The 2020 American football season, like just about every other sport, has faced some serious challenges this year due to the novel and wide-spreading coronavirus pandemic.
Social distancing and contact tracing have made even minor things like practice and away game travel next to impossible for some sports, both on a professional and more local level. For professional football, with teams that average well over 100 on most occasions, this becomes even more problematic.
In fact, many have suggested that the NFL should shut down entirely this year. Others recommend limiting games, as well as not allowing fans to watch those games in person.
However, Jerry Jones, who is the owner of the Dallas Cowboys NFL team, says this is just ridiculous. And so, he announced that his team would be playing all of their scheduled games and they will be playing them in front of fans.
Jon Machota, who reports on behalf of the Cowboys for the Atlantic, made a statement on Wednesday, announcing Jones’s recent decision. He said, “The Dallas Cowboys plan on playing all of our football games and we plan on playing them in front of our fans.”
Now, in the state of Texas, this is definitely legal. Governor Greg Abbott, during his state’s reopening process, said in June that the Cowboys’ stadium is allowed to seat up to 45,000 people for any given event at this time. And since the AT&T stadium can seat up to 100,000 with the main seating capacity of 80,000, this leaves plenty of room for social distancing.
However, as I am sure you can imagine, many think this decision shouldn’t be allowed. These are notably the same people who think schools should not be reopening and that we should all be quarantined at home until a successful vaccine has been created.
Because, you know, we as human beings can’t be trusted to make our own decisions.
It should also be noted these people are the ones pushing for a socialist regime to take over America, forcing us all to be “equal” but without the freedom to make decisions on our own.
The demand to shut everything down is just another example of this.
As the left is so fond of reminding us, we have the right to our own beliefs and furthermore the freedom to express those. And that is most certainly true.
If I believe that coronavirus is dangerous to my health and the health of my family members, I have the right to make decisions such as not allowing my kids to attend public school with their classmates. However, I do not have the right to forbid others who may differ in that opinion from going out in public, sending their kids to school, or going to sporting events.
This is the explicit right of those people and that family alone.
Just as I might believe COVID poses too much of a risk for my family to attend a football game, others have the same right to make the opposite choice.
Saying that they don’t deserve that right is not only hypocritical but goes against the very foundations of our nation.
America was created so that, yes, all men could be equal, but they should also be able to choose how they are governed. It is why we created the kind of democracy that allowed us to climb to the top and become one of the greatest nations of the modern world.
But none of it works if we don’t acknowledge one idea as truth: that people should be free to make their own decisions.
Once upon a time, Americans believed in freedom because of our differences. And we were proud to. We were, and still are, as San Francisco is often called, a melting pot, where many different races, religions, and ways of life came together to promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And somehow, in recent decades and years, we have suddenly tried to make everyone exactly the same. Religions, ideals, races, and entire cultures are now shamed and shunned. They are canceled.
And why? Because they are different. Since when is that a bad thing?
Since when is freedom of choice, freedom of speech, and the freedom to live, and not in a sterile glass box, something to be scorned?
If I feel secure enough in my health to attend a football game, then, by the inalienable rights given to me by our constitution, I should be able to choose to do so. If you don’t, that’s fine too. But don’t you dare criticize me for doing the same thing as you, making decisions that I believe are the best for my life.
