💪 Sports Will Be Back Better Than Ever

There’s zero doubt: when the games inevitably resume, the leagues and the players will make sure it’s an all-time spectacle across the board. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: We look ahead to how sports leagues around the world are preparing to entertain us once again ... we reflect on just how long The King has been in the spotlight ... and we consider a couple of wagers based on Tom Brady’s transition to Tampa Bay. Sports is laced with romantic notions of years past, cherishes its customs and habits, and often fully embraces the concept that things should continue a certain way, just because that’s how it has always been. But when life is at its most abnormal, tradition can and should go out of the window for a while. At some, indeterminate point in the future, we will be mightily grateful for that. For the most recent evidence suggests that sports, disrupted and uprooted to its very core right now, has no wish to settle for merely getting back to normal. Even as COVID-19 rages its way through vast swathes of the planet and we are left with no option but to hide away from its clutches, our favored leagues and competitions are readying their response. [STORY IMAGE 1] They are not just figuring out how to resume and play catch up. From what it seems, they are planning special measures to make us all feel better. And, sure, the innovations almost certainly come with a major motive of plugging some of the financial chasms that will have opened up due to this voluntary pause, but frankly – whatever. If there was ever a time to be on board with altruistic capitalism, the moment when it is once again okay for sports to take place is surely it. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has always had a smooth way with words, and it was he who put it best earlier this week. “People are stuck at home and I think they need a diversion,” Silver told ESPN. “They need to be entertained.” [STORY IMAGE 2] Silver discussed a range of measures, including some that would have huge appeal to the action-starved audience. One mooted possibility was for a group of players to be tested, isolated, quarantined together, and then compete against each other. Such a move would allow the league to get ahead of things, bringing basketball back before arenas are permitted to be filled with fans. He also discussed the return to regular basketball as potentially featuring a charity game or fundraising event. He didn’t go into specific details, but knowing how Silver thinks, if you start by imagining an All-Star Game on steroids, you might be getting close. Other sports are getting aboard. In boxing, it is unlikely that Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin, two of the biggest names in the sport, would have fought a third time, and not as quickly as September, if not for the current situation. Yet there they were this week, inking a contract for a trilogy fight that suddenly seems more mouthwatering than before. In soccer, the English Premier League is floating a number of plans, including one that would see all 92 remaining matches played at neutral sites, with games every day until they are concluded. In the U.K., time-honored restrictions that have previously prevented a large number of games from being domestically televised would be lifted. [STORY IMAGE 3] Athletes are itching to get back into action as much as fans are desperate to see it. Unshackled by convention and energized by opportunity, administrators have a clean slate and a mandate to go big. On that note, WWE is already taking action. Yes, for the first time ever, WrestleMania will take place without fans, which is naturally a disappointment, albeit a vital and compulsory one. However, it is also the first time the grandest event in sports entertainment will be staged over two nights, with Vince McMahon and his creative crew trying to fill our barren evenings with something of distractive worth. If that was not enough, Rob Gronkowski will be the host for both nights, meaning that anyone who loves pro wrestling, pro football or just lovable lunacy, will have something to enjoy. Furthermore, you can be sure the WWE’s devilish plot-twisters will have some aces up their sleeve for what may be one of the most viewed shows of all time. Expect more elsewhere, when the time is right. So much has changed and the sportscape’s scorching will have been so encompassing that anything is on the table. This week marks the longest stretch without a game in the NFL, MLB, NHL or NBA in two decades. What might another couple of months do? These following ideas are based purely off imagination and not a scrap of inside knowledge, but would you be surprised by any of them? Would it be a shock if the NCAA hosted a huge preseason “Madness” tournament, with deferred dispensation given to seniors denied their shot this March? [STORY IMAGE 4]( Or if Dana White set up the UFC’s return to action as a giant fight week, with three or four blockbuster cards held on subsequent nights, culminating in a pay-per-view extravaganza headlined by some of the biggest names in the game? Or if tennis and golf did something wild and tried to sandwich three majors into a window of a few weeks? Or if NASCAR got creative with both its remaining regular season and playoff format amid the reshuffled reality? You’d expect that most of the changes would not be here to stay, but instead be reflective of this unique parcel of time, special measures for the most unexpected of developments. Over the past couple of weeks, everything has been ripped up — and how it is put back together again, at least temporarily, is restricted