May 9, 2021 by Philip Lewenstein

Confessions of a TV Sports Addict: Perspective in the Pandemic Era

In spring 2020, the Minneapolis Star Tribune sports section was reduced to four pages as sports activities at all levels were suspended because of Covid-19. This pause was difficult for athletes, sports teams, conferences, and fans.

By summer, some professional sports, driven by money, resumed play with reduced activity, irregular calendars, and rigid Covid protocols. The NBA,which had paused its season in March, and the WNBA completed their seasons inside a bubble.

Some events like the Masters golf tournament and Kentucky Derby switched seasons, from spring to fall. Many sports traditions and pageantry were missing; empty stands, artificial crowd noise, and virtual or cardboard fans became the norm.

Last April (“Not Missing TV Sports,” April 29, 2020, www.philsfocus.com), I confessed to being a TV sports addict, but that in view of Covid, I didn’t miss the games. I could live without them—at least for now. The pause in live sports would leave a big gap in our lives, but it would not be life or death as is the coronavirus. In mid-April, 33,000 deaths had been reported.

Dramatic events have occurred  in the past year: the killing of George Floyd, leading to protests and focus on social-justice reforms; the election of 2020, removing Donald Trump and putting Joe Biden in the White House; the January 6 insurrection, challenging our democracy; surges of Covid, resulting in 575,000 U.S. deaths by mid-April; and the development of vaccines.

Now, the economy is improving, and sports have reopened with limits on the number of fans allowed despite continuing effects of Covid.

Athletes and sports organizations have become increasingly involved in promoting social-justice reforms, racial equity, and voting rights. Some fans dislike the intersection of sports and politics—a possible reason for the decline in TV sports viewing.

The Star Tribune sports sections are now often 8, 12, or 16 pages. On Sunday, April 4, the section was 16 pages. Coverage included the Twins victory over Milwaukee, Gonzaga’s overtime win over UCLA on Jalen Suggs’s shot at the buzzer, boys’ and girls’ high school hockey championship games, the U.S. Olympic wrestling finals, the Wild victory over Las Vegas, the Timberwolves’ loss to Philadelphia, previews of the Masters golf tournament and women’s college basketball championship, and much more. Baseball box scores and NBA and NHL summaries returned.

TV sports programming accelerated quickly, causing my frequent channel switching: from the Twins to the Wild to the Timberwolves to the Masters in one day, for example. I enjoyed almost every game of March Madness after a one-year absence. I am glued to the TV, staying loyal to Minnesota teams despite years of heartbreak (“A History of Heartbreak in Minnesota Sports,” February 18, 2021, www.philsfocus.com).

I confess. I have relapsed after a pause in my TV sports addiction. But now things are different. I continue to avidly follow and process the news. Sports are more than an escape. More than ever, they are intertwined with current events.

Sports are a small piece of my world view. I am outraged at killings by police, efforts at voter suppression, people not wearing masks, governors declaring victory over Covid and reopening their states prematurely, vaccine deniers, and parents lobbying against high school and youth sports safety restrictions.

However, I can keep sports in perspective. I am still a sports fan as I have been for more than 60 years even though I understand the outsized role of money—sports as big business, the high-stakes competition for TV money.

My passion for sports was validated recently when I read Fans by Larry Olmsted. Citing many academic experts, Olmsted argues that the more one identifies with a sports team, the better the person’s social, psychological, and physical health; the more meaningful one’s relationships are; and more connected and happy one is (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2021).

Olmsted points out that until recently, little research has been done into the effects of sports fandom, especially when compared to religion, the most comparable system of widespread group identification and belonging. “But the research that has been done, as well as the historical record, overwhelmingly shows that being a sports fan is good for us, good for humanity, and good for the world,” he says.

According to Olmsted, the leading expert on the psychological ramifications of sports fandom is Dr. Daniel L.Wann, a psychology professor at Murray State University in Kentucky. Olmsted notes that in more than three decades of research, Wann has found no less than 24 mental-health benefits for those who identify with a sports team, as he defines fan.

