I'm really sorry to hear that. My experience has been exactly the opposite. It's been a brutal 16 months for me and my family. When I was at my lowest, the NBA bubble and playoffs gave me something to look forward to every night. I was as excited as anyone for Michigan football. Luckily, I've been able to detach my emotions from the success of the team over the last few seasons, so I was still able to enjoy the games despite the results. At the same time, NFL fantasy football gave me another outlet to escape from everything going on around me.

Now, I'm dealing with my beloved father-in-law's diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. We've been able to bond over Michigan basketball and I'll always cherish every game we've watched together this season. I left on Saturday to take a break from being his de facto caregiver, but I FaceTimed him during the OSU game and watched much of the second half with him.

The importance of sports in my life has never been more clear. And I'm finally maturing to be a more healthy Michigan sports fan.

Yes I'm in the exact same situation as you. For various reasons the pandemic has really sapped my enthusiasm for sports. I think it will come back eventually, imagine the Big House full of fans again or even better us beating Ohio State in football. Hey I can dream, right?

yeah, I haven't had that.... The NHL and college basketball have been the welcomed path out of the doldrums of covid, for me.  sure its different, with no fans adding to the game atmosphere, but you can watch a game, get engrossed in the competition and for that time, forget the bullshit that is going on, consuming our ever troubled world.

GO BLUE

and Stevie Y..... I know you have a plan, I trust you're the guy for the job.... WTF is Jeff Blashill still doing behind the bench?  Bring Spuddy back to Hockeytown!

I agree with you Blue.  This past year is probably the most I have been less engaged in sports in my lifetime.  I am totally turned off by pro sports and without any fans at the college games it seems as if I am sometimes I am just watching a scrimmage. 

The good news is that I have spent a lot more quality time with my kids and got a lot of stuff done around the house that my wife has been nagging me about for years.

You're not alone. The ratings slump across all sports suggests this; yes, some people have also tuned out because of political stuff, but I don't think that explains everything. I think some people just aren't as plugged in. Maybe not having fans at the games contributes to this a bit, I don't know.

It's not true for me personally; I follow with as much attention as always. I don't have the bandwidth for as much as I used to, but that means I'm paying less attention to the NBA and the NHL and not really watching other B1G teams closely when Michigan isn't playing them. I'm enjoying Michigan's run a great deal still. 

The good news is this: You don't need to be a fan. There's no such thing as a "good" fan. Enjoy the team as much as you want to. Maybe your enthusiasm gets kindled in the postseason. If so, that's fine. You aren't somehow a better fan because you lived and died with every minute of garbage time against Rutgers. 

This is a hobby, a diversion. It is meant to be fun. Enjoy it however much you want to. 

When Michigan gets really good in football again, you’ll be back. The last several years have been so disappointing for various reasons that it’s easy to lose interest.  Empty or mostly empty stadiums also suck and make the entire spectacle seem artificial.  The only thing I notice is the older I get, the fewer sports I care about.  E.g., I used to watch NBA games, but with players stacking teams in favored locales, I lost interest awhile back.  Baseball has an uneven playing field too, but against all odds you have some variety in the league champions from year to year.

M sports has been an oasis that I am fully enjoying.  I'm sorry for your problems but I guess I just can't relate to them.

Struggling to be a fan or finding that other things have been reprioritized?  I know the latter has been the big shift for me -- and as much as I love college football Saturdays, I'm quite alright with it.

I have a few thoughts, myself.

1) I don't think you're alone. There has been a massive slump in TV ratings lately. 

2) Personally this last football season was so stupid in the first place that (thank goodness) I didn't get too invested. 

3) I think a full stadium will completely snap you right back into it (maybe not as much as before, but don't underestimate that feeling that got you into sports in the first place)

4) College sports (completely unrelated to COVID) are turning sour for me. I know, I know, the players have to do what's right for themselves. But wayyyy too many of these guys don't give a rats ass about the "school" they represent (which is often an afterthought anyway) and the NCAA only giving a gentle slap on the wrist for massive violations has disincentivized playing fair. It's basically just the minor leagues for the NFL -- so sometimes I have to ask, why the hell am I watching? 

5) I absolutely CANNOT WAIT to be back in a full stadium again :)

I agree 100%.

I'm struggling to engage too, and I think when you tell yourself things like "everyone else has been able to move past this, but I just can't seem to," it makes the whole thing seem and feel worse.  The truth is that lots of people are struggling, man.

Sports seem small compared to other stuff going on, and that's OK.  For me, especially with baseball and football, sports have felt fake.  I'm noticing some improvement, personally.  Is that because the basketball team is great?  Possibly.  Is it because the public health data in Michigan is improving?  Possibly.

