Monday, March 16, 2020

Trying To Stay Sane Without Sports: The Official Guide

I'm sad about sports in a different way than usual

The COVID-19 pandemic has left a lot of people working from home, or have their workplaces close indefinitely. News about the virus seems to be constant and scary. It's important to stay updated with the news, but constantly refreshing the newsfeed on Twitter or the New York Times or your local newspaper while staying in your house isn't going to help your mental health at all. It's important to unwind!

Unfortunately, one of the biggest outlets we turn to when the world is scary was one of the first things to be canceled. The NBA and NHL have suspended play until further notice. The NCAA has canceled all winter and spring sports, including the men's and women's basketball tournaments. MLB ended spring training and the start of the season will be delayed. The Masters has been suspended as well. This is usually the most fertile time for sports fans, but now there's nothing.

It's hard to cope with that, unless you're really into the NFL offseason, where some major deals seem to be happening. I've tried my best to make a guide for what you can do to substitute sports and maintain a little bit of sanity in your self-quarantine.

1. Just Try to Find Your Favorite Games/Highlights Online


Watching live sports is great because you don't know what could happen, but if you're like me and your favorite sports teams suck, it often ends in heartbreak. You know how you can watch your favorite teams and players without feeling heartbroken? Watch games you already know the results of! It's obviously not the same, but it's something.

Youtube is a fertile ground for archives of old games. Here are some games I'll probably be reliving in the near future:
If you don't want to dedicate hours to full games you already know the result of, there are always highlight videos of your favorite athletes. If you can ever get sick of Barry Sanders highlights, I disown you forever.

Here are some videos:

You're probably going to be watching a lot more Netflix while you're at home anyway, so why not fill the sports void with that as well?

I'm probably going to be watching a lot of 30 for 30 documentaries to kill time. All of them are available on ESPN+, which you can get for $4.99 a month, or $12.99 a month bundled with Hulu and Disney+. I haven't gotten to watching the recent Michael Vick documentary or the long-form O.J.: Made in America series, so that seems like a good use of time.

Ten of my favorites:
  • The Fab Five
  • Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks
  • June 17, 1994
  • No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson
  • The Two Escobars
  • The U
  • Survive and Advance
  • One Night in Vegas
  • Broke
  • Muhammad and Larry
Also here's a list of sports movies you can watch on various streaming services:
  • Netflix: Miracle, Goon and Goon: Last of the Enforcers, The Natural, Kingpin, Undefeated, Ali, High Flying Bird, Beyond the Mat, Any Given Sunday, The Longest Yard (the original), Karate Kid (remake)
  • Hulu: I, Tonya, Creed II, Warrior, Fighting with My Family
  • Disney+: The Sandlot, Miracle, Remember the Titans, Cool Runnings, Rookie of the Year, Free Solo, The Rookie, Glory Road, The Greatest Game Ever Played, Invincible, various Disney Channel movies like Johnny Tsunami, Brink, Double Teamed, MotoCrossed, Full Court Miracle, and Eddie's Million Dollar Cookoff
  • HBO: 64*, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, The Big Green, the Mighty Ducks trilogy, For the Love of the Game, MXP: Most Xtreme Primate (aww yeah)
  • Pluto TV (free): Blue Chips, Raging Bull, Over the Top, also there's a channel that is constantly livestreaming episodes of American Gladiators which rules
  • Tubi (free): Bad News Bears (the remake), Blue Chips, Kingpin, No Holds Barred, like all of the Kickboxer sequels but not the original
  • Vudu (the following ones are free): The Karate Kid franchise, The Waterboy

3. Get Into Wrestling (Don't Do This)


You could also use your free time to get into the worst hobby ever: professional wrestling! A lot of wrestling companies are still going, but running empty arena shows. It seems like Raw, NXT and Smackdown will still be running shows for WWE in the near future, as will rival promotion AEW. WrestleMania is still scheduled for April 5, but there's likely no way it will be allowed with fans in attendance (or at least I hope). Most of the satellite shows scheduled for Mania weekend are still running, though I think those will probably be canceled soon (or at least run in a similar empty arena setting, hopefully). Of course, the wrestlers still having matches in empty arenas is not ideal for them, but we're talking about an industry run by carnies, here.

Still, if you have an inkling of interest in professional wrestling now that there are no professional sports, it's probably as good a time as ever, even if you're just watching older stuff. The WWE has most of its entire history as well as archives for WCW and ECW on its WWE Network, which has a one-month free trial. If you're not comfortable supporting WWE as a company (very understandable!), there are other options. IndependentWrestling.TV has a vast collection of independent wrestling companies and is unloading a lot of new content for people staying home. They hand out 30-day trials pretty regularly. There are hundreds of other wrestling streaming services available.

If you're interested in getting into this very dumb hobby, I can give you more information directly if you email me at chrisdgibb94@gmail.com. If you're friends with me on social media, you can ask me via DM there.

4. Play a Dang Video Game


Chances are that if you're home and you own a video game console, you're probably gaming a lot more anyway. But as I miss sports more, I'm definitely planning on increasing my playtime with Madden and NBA 2K. I'll probably bust out my Nintendo 64 for some WWF No Mercy, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Mario Tennis or my NES for some Ice Hockey. Obviously the Franchise modes in the sports simulation games are good timesinks that are probably your closest thing to watching an actual sports season unfold. If you don't have a ton of sports sims for your console, you can always get a used version of an older game (with an outdated roster of course) for pennies. Unless you want NCAA Football. Those games are basically the price of a brand new game at this point.

You can always get into e-sports as well. There are leagues for 2K and Madden, as well as stuff like Overwatch, Rocket League, Call of Duty, Fortnite, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, Apex Legends, League of Legends, DotA 2, and every fighting game imaginable. I've never been an e-sports guy but I might finally learn what the heck is happening in Overwatch matches since a lot of my friends are into it.

5. Work Out, Because That's Kind Of Like Sports, I Guess


Working out is something that can improve your mood, and keep you from gaining a bunch of weight while you stay indoors. A lot of gyms have already closed doors, and unless people are being very diligent about wiping down everything, might be risky. So finding a way to work out at home is a good use of time. I'm figuring out things I can do from home to keep me more active myself. You can always go on walks and runs, just making sure you mind your distance from others (I believe a six-foot gap is recommended for people outside taking walks/letting their pets out).
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