Clark: Just one small taste of live sports has us begging for more
As much fun as it was to watch, "The Last Dance," ESPN's 10-part Michael Jordan documentary the last five Sundays, it's what we got to watch this past Sunday that resonated the most for me.
Maybe you, too.
Because we got to watch an honest-to-goodness, live sporting event on our televisions.
Even though it was golf. Even though it included two amateurs, one of whom looked like any of us for most of the front-nine, and even though it had no real fans and no real stakes, I didn't care one bit. I watched Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning play Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in, "The Match," for almost the full five hours on Sunday.
And it was glorious.
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Not because I cared who won. I can't imagine anyone cared who actually won. Of course, as an Atlanta Falcons fan, I wasn't sad Brady lost. And I definitely wasn't sad he split his pants on national television, either. The way I see it, that dude can go ahead and embarrass himself for the next 40 years for all I care (starting this year in Tampa!).
No, what made Sunday glorious was that it was a competition. Actual competition!
I've missed it so, so, so much.
The Jordan documentary was entertaining, but I lived through all of that 30 years ago. There was no drama. There were no real surprises. There were no, "Did that just happen?!" moments.
Until Sunday, the last one of those I had seen was this. You might remember it.
Trent Forrest ripped Jordan Nwora's soul out on Feb. 24 of this year.
Less than two weeks later, the Florida State men's basketball team won its first-ever ACC regular-season championship.
And then the Seminoles never played again.
Nobody did. And nobody has since.
Obviously, sports isn't as important as life and death. Nobody with an IQ above a speed limit would ever make that argument. But that doesn't mean they're not an incredibly important part of life. There's no shame in admitting that.
I've had to re-engineer my brain over the last two months without sports. I'm sure you have, too.
From covering spring practice and FSU baseball to watching the Atlanta Braves, the NBA playoffs and my son play on his travel team, my spring was going to be chock-full of live sports. It always has been.
Instead, all of those things I was looking forward to have been replaced by ... I don't really know. Netflix? Online poker? Losing my mind trying to help Brady with his math homework?
At first it was surreal. And then it became depressing.
Folks, I was so starved for sports that two or three times a week, I would walk down to a golf course near my house and just watch random folks play the ninth hole. I would clap for a good shot. I would wince for bad ones (I was doing a whole lot of wincing).
But it was live sports! It was competition! It was a sport I don't care about all that much. Played by people I didn't know. Who always seemed a bit taken aback by the bald guy on the hill watching them play. But I didn't care. I had to have a taste.
THIS is how starved I was (editor's note: I made up the names of the golfers).
So, yeah, I was going a little stir crazy in the middle of this thing.
I still am actually.
There has been a massive void in my life for the past two months.
Which is why Sunday's silly charity golf match was so refreshing. And not just because Brady hacked it around for most of the front-nine like he was doing his best Ira Schoffel impression.
We got Phil describing an incredible chip before he hit it. We got Tiger talking trash to Tom Brady after his drive found the fairway of another hole. We had Peyton being goofy Peyton. And aside from the much-needed seven-second delay, it was all live.
And the beauty of live sports is you never, ever, ever know what's going to come next.
Every now and again, you get one of those, "Did that just happen?!" moments.
I mean, that whole sequence was absolutely incredible. From Charles Barkley (of all people!) trash-talking another person on a golf course, to Brady being legitimately irked by it, to Brady then responding by hitting an unbelievable shot.
Not that I needed much reminding, but that moment -- which, truthfully, was one of the best things I've ever seen on television -- hammered home just how much I miss watching sports.
And how much we desperately need them back.
I understand they'll be different than before. Maybe there will be fans in the stands. Maybe not. I personally don't care if the NBA Playoffs are played in front of no one. Same with Major League Baseball. I can deal with that for a year if it means we actually get to watch great athletes compete again.
And I'll be honest, watching an entire golf match without hearing "Baba Booey!" or "Get in the hole!" was pretty enjoyable, too. So keep fans away from the golf courses for all I care -- at least until life gets back to normal.
But after watching that golf match (I'm not as tuned in to Korean baseball or German soccer), I'm truly excited about what's next. Because I think the will is there to get sports back in our country. And not just because they account for billions of dollars in revenue (though that's certainly an important reason).
They are entertainment for tens of millions of us. They are a wonderful distraction.
And if there are two things this country needs a huge heaping helping of right now, it's entertainment and distraction.
By July, I really believe both Major League Baseball and the NBA will be playing games again. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, but the testing capability in this country has more than doubled in the last month.
From April 17 to April 24: 1,502,488 total Americans were tested (187,811 per day).
From May 17 to May 24: 3,106,183 total Americans were tested (388,273 per day).
If we can see a similar trend over the next month, then one would think every team will have more than enough tests to make sure their players and staff are safe.
By the time football season rolls around, here's hoping we are producing 750,000 tests a day in this country. Or maybe even a million. Who knows? But as long as we get to a point where anyone in the United States that needs a test can get one, then there is no reason football can't be played on time. Because every player will have access to a test before every game.
Will fans be there to see it in person?
I don't know.
I do know that I'll enjoy it either way.
We all might enjoy it more than we've enjoyed any other football season of our lifetimes.
Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council