only by the creative thought processes of the powers that be. Sports can perhaps look forward to something over the top and unprecedented, or many such somethings. Tradition will always be there, and we will always love it, but it can wait for now. [STORY IMAGE 5] Here’s what others have said ... Gentry Estes, Nashville Tennessean: “Some might say sports have become less important. I’d argue the opposite. Now more than maybe ever, we're realizing, sports will be vitally important for our collective state of mind as we get through this. It’ll be a blessed distraction. It’ll be good news at a time when the bad appears so overwhelming. Even if it’s digital, it'll be the same sense of shared joy and community, made more enjoyable as we’re unable to experience it physically. ... It’ll be hope. And boy, do we need hope. We need a reminder that someday – hopefully, sooner rather than later – all this, too, shall pass.” Tariq Panja, The New York Times: “With millions of people isolated in their houses either by government edict or voluntarily, Lars-Christer Olsson, the Swedish head of a group representing Europe’s top soccer leagues, said his organization was looking into ways soccer could return even while movement restrictions remained in place for large parts of the continent’s population. Games might be able to be played behind closed doors, if safe, he suggested, and be broadcast into homes. ‘We need to help each other and give entertainment to the people stuck at home,’ Olsson said by telephone.” Rick Reilly, The Atlantic: “I quit full-time sportswriting six years ago partly because I was tired of the same old wheel, season after season, year after year—the Final Four to the NBA Finals to the World Series to the Super Bowl to the Final Four. But now that these events are inexplicably gone, I’d give my left pinky toe just to cuddle up with a cold beer and the Valero Texas Open.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - “We are fighting against an invisible enemy.” [ESPN’s Jeff Passan details]( the life of a Red Sox scout in Italy amid the COVID-19 lockdown. - In lieu of the spectacle of March Madness, [Aaron Torres at Kentucky Sports Radio goes through]( the nine things we’ll remember from this college basketball season. - One future Hall of Famer re-signed with his longtime team. The other found a new home. [SB Nation’s Geoff Schwartz considers]( the different paths of Drew Brees and Tom Brady. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( Come for the hoops (and gridiron!) highlights of The King, stay for the wisdom of youth. Indeed, it’s a good thing LeBron James has always been wise beyond his years, because he’s been in the public eye since he was a freshman in high school. We’ll give you a moment to think about the things you were doing in your first year in high school; we certainly weren’t composed enough to say something like, “I want to be a role model ... when I get older, I want little kids to look up to me too, like they do to the pros. Just to be who I am, and be friends with everybody, and help those who need it.” We’d say that’s mission accomplished, Bron. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] WWE Friday Night SmackDown (FOX, 8 p.m. ET) Rob Gronkowski will be on hand to give us the details on his role as host of WrestleMania, which for the first time ever will be a two-night event on April 4 and 5, while Goldberg and Roman Reigns are set to sign the contract for their Universal Title match at the Showcase of the Immortals. AFL Australian Rules Football: Collingwood Magpies vs. Western Bulldogs (FOX Soccer Plus, 7 p.m. ET) We’ll level with you — we have no idea what’s going on during an AFL game. At all. But the league kicked off on Thursday (with no fans in attendance, of course), and it was amazing. You can get your sports fix with Australian Rules Football almost all day long on FOX Soccer Plus. eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series (Sunday, FS1, 1:30 p.m. ET) Let’s drop the rag and go racing! Some of the biggest names in NASCAR will get behind the wheel and take to a virtual version of Homestead-Miami Speedway in this first-ever, invitation-only event. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY]( Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Tampa Bay Buccaneers season win total: Over/under 9.5 Just how good will the Bucs be with TB12 at the helm? The fun part about asking that question is you can actually wager on your gut feeling! Our own Skip Bayless said yesterday he believes Tampa Bay has a 12-win season in them with Brady, which would give you plenty of breathing room on this season win total over/under. And if in fact the Bucs are the favorites to win the NFC South, we’d be remiss not to point out that the odds on them winning the division currently stand at +225. [WHAT THEY SAID] "Everyone has the fire, but the champions know when to ignite the spark." — Amit Ray [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download the FOX Sports app for live scores and streaming [App Store]( [Google Play]( Available on: [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] [tvOS] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] Forwarded this message? [Sign up](. Amazon, Fire, and all related marks are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2020 FOX Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. If you do not wish to receive emails like this in the future, please [unsubscribe](. FOX Sports respects your privacy. Click [here]( to view our Privacy Policy. FOX.com Business & Legal Affairs - Manager Digital Media P.O. Box 900 Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0900