At this point, we should all be used to shit we like getting canceled. This Covid crap has ruined plans like vacations and even did its best to stop my wedding. It’s horrible and has actually had an incredibly negative impact on people’s mental and physical health. It has even stunted the social growth of young kids.
We should be used to this, but for some reason the latest things to get dumped bothered me more than rescheduling my wedding.
If you haven’t heard or couldn’t tell by the title of this blog, several NCAA bowl games have been canceled due to “Covid concerns.” To this point, there have been 5 bowl games stopped. These include, the Hawai’i Bowl, the Military Bowl, the Fenway Bowl, the Arizona Bowl and the Holiday Bowl.
Many of you are probably asking, “Blind Owl, why do you care about these bowl games? Aren’t there like 639 bowl games every year? What do these 5 matter?” Well straw man I made up in my own head, you’re right. There are a butt-ton of bowl games every year. Some would probably say too many, but that’s a blog for another day.
I’ll get to the next part of your question, why do I care. Well I care because I love the bowl season. Not only do I have this time of year off from work, but it is a blast to see these schools that wouldn’t normally play each other square off. It also gives those of us who pay attention to college football a final chance to see some players who may or may not be playing on Sunday next year. To me, it is just entertainment and I’ve already lost so much of that these past 2 years, I thought it was something I could count on.
But what it means to me is nothing compared to what it means to the kids who will now be missing the games themselves. Some of these kids may never play football again. This was their last chance to suit up for a competitive game, and now it is just ripped right out from under them. It means so much to them, and they didn’t even get a say in this issue. All of their work and preparation was just arbitrarily taken from them by bureaucrats.
The Holiday Bowl being canceled is the worst example of this whole thing. The game was supposed to be UCLA taking on NC State on Tuesday night at 8pm in San Diego’s PETCO Park. The game wasn’t canceled the month, week or even day before it was supposed to go on. UCLA withdrew from the game at 3:30pm on Tuesday. Doing the math, that means it was only 4 and a half hours before the game. For anyone who doesn’t know, 4 and a half hours before a game, you are already prepared to play. Both mentally and physically. And when you’re a team from North Carolina, you’ve been in California for a few days and families have bought tickets and flown out there to watch the game. Hell, some kids may have already started changing into their uniforms for the game. I can’t even begin to imagine what these kids must have felt when their coaches told them the game was off.
I’m not the only person who is upset by this. Barstool Sports President Dave Portnoy, who was the sponsor of the Arizona Bowl had this to say on Twitter, “Watching these college teams bail at the last minute cause of antiquated Covid rules knowing 1st hand how much work, money and effort goes into these broadcasts is stunning.” Portnoy was responding to Boise State pulling out of the game due to “Covid concerns” after many in the media called for them to pull out of the game due to Barstool’s “history.”
The Boise State backout of the Arizona Bowl is way too coincidental. I think Dave Portnoy and most intelligent people would agree with me. That one is just the media pressuring the college to pull out. Oh, and I’m sure some rich liberal booster said they’d yank funds if they played the game. That is shameful on its own. What is even more despicable is then using Covid to mask their true motive.
What these bowl games being pulled have proven, is that the government and huge bureaucracies love to make the normal people afraid. Then, when we decide we aren’t going to listen to the panic porn and have some fun, they flex their muscles and just take it away. They make these kids feel like they are going to get severely ill if they play in these games and try to make us feel bad for wanting to watch them. Dr. Fauci even tried to turn families against each other over the holidays by saying folks shouldn’t gather.
I think I speak for a lot of people when I say, enough is enough. Most of us have played the game of Covid protocols for almost 2 years. We stayed home when we were asked to. We sacrificed so to help others be healthy. We wore masks because we were told it stopped the spread. It didn’t do too well by the way. Then finally, the vaccine came out, and most of us got that because it was supposed to end it all. But clearly it didn’t. Now a less dangerous variant comes, and they continue to try and scare us and cancel things we like.
I feel bad for the families that had loved ones taken by Covid. Those in power are now using your dead relatives as pawns in their political games trying to screw with the rest of us.
Well, most of us are done. We did everything we were told to do for 2 years. Apparently none of it worked. It is time we tell our officials that enough is enough. We’ve done everything. Repeating any of this is the definition of insanity.
If you think I’m wrong, just wait for the next batch of elections. A lot of those politicians that locked us down continuously will be voted out, and Covid will be treated like a seasonal illness like it should be.