However, my resumed enthusiasm for the return of sports is not shared by many people. The public’s emotional connection of big-money athletics has been grossly overestimated, according to Jemele Hill, contributing writer at the Atlantic (“America Didn’t Need Sports After All,” February 28, 2021).

“Although the NBA eventually resumed its season by creating a playoff bubble, and other professional and college leagues figured out a way to return in some form, the sports world is still struggling for normalcy nearly a year after widespread shutdowns began and fans turned their attention to matters of life and death,” Hill says.

“As the pandemic dragged on, the leagues, universities, pro franchises, and other entities that profit from a multibillion-dollar sports economy made a push for games to return. But those efforts also reflected a working assumption that the mere presence of sports would provide comfort and perhaps a welcome distraction for people who wanted to escape the horrors of the pandemic, at least momentarily.”

Hill points out that the ratings for some of the biggest sporting events in the past year show that the public’s emotional connection to sports during a tumultuous time has been greatly overestimated. In almost every sport, the number of television viewers declined even though more people than usual were stuck at home.

Not even Tom Brady against Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl could overcome “daunting underlying trends,” Hill says. She notes that sports programming has had to compete harder for fans’ attention against streaming platforms such as Netflix and Hulu. Their popularity has exploded as more Americans sever ties with their cable and satellite companies, she says.

Also, evidence suggests that TV sports are not resonating as well with Generation Z—Americans born after 1996—as they did with previous generations, Hill says. “According to a recent poll, only 53 percent of Gen Z is identifying as sports fans and more troubling for networks that have invested in live sports Gen Zers are half as likely as Millenials to watch live games regularly and twice as likely as never to watch,” Hill says.

Hill concludes that the “overriding lesson from the past year is that too much money was at stake for pro and college sports not to forge ahead—no matter how awkward, hypocritical, and exploitive that attempt might be.” She points to the NBA holding its All-Star Game in Atlanta March 7 despite serious objections by players, including LeBron James.

“The sports world has not been the escape that some fans desperately needed it to be,” Hill says. “It has simply mirrored the chaos the entire country has experienced. During a deadly pandemic, a lot of people just couldn’t bring themselves to enjoy the distraction that sports traditionally provide.”

Star Tribune popular culture columnist John Rash notes that fewer Americans are sharing experiences like major sports events, “exacerbating the isolation already present during the pandemic, and perhaps suggesting something more profound: a further fracturing of an already fractured America (“Fans finding sports, award shows less rewarding,” March 20, 2021).”

The viewing declines have been caused by technological and sociological shifts amid a pandemic, which is scrambling media habits, Rash says. Rash cites a Pew Research Center report stating that “the share of Americans who say they watch television via cable or satellite has plunged from 76 percent in 2015 to 56 percent this year.”

The decline becomes a “dizzying drop” among ages 18-29; just 34 percent report receiving TV via cable or satellite, compared with 81 percent of those aged 65 plus, Rash says. The acceleration in cord-cutting is linked to the rapid rise of streaming services, he adds.

Professor Douglas Hartmann, chair of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Sociology, told Rash that while watching some of the big sports events, “people create identities and communities in their interactions with others. It’s not just that people are watching the same thing, but it’s that they’re watching with other people and they talk about it with other people and that kind of consolidates their views on things and their friendships and their relationships.”

Hartmann believes that the ever-evolving media era is most responsible for the decline of big events, which will have social ramifications.

“It’s more the socialization habits around those that might be really changing dramatically and enabled by the new communication venues and technologies that are available to us that allow us to be more specialized and personalized in our engagement, especially in popular culture,” Hartmann told Rash. “The cautionary side is that we’re less commonly involved in the same things so the thought would be we are getting less unified, have less in common.”

Nearly half of all Americans changed their sports viewing habits, according to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll (“Nearly half of American sport fans changed viewing habits because of social justice,” Yahoo Sports Read and React, Jay Busbee, March 29, 2021, www.yahoo.com). As athletes and leagues embraced a new progressive strategy aimed at amplifying messages of social justice and political advocacy, some Americans began watching more sports, but about three times as many watched less, the poll found.

