These are uncertain times without many clear answers for any of us in any facet of our lives. That makes for some scary moments and days and weeks as we wait for the next headline about the Coronavirus. But I take comfort in knowing my role in the community during this scary time.
From the first day I heard the word Coronavirus (and all the accompanying beer jokes) all the way through this week when I learned that the cool kids now call it COVID-19, I've started my show with two pledges: First, we're going to tell listeners everything they need to know about the pandemic, whether it relates to sports or it's vital news from the real world. Second, we're going to talk about sports just like we always have.
I've made a personal commitment to spend 30 minutes every day learning everything I need to know about the virus and our progress to contain it. I do that through trusted sources such as my friends at iHeart Radio instead of through sources with a political agenda to push. Then I move on to the rest of my life. In my case, the rest of my life involves lots of sports talk.
I consider myself to be just about as smart as the average person. Another way of saying that is that I know no more or less than our listeners do about how long this pandemic will last and how severe it will be.
But I do know a decent amount about the most underrated players in the NFL Draft (Derrick Brown, Henry Ruggs, Jordan Love and Chase Claypool) and I can debate about which family is the greatest in American sports history (my buddies Creg Stephenson and Chris Beckham eventually convinced me on the air Thursday morning that it's the McCaffreys because of the athletic success on both sides of the family).
I hope for the sake of everyone's mental health that we all at least try to follow the 30-minutes-a-day rule when it comes to Coronavirus updates. Then, if you need to get away with some meaningless (for sure) and entertaining (most of the time) sports talk, I'm here to play my small role in these difficult times.
We're not going to solve the world's problems on the radio, but we will let you in on stories like the one former Alabama star E.J. Junior III shared with us about being vetoed by his wife when he wanted to name his son Freshman Sophomore Junior. The son could have completed the multi-generational joke by naming his own son Freshman Sophomore, making E.J.'s son Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior.
Everybody, please stay safe. And let's share a joke and a sports debate when you get a chance.