We curse COVID-19, and not only because it kills without mercy. This pandemic is also a dirty-rotten scoundrel that mindlessly wrecks wedding plans, heartlessly steals the hugs from a funeral service and wickedly messes with the biggest day in a football player’s life.
Broncos safety Steve Atwater waited 21 years after his final NFL tackle to win a ticket for admission to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But due to this blasted coronavirus, almost nothing about life as we knew it is normal now. Fewer than 24 hours after a record-shattering bad day for new COVID-19 cases in the United States, the NFL postponed the Hall of Fame game and enshrinement ceremonies in August for Atwater and fellow inductees from the Class of 2020 until next year.
“It’s tough,” Atwater told me Thursday. “We all have these plans for what we want to do mapped out in our head. And now? With the coronavirus, all those plans are up in smoke.”
But rather than curse the havoc COVID-19 has wreaked on his Hall of Fame induction party, the player fondly known as the “Smiling Assassin” grins and bears it. Did you expect anything less?
“I think the challenge for all of us,” Atwater said, “is adapting and finding a way to be productive and happy during this time.’’
Oh, Atwater has days, like maybe you do, when he’s tempted to jump in the hot tub time machine and fast forward to a better future, when we can toss our masks in the trash, fully re-engage with friends and breathe easy again, without fear of getting sick.
“We already knew before the coronavirus that everything in life isn’t going to go the way we want it to,’ Atwater said. “So what are you going to do now, and how are you going to get through it? A lot of it has to do with mindset. We’ve got to find a way to get through this mentally and physically.”
Hmm, sounds like the makings of a pretty solid acceptance speech when he finally can travel to Canton, Ohio, in August 2021. Atwater looks forward to celebrating with a happy entourage he hopes will include his octogenarian father, who could not have taken the health risk of attending the ceremony in person if the Hall had pressed on this summer and tried to defy COVID-19 by stubbornly sticking to its originally announced schedule of festivities.
The Broncos had also already finalized details of a halftime salute to the biggest honor of Atwater’s career during a home game against Kansas City in October. But those plans will also be pushed back to 2021, because the team wants 75,000 fans to stand and cheer Atwater, rather than have him endure the empty feeling of being feted in a stadium where the crowd size is likely to be severely reduced by health precautions this season.
Even better, Broncomaniacs will have two big reasons to paint Canton orange in 2021, when quarterback Peyton Manning seems a shoo-in to be inducted on the same weekend as Atwater. “Peyton is a definitely a first-ballot superstar, so his party is probably going to be bigger than mine,” said Atwater, chuckling. “But it’s going to be a great celebration for Broncos Country.”
This pandemic is a test none of us was fully prepared to take. But we can’t hide under the covers forever, waiting for a vaccine that might or might not work.
At age 53, Atwater is old enough to know nobody can afford to give away a year while riding out the COVID-19 storm. So right here and now, he’s trying to fill as many hours as possible by doing something that makes him a better man or gives somebody else a reason to smile. For example: When Atwater returned my call to discuss the challenge of waiting 12 more months to take his rightful place in the Hall of Fame, he was departing a local hospital, where he made a visit to encourage a young patient.
“We can all be better and stronger,” Atwater vows, “when this is over.”
In sports, as well as life, the game plan for a year that will forever be defined by the virus might not be easy to execute.
But the game plan for 2020 is simply stated: Survive. And advance.
0
0
