Indiana University quarterback Michael Penix Jr. takes the snap two yards from the goal line and hands the ball off to Stephen Carr for a two yard run through the middle. The referee throws his hands up, signaling a touchdown, and the whole crowd cheers as IU takes the lead early in the first quarter.

In my experience, there is nothing quite like watching a sporting event in a stadium full of people. What other event can get thousands of people in the same place on such a consistent basis? 

I believe that sporting events are society’s best chance at a return to normalcy. 

A stadium filled with people no one has ever met before, yet everyone feels connected through the game in front of them. 

COVID-19 has turned the people in this world into homebodies. If we aren’t forced to leave, we don’t. Today, it is so rare for people to have any desire to leave their homes for a lunch date with a friend, a Saturday night bonfire or a trip to the movies. 

This needs to change. We are made to be social creatures, to interact with the world around us and the people in our lives. And sports are the perfect way to do it.

People are already beginning to use the sports world as a way to work back into normalcy. The IU football game against University of Cincinnati on Saturday, Sept. 18, was sold out. This was the first time a game at IU’s Memorial Stadium has been sold out since 2017, according to IDS NEWS. 

Almost 53,000 people filled the stadium for the 12 p.m. game that weekend. This is the kind of energy the world has been looking for at all social events for the past year. 

The heartwarming sense of unity has become extinct since the COVID-19 lockdowns and isolations. It seems impossible for everyone to come back together, but it has to start somewhere. 

We cannot continue to live in the antisocial world that’s been created due to this pandemic. 

Sure, we could all sit at home and watch the Indianapolis Colts on T.V. We’d never have to move from the couch we’ve learned to love so dearly, and the 10 minute wait for overpriced concession stand snacks would be no more.

But I believe sports provide more than just a sense of entertainment. They give people a chance to connect with others in a world where it is so much more difficult to connect with anyone at all.

The key to our journey back to normalcy is the world of sports. I believe that as we begin to return to sporting events, more and more will follow, and people will soon want to go back out into the world, living the crazy lives we once did.