This has been a tough week to be a sports fan

Sports are more or less my life.

I don’t say that figuratively. Both personally and professionally, sports are the way I get through my day.

I go to work and talk about sports. I leave work and listen to podcasts about sports. I get home and watch sports. I write about sports before I go to bed.

None of this is by accident. I read a book called Good to Great when I was in high school. It’s a fine book, but there was one chapter in particular that always stuck with me. It was a chapter on something called the “hedgehog concept.”

The basic premise of the “hedgehog concept” is to think of something that you’re good at, something you love, and something you can make money doing. Whatever fits in all three categories is what you should do for a living.

For me, the center of the venn diagram was sports. More specifically, sports media.

Whether it’s baseball, basketball or football, sports are omnipresent.

I annoy the heck out of my girlfriend because every night there seems to be a game I should be watching on TV. No matter the time of the year, no matter the sport.

There’s always something to watch.

Major League Baseball hasn’t had a work stoppage since 1995. The last time the National Football League had a shortened season was 1987. March Madness has taken place every year since its inception in 1939.

Until now.

For the first time in as long as I can remember (and maybe ever), sports can’t serve as an escape. Sports as we know them cannot exist. Not right now, anyway. I understand why. It’s the right thing to do.

That doesn’t make it any easier.

My day job is to talk about sports for a living. On the side I have the pleasure of writing about Mizzou football. What do you do when those things aren’t taking place? It’s a question I’ve been wrestling with for a week.

I’m still not sure I have the answer.

None of this is easy. My life is for better or worse a grand collection of sports discussion. I do other things, sure, but sports are my passion. I’m sure many of you feel the same.

None of us know what the days, weeks and months ahead will look like. What we do know now is that we’re going to have to get through whatever lies ahead without sports as an escape.

That’s a new feeling. It’s not one I hope we get used to. But it’s something I know we can do, so long as we do it together.

All reports seem to indicate things are going to get worse before they get better. Be there for your friends, your family. Make that call to your mom you’ve been putting off. Text the friend you’ve been meaning to check in on.

We’ll get through this. I have no doubt we will. But, for the first time maybe ever, we’re going to have to do it without sports.