“Of those who watch sports on TV, about 11 percent said they now watch more as a result of political and social messaging,” Busbee says. “However, 34.5 percent said they are watching less. The vast majority, roughly 56.3 percent, said they watch about the same amount regardless of political or social messaging.”

Rating across all major sports declined in 2020 owing to a variety of factors, including changes in sports calendars and the presidential election, “but it’s clear from this poll that politics and social justice had some impact on the ratings decline,” Busbee says.

More than 37.6 percent of males said they tuned in less compared to 28 percent of females, Busbee notes. Meanwhile, 13 percent of men said they watched more sports in the wake of social justice movements versus 7 percent of women.

Fifty-three percent of Republicans watched less once social-justice messaging became prominent, while 19 percent of Democrats watched less.

Jay Hart of Yahoo sports commented on the survey results (“Poll Viewing habits have changed,” Yahoo Sports Read and React, March 30, 2021, www.yahoo.com).

“The stick-to-sports crowd is real, and it’s not just old fogies,” Hart says. “While the 18-29 demo is more tolerant of politics in sports than the older demos, it still runs at a net negative of 10 percent, per this poll. Contrast that with the desires of athletes to use their platforms for social or political gain, plus the leagues jumping on board, and something’s gotta give.

“As long as athletes continue to make sports about more than just sports, there are two ways this can go. The audience will either stay at a reduced level, or even continue to shrink, creating a revenue hit that will eventually trickle down to the athletes themselves. Or the stick-to sports crowd will come back, deciding that the void of not watching sports is larger than their annoyance with the politics and messaging of it all.”

Olmsted notes that in a 2019 national telephone survey, author and professor Michael Serazio and his colleagues found that half the population felt strongly that politics and sports should not mix, while 20 percent said they should. According to Serazio, more Americans believe that God has an active role in determining who wins a game than the idea that sports and politics should intertwine.

Nevertheless, Olmsted asserts that sports and politics are intertwined. “When high profile athletes in the NBA, NFL, and other leagues demonstrate their support for causes like #Black Lives Matter, it brings a new level of media and audience attention to those very real issues,” Olmsted says.

Minnesota’s teams and athletes have been involved in issues of social justice, racial equity, and voting rights. Local sports teams dedicated over $40 million to social justice causes over the past year and looked internally at how to be more equitable in the workplace (“Athletic teams say verdict is first step,” by Jeff Day, Star Tribune, April 21, 2021).

Olmsted quotes USA Today columnist Christine Brennan. “There was a day when we saw sports as an escape,” she said. “The sports section would take you someplace that the A section of the newspaper did not. Of course, what has happened now, and I think it’s a good thing, is that the sports section is no longer an escape; it is a mirror of our society.

“When you grab that sports section, so many of those pages and stories and headlines you read, whether it’s print or online, those stories are about so much more than sports.”

I have always agreed with Brennan, as far back as my work as a young sports journalist. In a good news organization, the sports department is not the toy department, as some cynics assert. Professional sports journalists understand the role of sports in society. They recognize that sports are more than the games although they are entertainment. Sports involve human rights, women’s rights, civil rights, economics, business, and politics. Insightful coverage is mindful of these themes.

I commend the athletes who are using their platforms  to promote social justice causes and reforms. Olmsted recounts Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s February 2018 suggestion that instead of publicly discussing his political opinions, LeBron James should “shut up and dribble.”

Not long after, Olmsted notes, the Showtime network partnered with James, as executive producer, to produce a three-part documentary series  about the changing role of athletes in today’s political environment—Shut Up and Dribble. The series received an Emmy nomination and examined the changing role of Black athletes in today’s cultural and political environment.

Varying interpretations have been offered on the short-and long-term effects of the Covid pandemic on sports viewing. TV viewing may have declined owing to several factors, including some fans’ negative reaction to athletes’ involvement in political issues.

Many lessons will result from the pandemic. I have concluded that my addiction to TV sports is okay, likely healthy; watching sports has a beneficial impact on our lives, as Olmsted documents. But the pandemic and other traumatic events of the past year underscore the importance of keeping sports in perspective, recognizing sports not as an escape from society but a mirror of it.