Column: Sports Are (somewhat) Back. Now What?

Since mid-March, the sports world has been rocked in a way that we have never seen before. After two and a half long months, sports finally looks to make a return, but not in the conventional way.

At the high school level, athletes were allowed to return for voluntary team workouts at 50 percent capacity. Weight rooms obviously have to be sanitized after each use, and any workout that involves a ball must allow for a unique ball to be provided to each individual during the workout.

Ole Miss and Mississippi State football players returned to campus today. However, day one did not feature a return to football activities or workouts. Rather, it was set aside for testing of every athlete and team official for COVID-19 and a briefing on how to limit the spread of the aforementioned virus. Official team activities will begin back on June 8th.

NASCAR has returned to races with masks on at all times when not in the car, and no fans are allowed on the premises. To catch up on their season, midweek races have come into existence (which is an excellent idea, NASCAR. Never take them away.)

UFC is back to action after Dana White nearly had to buy an island to kickstart the return of live MMA into the world.

So, where does all this leave us? Well, in a word, progressing.

Did we all hope that sports would have a grandiose return with no restrictions? Absolutely. Was that ever going to truly happen? Not at all.

We all had the hope that this would just blow over, including me who’s take on the College World Series being cancelled in March looks pretty idiotic in retrospect.

However, it’s a start. What we all love and yearn for is slowly but surely re-entering our lives. Today being the return of workouts for sports in our area seemed like a good time for a college student/Walmart cashier to get back into his other job of writing.

Expect a piece on Jarrion Jones and Fabian Lovett’s transfer to Ole Miss (possibly) being blocked by the SEC. Until then, thank goodness that we look to be on a path to the return of the sports we all know and love.