Nothing’s the Same: How COVID-19 Changed Sports

Sports can make or break a person’s life. They play a huge role in people’s lives and give individuals a chance to be successful in life. Sports are also beneficial to younger adults because sports can help them improve their academic performance and teach kids important aspects of life which include discipline, the value of teamwork, leadership, responsibility, and more. Unfortunately, as a result of COVID, people’s abilities to play sports changed.
I absolutely loved playing football growing up. I loved it so much that I made football my craft, and I wanted to take it to a professional level. In fact, I had four different scholarships to go to college and play football. Ultimately, I was committed to playing football at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas. However, I graduated high school in 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and there was a lot occurring at the time including schools having specific protocols to try and reduce the number of people catching COVID.
I allowed my emotions to get the best of me because I was honestly scared to leave my family, and the pandemic made me even more concerned. I did not want to catch COVID and possibly die. As a result, I changed my mind and did not attend college. This bothered me mentally because I had to give up the thing that I loved the most and take a different route in life.
COVID also hurt a lot of younger athletes because they were not getting the coaching and discipline that they needed. Many young athletes look up to their coaches as if they are their fathers because many of them did not have that father figure standing over them teaching them the way of life. Vice versa, many coaches look at their players as if they are their kids. They want them to succeed in life and carry on their craft. This really allows individuals to feel that love and have a reason to live and make it in life.
On the other hand, COVID benefited a lot of players, giving them the opportunity to perfect their craft because they did not have to worry about going to school or work.
At the end of the day, COVID impacted many people’s lives. It impacted some people in a good way and others in a bad way. However, COVID did teach me that I must take advantage of every situation, even when life turns around and tries to set me back. When life throws an opportunity at you, you must make the best out of it. COVID is still affecting people to this day, and you never know when another global crisis may occur. All I can say is make the best out of it.