Rozner: Return to sports essential for some

Some of us are rooting for sports to return - and hoping they can play through this pandemic.

Some of us need sports. I need sports. Not just for my job, but it's a huge part of my everyday existence.

For the hard of reading, I implore any athlete who fears for his or her safety - or that of family - to stay home. No one will think less of you.

Are they essential workers? No. But they are essential to the existence of many folks, especially those shut-in or locked in the tiny room of an assisted-living facility. If you know someone in that situation, you understand.

This is where the essential meets the existential.

Brings me back to the times I was scolded on Thanksgiving or other holidays for sneaking away to find a television.

Or the three hockey games I played with a small fracture in my leg, or the six weeks I played with a broken thumb and badly-bruised sternum, or the two years skating with a constantly dislocating shoulder.

Why did I need to do that? Well, I didn't. I wanted to watch Thanksgiving football and I wanted to play hockey.

Why do we subscribe to Netflix? Why do we pay these outrageous cable bills? Why do we go to movies or concerts or festivals or art fairs?

The easy answer is it's entertainment. Why do we do most of things we do? Because it entertains us.

I don't really know why I play golf when I can be so very good on one day and so very terrible the next. In some perverted way it's entertaining, I suppose. Maybe it's the challenge. Maybe it's just something to do.

Watching sports is also something to do.

Some of us need the escape, the positive distraction from all the ails and all the ills that life so graciously and amply provides, usually without notice.

So, yes, I need my sports. I don't think I can watch one more replay of an MLB All-Star Game or one more regular-season replay of the Canucks and Flames.

Once they plowed through all the World Series and all the Stanley Cup Final series, it became slim pickings out there.

Thank goodness for the Golf Channel and the return of the PGA Tour.

Even still, the mornings without live TV shows recapping the previous day, or the early mornings without European Tour, has been depressing.

CNBC has lost its way and it's just not that interesting anymore.

Sports fill so many gaps in the course of our days.

In a roundtable Tuesday, LSU head football coach Ed Orgeron was begging for a return to play.

"I don't think we can take this away from these players, take this away from our state and our country," Orgeron said. "We need football. Football is a lifeblood of our country. It gets everything going, the economy going, the economy of Baton Rouge, the economy of the state of Louisiana.

"These young men need this chance now."

Maybe you disagree. Maybe you think it unimportant. Maybe Orgeron is overstating it a bit.

Do sports really matter? It's a question I've been asked a lot in my life. Compared to what? That's usually my response.

It's not life and death. The games we play and the ones we watch are not life and death. But playing teaches you so much about life. Winning and losing matters. Learning how to win and lose matters.

And for those who have less to do than others, especially the elderly, they look forward to their nightly visit with their favorite team and the broadcasters that have become family to those who no longer have their own.

These are not bad things. These are good things. For some, it is nearly all they have to look forward to some days.

I told the story on radio many times about that wild Braves-Mets game from July 4, 1985, the one that lasted until nearly sunrise. During one of the darkest periods of my life, I stayed up all night and cheered the insanity of the Rick Camp home run in the 18th inning.

For a night, it gave me something to do and helped me maintain some semblance of sanity.

Sports have always been an important part of my life and I welcome them back now, hopeful they can restart and finish their seasons, and that the players don't jeopardize their health.

Many think it unnecessary. Perhaps. But for many others, it's all they have right now.