Doug’s Sports Rap: No Sixth Man Allowed

Sporting events have dealt with several unforeseen issues from snow and rain to power outages, but this season most will deal with something they have never faced, no fans

The upcoming sports seasons will all have one thing in common, no fans in the seats so how will that look? And more appropriately how will that sound?

The NBA are now holding practices and will soon take to the court will only the sounds of the players, the ball bouncing and sneakers squeaking. No familiar chant of DEFENSE, or MVP.

What about the stadium announcer, will he even need to speak through the public address system? How will the commentators handle the play by play, no wave, and no beer????

I guess what we don’t know yet, is how much will be lost by the absence of the sixth man.

I read an article recently about sporting franchising working with the manufactures of video games to help with enhanced crowd noise, I wonder if pumping in fake noise would be a distraction to the players.

The players can see there are no fans, so it could have the same effect as putting mannequins in the seats.

I don’t think any of us know how important the presence of fans can be to the motivation of the players, not to mention the overall feel of the game to those of us watching at home.

I love my New York Giants, and watching the games with my brother Mike and my dad are a big part of that.

The times I have watched the games alone were not as exciting, will it be the same for the players?

Then they are all the politically correct statements, the kneeling and such, how much of that will be inspirational? And how much will make people tune out?

One thing is for certain, the games will look and feel much different for many of us this year.

Go (insert your team here) !!