He’s always been the product. He read the room and saw the need for celebrity. So he made himself one in the fashion of the big American flannel mouths like Mike Francesa, Chris Russo, Larry King etc. His tantrums and moods and sullen periods were all part of the act. Along the way he invented sports radio in Canada, taking it away from earnest hockey pucks talking trades to Marvin Miller discussing labour law during another MLB strike/ lockout.

Until Covid-19 struck early in 2020, the World Health Organization and just about every other research body looking at masks as a viable method to fight virus the past 40 years had come to one conclusion: they were of no tangible benefit., Then Covid-19 got out of control, and panicky politicians like the prime minister cast about for ways to calm the nation. And, in doing so, to cover their butts for getting everything wrong when the virus exploded.

No dates have been announced, but plans are said to be well underway for Rogers Centre to be replaced. If so, it will mark the end of one of the most celebrated episodes in sport and misspent money in the long history of Muddy York.

Remember how airport screening began with mildly intrusive searches and then escalated as shoe bombers made taking water aboard a plane into a federal crime? Remember being able to take a bottle of wine in your hand luggage? Good times. Project that rollout to the removal of civil liberties on speech and public behaviour brought on by Covid-19.

As the Tour stars now pause till January, how many who saw DeChambeau’s bombing run since June are not going to hit the supplements and the gym to stay in the game? If they demur, they could be like the players who saw an athletic, driven Tiger Woods arrive in the 1990s and missed the message to get fit, hit the range and lose the beer bellies.

What is clear is it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any resolution of the Covid-19 protocols before the Super Bowl in February. The league has married itself to the current PCR tests and hopes to simply have all 32 teams finish the 16-game schedule with no serious illness or deaths clouding play. Anything more— like full stands for the SB game— will be a bonus. Don’t hold your breath. That’s what masks are for.

How many people will support Trump/ dump Biden because of the rappers’ endorsements or the GOAT support? We will soon learn. But nothing about the vote is likely to repair the schism in North America between those who think for themselves and those who want— no, need— to do your thinking for you.

It’s time to lose our fear. Understand that there will be death. But, for god’s sake, open up society again. And that starts with the footballs stadiums, ball parks and hockey arenas. Let ‘em in.

With TV and digital ratings skewed by the gravity of the virus, #BLM and the election, it’s hard to get data on whether the public likes a baseball game without the hit-and-run or golf without medium distance shots. There’s little doubt that physics, physical training and video study are here to stay. But is it baseball? Is it golf anymore?

Jason Whitlock, the black iconoclast at Outkick media, calls James the Black Trump: “His descent into politics and full-on embrace of Black Lives Matter have devastated the game. He extinguished the TV-ratings torch he inherited from (Michael) Jordan. The league that had dreams of matching the NFL’s relevancy is now toxic, polarizing and reliant on rigged Twitter algorithms for traction.”

Sports fans can only hope their stars can live with some SARSCoV2 risk, because hyper-cautious league officials show no appetite for leading the way back to normalcy by using less frightening PCR tests.

Hands up everyone who feels that this surreal NHL postseason is like a Netflix series you saved till you had more time to watch. Hockey in August? Talk about binge-watching. But in a funny way it works.

Useful idiots in the NFL such as Detroit QB Matthew Stafford and his wife continue to defend honouring frauds foisted on them by #BLM and leftist radicals. In their blithe acceptance of Jacob Blake et al. they are insulting women victims of violence and families of police killed in action. They need to folllow the lead of Steeler Maurkice Pouncey who now admits he was had by #BLM.

Polling now shows a significantly drop in opinions of the sports industry. Its positive score in 2019 sat at 45 percent, but fell by a third to 30 percent in 2020. While 25 percent held a negative view of sports in 2019, that number shot up to 40 percent in 2020. Independents’ views had a steep drop from +26 last year to -10 this year. Republican approval tumbled from +11 in 2019 to -35 in 2020. Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) dropped only a fraction in approval.

To achieve a political climate so rancorous, so riven by hate, that it makes the DEM platform sound cogent you need a real villain. For the Left, moderates to maniacs, Trump has been tailor-made for the role of Dr. Evil, the cruel genius who has denied them their birthright as stewards of the nation.

It’s somehow comforting that, in a season where the NHL has done so much properly, the league still finds a way to seem like Bill the Butcher on player safety. Despite bold proclamations and new guidance the issue of player safety— particularly at playoff time—is fast frozen in the Brian Burke principle. That would be, no player is bigger than the playoffs

Depending on whom you ask, the Canadian Football League is either your grandfather’s sports league or a vibrant part of the national community. When you ask the government of Justin Trudeau about the importance of the CFL he’s apparently going to tell you that the Kielburgers don’t like it, so go fish.

For those of you who dreamt that the purging of Don Cherry might drag Hockey Night In Canada into the 21st century, sad news. Your grandfather’s TV program is still pounding the same fighting drums it always did when Grapes was the Grand PooBah of the sport.

There’s still time to save the NFL season, Mr. Goodell. Before you’re cancelling games because the equipment guy for the Rams or Bill Belichick’s sign stealer… er, research assistant… turn up positive, get a plan to have teams play in a hub city. Like the NHL.

In pro sports’ obsequious surrender to an organization that believes in the overthrow of society, putting political slogans on the diamond is the new normal in the grand old game. The NBA, too, has “Black Lives Matter” written on its courts. The NFL is choreographing a national anthem process that will put the Rockets to shame.