When our current President referred to “shithole countries” he really should have been about us. Not socioeconomically of course, but intellectually. We lost Big Ten and Pac 12 (still awaiting the decisions of the other Power 5 conferences, as of this writing) college football today.
Why? Because we never got serious about a real, unified plan to try and combat the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a once-in-a-century kind of crisis, and we’ve had it front and center in our lives, everyday, for five months. Yet here we are, because our country is too stupid and too disorganized and too divided to get our act together.
While nobody wants to go without college football this fall, at least we have closure on this now. And like Sean Dolittle said "sports is a reward for a functional society".
Ours is highly dysfunctional, & it starts at the very very top. Unless we do a 180 & soon, no bball either https://t.co/KCsgc0u45e— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) August 11, 2020
If we don’t wake up from this nightmare right now, and get it together, we’ll lose college basketball too. College hoops practice begins in October. Games begin in November. Our COVID numbers are getting worse, not better.
Our states are more divided and less United. Why? Because we consistently platform the dumbest of the dumb, and other dumb people here these idiots talk and believe there is a “debate” or “both sides.” That’s on the mainstream media too. You can “both sides” washing your hands. A mask is a basic piece of medical PPE, it’s not a political football.
When the media points out the Aubrey Huffs of the world, even to make fun them, you’re platforming people like him and giving the rest of us brain damage.
If you're not already fully convinced that we're an egregiously dumbed down society, full of shockingly stupid people, and the dumbest of the dumb have frighteningly large public platforms…read the tweets of those who are angry about the Big 10 announcement today
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) August 11, 2020
I told you over a month ago that college football wasn’t going to happen. So don’t be shocked if we lose out on college hoops too. It’s another contact sport where guys are breathing and sweating on each other all the time.
Except here, all of that crowding in is INSIDE, not outdoors; during the height of flu season mind you. So MASK UP! But don’t take my word for it, listen to University of Kentucky Coach John Calipari.
“Just wear the mask. If you’re out, if you’re in a building. If you’re outside walking around, I get it, but if you’re in a building, you’re in any kind of position where you’re around people, put the mask on,” Calipari said on his most recent Zoom call with the media.
“When I walked the boardwalk, I’ll have the mask with me. I had it in my pocket. And now if I go by a group of people, I put the mask on. If I’m walking, I’m by myself and there’s no one but the seagulls, I’m not going to put the mask on.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.