I suspect I share this with many others: Over the last 500 or so days, I often wanted to ditch politics entirely. Sports became my shelter from the storm, a field of competition in which performance can be judged with a degree of objectivity and blustery hot takes on Twitter do not threaten the republic.
True, it says something about my attitudes toward President Donald Trump that a political obsessive like me would want to escape the news — and, I’ll admit it, not hear that voice.
And sports are by no means an airtight sanctuary from political discord. Trump’s war on NFL player protests and the capitulation of the league’s owners to his campaign of intimidation are maddening for many reasons. One of them is Trump’s inability to allow a sphere of life to remain independent of his influence. He always needs to divide, and he insists on being the center of attention.
Nor do I forget that professional sports are about making money. Owners make cold decisions to move teams from one city to another, breaking the hearts of the faithful. Players serve their own financial interests, aware that they’re negotiating with people who are doing exactly the same thing.
For all this, I am willing to suspend disbelief to enjoy both the nobility of achievement and the simple delight of the fans.
As a long-standing resident of the D.C. area, I was elated when the Washington Capitals finally captured the NHL’s Stanley Cup last week. Sports devotees in a city whose pro teams…
