There were a lot of remarkable moments in the Suns run to the NBA Finals this summer. But what I’ll remember as much as anything was the reminder of how joyful and thrilling it was to watch a game in a venue packed with fans again.
As maximum attendance increased from 8,300 or so to around 12,000 and finally to about 16,500, the electricity in the arena increased. Hearts beat a bit faster. Better to text the people around you because they couldn’t hear you no matter how loud you shouted.
I don’t think I was alone in realizing how much I missed that atmosphere.
I thought back to Sept. 13, 2020, when the Cardinals opened their season against the 49ers in front of 68,500 or so empty seats at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Fans were barred from attending because of the pandemic, and it was so quiet you could hear coaches shouting instructions to players and players talking amongst themselves.
“It was a bit eerie,” coach Kliff Kingsbury said that day.
Today, as the delta variant of COVID-19 spreads throughout most of the country, I fear a return to the bad, old days of 2020, when games were played in front of almost no one who wasn’t being paid to be there, because we’re too arrogant, ignorant, selfish or distrustful to believe what science and the medical community are telling us.
That the vaccines work. That masks work. That if enough of us are willing to get the one and wear the other, we could get back to whatever our “normal” used to be.
We say we want to go to games, concerts and dinner at popular restaurants. We want our kids in school and participating in extracurricular activities. We want to visit parents and grandparents, attend weddings, reunions and funerals. Meet friends for happy hour.
There was an easy path to do all this. Get vaccinated. But not enough of us have, and a variant that is twice as contagious as previous ones has been allowed to roam the country like it owns the place.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The greatest risk of transmission is among unvaccinated people who are much more likely to contract, and therefore transmit the virus.”
Polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, must be thinking they came into existence a few generations too early, or else they would be flourishing.
Growing up, vaccines were considered miracles around my house. My grandmother lost twin girls to whooping cough and would have given up most everything in her world for a vaccine, which came years later.
She was forever thankful that her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren didn’t have to live with that fear.
She is long gone now, but I think she would find it incredible that so many question the science behind vaccines, even though they can’t name one person in their lives who contracted polio, whooping cough, smallpox, etc.
There is overwhelming proof the COVID-19 vaccine works. And scientists say that if more people had received it, we wouldn’t be in our current predicament.
No, the vaccine doesn’t make you immune to the delta variant. I can attest to that; I came down with it in late July. But the vaccine does lessen the severity of the symptoms, according to experts.
I’m proof of that. After three or so days of what felt like a bad head cold and flu, I was back to about 90% of my former self.
A cough and some fatigue have lingered.
Folks against vaccines and those who believe the dangers of COVID are overblown will email to say, “See, you recovered.”
Yes, but even the mildest cases take a toll. A minimum quarantine of 10 days. Time off work. The fear you’ve infected others, which I did. My wife and 87-year-old mother-in-law caught it from me.
That’s where the “my body, my choice” folks are wrong. This goes beyond you. You can infect co-workers, family members and the person who sat next to you at a Cardinals game. It requires thinking beyond yourself, which too many Americans now see as either tiresome or a sign of weakness.
If they read this far, some will think I’ve veered out of my assigned lane with talk of vaccination, pandemic and viruses. What’s a sportswriter know about that?
I know that some venues and musicians are requiring those in attendance to provide proof of vaccination or a negative test.
I’ve listened to experts who have spent their adult lives studying such things. I learned from having COVID. And what I learned living through 2020.
It’s like former Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis one time told a receiver who lined up offsides at a critical point in a game. “A lot of things about football are hard, lining up right ain’t one of them.”
A lot of things about life are hard. Getting vaccinated and wearing a mask to protect yourself and others aren’t among them.
Reach Kent Somers at Kent.Somers@gannett.com. Follow him on twitter @kentsomers.
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