I'm really missing sport right now.
I can't tell you what I would give to see a buzzer beater or an 80-metre try, a high-flying screamer or a hole-in-one. I miss the sight of the chequered flag waving at the end of a Formula One race, the sound a shiny red kookaburra makes when it crashes into the stumps and the tension of stoppage time in a nil-all football match. I miss it all.
Since mid-March, there's been a massive void in my life. The 12-plus hours of live sport I would watch, re-watch and analyse each weekend has been reduced to nothing. Not a single minute. I've never watched so much Netflix and baked as many apple pies. Seriously, one of the ladies who runs the checkout at my local Woolworths has begun calling me 'Pastry Jake'.
But what's keeping me sane through all of this is the fact I know I'm not alone. We're all feeling it. After all, sport is the great divider and unifier. We may bicker and argue ad nauseam over seemingly insignificant topics, but there's literally nothing else which can make us high-five and hug (ahem, fist-bump) a complete stranger or shed tears in the stands.
Sport plays with our emotions; one minute it can put us on Cloud 9, the next it can set us up for a lousy week. As we're all learning right now, life without sport is just plain weird. Life without sport is not life as we know it. That's no hyperbole.
At the moment it's difficult to see any sort of light at the end of this coronavirus tunnel, but the current sporting hiatus isn't going to last forever. Sport will be back, eventually, we all know that. And while we'd all love for it to return sooner rather than later, there's one thing we must not do: rush.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak began halting sporting leagues around the world, dozens of unorthodox ideas have popped up in regards to how we can restart these competitions. I'm all for outside-the-box, optimistic thinking but we need to take a deep breath and focus on the pandemic at hand. The death rate and total cases of the disease continue to rise and while 'social distancing' does work, we still have a long way to go in order to fully contain the outbreak.
With that being said, the NRL appears delusional in thinking it can restart its competition on May 28th. The AFL also has grand plans of introducing non-traditional hubs which would host games. It's an idea which the NBA has previously floated, in its case, all games would be held in the party town of Las Vegas. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that in this new world where we're constantly being told to separate from each other, the AFL and NBA are looking at bringing everyone together?
Last month we rightly crushed Formula One, the FIA and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation for taking an extra 24 hours to cancel the season-opening race at Albert Park after a McLaren crew member tested positive to the virus. Just imagine the blowback and repercussions if a league or sporting event gets the green light too early.
There are still so many unknowns when it comes to this new strain of coronavirus, but one thing we have learned is that many people can carry it and be totally asymptomatic. All it will take is one athlete, coach, trainer, umpire, media member, security guard or fan (if they are in attendance) to unknowingly present with COVID-19, mingle with others and spread the virus. Before we know it, whole leagues will be infected.
The only sports leader I've heard speaking any sense during these bizarre times is FIFA president Gianni Infantino who claimed "no match, no competition, no league is worth risking a single human life. Health comes first."
He's right. There's no point rushing sport back if it's just going to wreak medical havoc and be taken away from us, again. The world is fighting the greatest medical crisis in history, and sport must continue to take a back seat. This is non-negotiable.
Believe me, I want sport to return as much as anyone. The sports journalist and sports fan in me are both craving something to watch, cheer for and report on. But deep down I know that at the moment it's not the right thing to do. We are surviving without it; we'll just need to do so a bit longer. If not, the results could be catastrophic.