No COVID Rules And 70,000 Of My Closest Friends

NEW ORLEANS — Arriving in The Big Easy, I had a feeling of trepidation.

Like many Americans, the past two years have made an impact on the way I approach public events. Not because of choice — I’ve been living a very normal pre-pandemic lifestyle for quite some time now — but because of the way society has dealt with the pandemic. Since March 2020, everywhere we’ve gone, we’ve had to worry about COVID-19 related issues.

Are masks required? Oh, your mask must be on when walking to the restaurant table, but not when you’re seated at your table? Makes sense. Will a vaccine passport need to be presented in order to enter a venue? Will a negative COVID-19 test suffice?

All these thoughts entered my mind as my first trip to New Orleans commenced, preparing to cover my first Final Four. My worries were quickly put to rest.

At the Superdome on Saturday, over 70,000 fans of college basketball will pack the joint, ready for a Final Four with four of the more historic college basketball programs in the game. North Carolina and Duke will play in the NCAA tournament for the first time in their 258 matchups, Kansas will play in its 16th Final Four, Villanova will be attempting to win its third national championship in six tries, and Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski will say goodbye to college basketball.

And COVID-19 will be nothing more than an afterthought.

As stated on the Superdome website, “Proof of vaccination or negative test results is not required for entry into the Caesars Superdome.” Masks will not be required in order to enter, with no bizarre limit on screaming and yelling like Tokyo had for the Summer Olympics. While COVID-19 certainly has not gone away, we are at the very least back to normal, and sports — the college game specifically — has played a large part in getting us through.

In my mind, there are three parts to the sports world assisting in moving us past the pandemic. Three legs of the tour, if you will.

The first was the 2021 college football season.

As we prepared for the start of the regular season in August, we weren’t sure what to expect. The pandemic-shortened 2020 season was a major downer. With few to no fans in the stands, everything that makes college football great — the passion and pageantry — was noticeably missing.

And while crowds had started to return to basketball arenas toward the end of the 2021 NBA Playoffs, we still were unsure if college stadiums with a capacity of 100,000+ would be filled to the brim as COVID-19 continued to rage.

The answer to the question came with the loud roar of hundreds of thousands of college football fans across the country. In week one, stadiums from Blacksburg, VA, to Madison, WI, were rocking, dripping with decades of tradition. 

Now, Dr. Fauci didn’t like what he was seeing, appearing on CNN the week after with an appalled member of the media to chastise the large crowds without a mask in sight. But college football fans in the Midwest and the South merely acknowledged his concern, and decided that life must go on.

Then we had the Super Bowl in February.

Super Bowl LVI was held in Los Angeles, in a State of Emergency, with “strict” COVID-19 protocols in place. Per NFL.com, the requirements for entering SoFi Stadium were as follows: 

Attendees age 5+ must provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative PCR test within 48 hours or negative antigen (rapid) test within 24 hours of the game.

All attendees age 2+ are required to wear a face covering in SoFi Stadium or at the Tailgate party (invite only) except while actively eating or drinking, regardless of vaccination status.

Except, no one wore the masks. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D-CA) was photographed at the game standing in close quarters with four other individuals, carefree and enjoying life without a mask. Then there were the celebrities blatantly flaunting the mask rules. LeBron James, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Jay-Z, Ellen DeGeneres, Will Ferrell, and Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a “The Rock,” were all photographed maskless.

And while it infuriated the public, and rightfully so, it was at least the next step in getting through the pandemic, as the elites of our society were clearly no longer worried about the dangers of the virus.

And now, the Final Four. The third and final leg of the tour.

I wish you all could be here. It’s a beautiful sight to witness with your own two eyes. Sports has always been the great unifier, capable of healing old wounds and creating friendships that will last a lifetime. COVID-19 took a lot of that away from us. The 2020 NCAA tournament was canceled altogether, while March Madness in 2021 was very much a muted experience.

But now we’re back, and just in time for Krzyzewski’s farewell tour.

Fight songs will be heard, hearts will be broken, and dreams will become a reality in New Orleans this weekend. Whichever team you’re rooting for, just know that we’ve all won, because we’re back. And sports has led the charge.

Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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