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Martin Devlin: I'm lost without sport in my life

Author
Martin Devlin,
Publish Date
Fri, 27 Mar 2020, 2:04PM

Martin Devlin: I'm lost without sport in my life

Author
Martin Devlin,
Publish Date
Fri, 27 Mar 2020, 2:04PM

We need to talk right now.

I want to go on a wee track back through time today. Not too long ago mind. Cast yours back to this day a fortnight ago, Friday March 13th.

Can you remember where you were & what you were doing? More importantly can you remember what was capturing your attention sports-wise?

Let me refresh a little here.

The Chiefs played the Canes in SR. Same night the Black Caps were getting pantsed again by Ozzie, the only memorable thing from that match being an entirely empty SCG.

It was also the opening round of the 2020 NRL season. The Warriors lost their opener at Newcastle in front of fans, while the Blues won their 4th straight also in front of a crowd at Eden Park. Many of us were already planning a weekend ahead for the 1st league/rugby double header ever to be played at EP. None of us really had a clue about what was pending.

Yes sport around the world was disappearing fast but who actually thought that so soon there’d be none. None at all. Zero. No actual sport being played professionally or otherwise anywhere in the world?

The landslide started in the US with the NBA the first of their pro leagues to suspend indefinitely, swiftly followed by everything stateside including college & high school sports. Down under here the idea of everything also being immediately mothballed just didn’t seem at all real. Then overnight the Masters pulled the pin, then the Premier League, then one by one every major sporting comp on the planet followed suit.

The situation so fluid we were literally providing new updates on air about every 15mins. By weekend’s end the only pro comps still being played anywhere on earth were all in Australia. Early this week though they all got the axe with even the dithering dodderers at the IOC finally & begrudgingly agreeing that a July 9 start date for their Games could never now happen.

And that people has been the last fortnight for sport lovers. Everything everywhere now on hold ‘til who knows when? With that being the exact cause of so much worry & frustration - no-one actually knows. The future right now in fact is NOT ours to see. And so we now find ourselves not just self-isolating but in total enforced lockdown for at least 4 weeks with no live sport to watch at all.

And I don’t know about you but I just don’t know what to do. With myself. I suppose it might sound silly but I’m not sure I’ve ever fully admitted how massive a part of my life all this is. Not just following my own stupid dumb teams, not just the employment aspects of it all, but actual life. My life. My sad boring sport obsessed life. In ruins. It can’t happen it won’t happen it has happened. And I’m actually quite lost.

All that misplaced emotionally investment, all that yelling at the TV, all that yelling at mates and mates of mates and it wasn’t just one time, one day, one weekend, it was ALL the time, EVERY day, EVERY weekend. And now nothing.

And again, dunno about you but, it’s left me with way too much time on my hands to think about things I’d normally never think about. Like why are the most important things to me so globally unimportant the world can make them stop just like that?

It’s making me reflective, retrospective, even more boring I mean than ever before.

Because I’ve started to think that maybe sport isn’t what’s lacking after all.

Sadly, truthfully, maybe in fact it’s me.

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