Reacting peacefully to sports scene is wise in COVID-19 times

The Cougars had 18 players and staff test positive for COVID-19.

There are moments during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic you want to tell some in the sports scene or some fans of the scene to go take a valium or go smoke some medical marijuana.

It seems like any time there is a change with the sports scene that people want to lash out emotionally. It is almost like you get some sort of high by being triggered. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there are lots of opportunities to get triggered by changes in the sports scene.

Those people don’t seem to settle down, step back and think thinks out with a calm mind.

When you look at the sports world, it can be understandable. In the sports world, it seems society loves to see their sports figures be emotional, passionate and show heart. The same goes for the fans.

The emotion, passion and heart show you care about the sport and care about the team you are playing for, work for or cheer for.

What sometimes gets forgotten is sport rewards those who can control their emotion and passion and can conduct themselves in a cerebral and professional manner.

Joe Montana, who built a Pro Football Hall of Fame career playing for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, was known by one of his nicknames as “Joe Cool.”

Why was Montana known as “Joe Cool?”

Montana was “Joe Cool,” because no matter how big the stakes were in a game, or what adversities were faced in the contest he was playing, he never lost his cool.

He always shut out the noise and acted in control. He formulated a plan in his mind that this is what you had to do to get things done, and he would go out and execute those things to win the game.

You could find those types of qualities in most of the best athletes like hockey icon Wayne Gretzky and basketball icon Michael Jordan.

A lot of times, you don’t even need to look at the top levels of professional sports to find those qualities.

The Prince Albert Raiders displayed those qualities during the 2018-19 campaign when they finished first overall in the WHL and won the WHL title. As a unit, the players didn’t lose their cool and were focused on what needed to be done in the game they were playing that day.

Provincials in 2021 are mostly no in Man., uncertain for Westman Wildcats.

Even if scrums or fight situations developed and one of the Raiders showed great passion at that time, that player was still in control and knew what he was doing.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the world is a different animal. In North America, there have been some sort of restrictions in place to battle COVID-19 for a little over the past eight-and-a-half months.

As new case numbers have spiked throughout November in North America, restrictions have been reintroduced at different levels everywhere.

There have been situations that society has never dealt with as a collective in its history. One of those points came in late March and early April when pretty much all non-essential services in the world were stopped.

The last time the world experienced a pandemic that paralleled what is happening with the current COVID-19 pandemic was the Spanish Flu pandemic that ran from 1918 to 1920. Shutdowns did happen during the Spanish Flu pandemic, but only a handful of people in today’s world were alive back then and most would have been too young to have recollections of the Spanish Flu.

The Spanish Flu pandemic was caused by an H1N1 influenza A virus, and vaccines created by medical science in the current day have kept influenza viruses under control.

Still as a collective, society in the current day doesn’t have experience dealing with something like what the COVID-19 pandemic has presented.

In the sports world, the natural reaction is to act emotionally when a change occurs. At times, people that are lashing out need to step back and really look at what they are reacting to.

They have to ask themselves is it really worth ranting and raving over what they are reacting to or triggered from.

If you are ranting and raving over something immediately, that usually is a sign that you have been triggered.

In the current sports climate, the changes and the breaking news isn’t going to stop coming. That has been true even in the past couple of days.

On Monday, Hockey Manitoba announced all minor hockey provincials for the 2021 have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those tournaments would have run across the province throughout February and March of 2021.

An opening was still in place to allow provincial leagues to name a provincial champion in Manitoba.

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan and QMJHL are off until Jan. 2021.

On Monday, it was also announced that 18 members of the Mount Royal University Cougars men’s hockey team had tested positive for COVID-19. The positives tests included both players and staff members. The team is in isolation and due to Alberta public health orders, the Cougars won’t be training again until next year.

Also on Monday, the QMJHL announced all league activities are suspended starting on Tuesday and running through to Jan. 3, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If that wasn’t enough, Brady Lang of 650 CKOM reported on Monday the City of Saskatoon pulled all hockey nets off outdoor community rinks due to the provincial public health orders that are in place. Those restrictions are currently set to be in place until Dec. 17.

To different degrees, you could find people raging on any of these topics. At the end of the day, does that rage really help anything outside of blowing off steam?

You could also react too far in joyful way when good news appears to occur.

On Tuesday, Curling Canada announced the 2021 Scotties, the Brier, the men’s world curling championship and the Canadian national mixed doubles will all be hosted at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alta., in a bubble city format. The official dates of these events are still to be announced.

When this bit of news dropped, there were those that acted like life was going to return to normal starting tomorrow.

The Curling Canada announcement was great news, but you do have to take the news knowing that there is a risk those four events still might not happen.

There is also great optimism about the four vaccine candidates that mainstream media outlets have done a number of stories on the past handful of days. The expectation of what might happen in those stories still has to be tempered.

For myself when I hear those vaccine stories, I have moments where I envision everything returning to normal by September of 2021. I realize the game isn’t over and there are still a lot of steps that have to be taken to get to that point.

I don’t try to set a date for those things and try to let it play out as it will play out and react the best I can to the developments.

With all that said, I am not against athletes having a good cry or being upset session, if their season comes to an unexpected end. If they can do that with a friend or teammate and even talk those feelings out with a teammate, that type of action is even better.

The 2019 WHL champion Raiders were cool even in emotional times.

The up and down waves of emotion are going to continue to come during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here is hoping everyone in society can find a way to ride those waves out as evenly as possible.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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