Former Coopers president, current capo, and always handsome guy Matt Dalton weighs in on where Louisville City and sports in general find themselves in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic:
Let’s go ahead and address the pandemic in the room. It’s a subject I’m sure most of you are sick of hearing, talking, and thinking about, for good reason. Unfortunately it’s something that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
One of the more interesting things about sports to me is its ability to exist in a vacuum. Sports, at least in terms of public discourse, operates on its own plane of existence. Sports stays in it’s lane, only veering into casual conversation on the eve of Championship games or particularly interesting scandals. It’s not very often that the “real world” bleeds into sports.
Moments like Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists during the 1968 Olympics, Howard Cosell announcing the death of John Lennon on Monday Night Football, and the events of September 11th have each had their turn making an indelible mark on the consciousness of millions. And you can now add COVID-19, the coronavirus, as many of us have come to call it, to that list. It’s something that supersedes everything else, and is mulled over at length in every section of the newspaper and your news feed. Now it seems as if sports is (temporarily, at least) no longer an escape or distraction from the tidings of the real world.
I haven’t spoken to anyone from the team about COVID-19 or it’s possible repercussions on the USL season. I don’t know what sort of discussions are happening behind the scenes regarding either our dress rehearsal in the USOC, or our coming out party against Birmingham on April 11th. I have no reason to believe they aren’t looking closely into the situation, and monitoring it as we all are.
So where am I at personally with all this? Right now part of me thinks that public safety matters more than a game. And another part of me knows that basically nothing could stop me from walking through the gates of LFS for the first time. I’m not advocating for either side. I don’t have any more information about the current crisis than anyone else does, But I know I’m only making that decision for myself. I don’t envy the person or persons that have to make that call for thousands.
Any delay of the USL season would be gut wrenching. I’m beyond optimistic about the team that John Hackworth has put together for 2020. Not to mention the hard work that thousands of people put into Lynn Family Stadium for its inaugural season. And because of that I know that any decision that’s made will not be made lightly. But, man, does it suck that this is even a possibility.
So what can we do? I honestly have no clue. Maybe I should’ve figured that out before I started typing. But here we are. I miss those of you that have truly become my purple family over these last 5 years tremendously. My friends are numerous thanks to Louisville City FC, and I’m all the better a person for it. I hope that, by hook or by crook (or maybe even by vaccine) I’m able to see you all very soon, even if we’re all wearing facemasks. [Ed. Note: DON’T BUY A FACEMASK UNLESS YOU’RE SICK]. So take care of yourselves out there, and for the love of the footie gods, wash your damn hands.
