhaps we can all see more than ever before that more can be done to help those that need help.
So should sports come back as soon as possible? It'd help us feel a little more normal, no doubt, but let's not let it be the full distraction from so many more battles that are still to come.
I'm not trying to make this sound like any sort of lecture. Just that we are learning lessons about ourselves and our country through this time.
Every day I think about our sports coming back. Then I think about people that need help, that might not want people that can help, to get too distracted just yet.
