Scott Van Pelt does his best to put the cancelation/postponement of the sports world in perspective
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Few in the sports media world do a better job of putting things into perspective like Scott Van Pelt.
Following one of the craziest days in sports history thanks to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the ESPN SportsCenter host shared his thoughts on what was happening as the sports world is set to grind to a halt in the coming days and weeks.
The way Van Pelt sees it, the Rudy Gobert diagnosis may have scared many of us around the nation but it could prove to be the wake-up call that was desperately needed so that we may be able to manage the spread of the disease.
“The games are on hold and that sucks. And it’s not an elegant way to say it but it’s okay to say that, isn’t it? To be really bummed out but this incredible time of year, with the event that I look forward to more than any other — the NCAA tournament, is not happening,” Van Pelt says in the clip below. “And to be absolutely crushed for the players and coaches who will not get a shot at their shining moment.
“It is entirely surreal that word keeps getting used but it is real. And it’s confusing as hell because I don’t know what we can do or where we can go or who is going to tell us that the coast is clear. And maybe we’re going to look back at some point and feel like all of this was a bit of an overreaction, I know a lot of people feel that maybe it’s a huge overreaction. Or maybe the diagnosis of a big man from France did our country a huge favor. This much I know to be true. He hit the warp speed button on all of this by taking away the games which are our society’s greatest gathering place and common ground, it forced, everybody to take all of this, a whole lot more serious.”
Check out the full clip courtesy of ESPN:
"Maybe the diagnosis of the big man from France did our country a huge favor."@notthefakeSVP says Rudy Gobert's coronavirus diagnosis was a wake-up call for everyone. pic.twitter.com/pEjnrTeyxY
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 13, 2020
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