It won't always be or feel this way.  Try to enjoy it.  It is OK to not be OK.  If you never return to being a super-mega fan, that's OK too.  As long as you always know... "Go Blue!"
 

I hear you. I’ve never been a big Michigan hoops fan, but I’ve been totally uninterested in the NBA this year, despite that usually being my favorite pro league. I think you’re likely (in part) suffering from general burnout—mental and emotional exhaustion. It’s afflicting just about everyone at this point in the pandemic, especially combined with winter. The good news is you’ll probably be feeling a lot better come football season. Just in time for all the hype that Michigan will surely live up to 

I feel you, man.

I think part of it is that while sports is back, we all have seen how Covid has affected things with games being postponed or cancelled, etc. And having no fans there just emphasizes the fact that is likely there at the back of everyone's minds - one big breakout and your team can get shut down again. So it's really tough to go all in emotionally when there's the real specter of it all being snatched away again.

This is why I basically watched only 2 football games this year. It all just didn't feel like a "real" season or the real deal.

For Basketball, we will see. I was getting into it and then that big "pause" occurred. It's tough to treat everything like it's "normal" when you know it really isn't.

Football season was rough, but I’m watching more basketball than I have in the last 35 years. Big 10 games are on 6 days a week (why no Monday games?) The league is insanely competitive 2-13, and I’m watching every Michigan game with glee.

I hear hookers and blow help with feelings of engagement.  

Just kidding - sorry that you feel a loss.  It really hasn't hit me in that way.  Still have my fandom and it does not sway with the environmental winds around me.

We should look back to the 1918 flu pandemic to see if TV viewership dropped at the same rate it has during the 2020 pandemic. 

;)

In seriousness, I relate to this a lot. I think getting thru the brutal election season, the post-election barrage of lawsuits, and general uncertainty around where things would land made me think of sports even less than during the summer. Now that there's some sense of how the country will be moving in the next year or so, I've been able to devote more mindshare to our basketball team.

Nobody with a shred of compassion would fault you for taking the necessary steps around self-care. I'm glad you found a space to put a finger on what the last year has been like for you, and I do hope that sports returns some part of a bright spot for you in the future.

Yes can relate. However Michigan Basketball, even with the 3.5 week hiatus, has been an absolute pleasure and joy to watch, especially with this team having such good chemistry and camaraderie.  Agree with your assessment that this basketball team is having a great season. Good you recognize that.  Good luck to everyone here to continue coping with Covid. 

But there's just something in my brain that hasn't fully recovered from sports being shut down in early 2020

Understand where you are coming from here.  

For me, it's not the shut down it's the loss of control of my life.  I'm grateful to have a job most definitely with so many people experiencing hardships but with WFH, work thinks they own you because your commute is only 50 feet.  The days turned into 16 hour days (not always continuously) and 6 - 7 days a week.  Because hey, what else are you doing -- you're WFH.

So there's no boundary between my personal and professional life.  I imagine people would say, "turn things off", but it's not that simple with WFH.  If I turned things off, then I'd just get cussed out the next day.  

So I took matters into my own hands and after a very selective job search, err, so I thought, I left my own company and started somewhere new last month.  But I'm afraid it's just same shit different toilet at this point.  

One day, when we return to normal, I hope to go back an office at least a few days a week -- just so people have that separation again between work and home.

Detachment isn't such a bad thing.

Stepping back from intense emotional engagement not only allows more room for other interests, but puts things in perspective. Basketball has been a joy, men and women's both; football not so much, but the coaching changes make it interesting.

Is it worth noting that our joy in the former is heightened because we did not have high expectations at the start of the season? As for football, we can fall back on the tried and true fan formula, 'There's always next year . . . .' And if our expectations are as low as those of many here, we may be in for another pleasant surprise.

I experienced the exact same symptoms regarding watching sports. I decided it was at least partly caused by depression. The college football season did seem very random and not watching Michigan was a blessing. But there has to be things you enjoy. Things you look forward to and think about that are good to distract you from the bad. 

Find something to enjoy even if you have to force yourself a little. Self care is very important. Try to avoid being critical of yourself. This is a time to survive not excell. Focus on surviving. Worry about later later. 

Don't be afraid or reluctant to discuss this with a doctor. It is not a sign of weakness or in any way shameful. 

The end of this is well and truly on the horizon. 

Maybe subconsciously not seeing fans in the seats and seeing masks is a reminder that things are not normal. Sports should be a distraction from real life. When sports was gone everyone thought it was weird, I just thought that it was the off season for those sports. 

What I did find out was I only really care about my favorite teams. Just because sports was on, if my teams were not playing I didn't care.

One of the thing that makes watching sports exciting is the concept of synergy.  The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  There is an experience that occurs when humans do something together as a group.  The players and coaches are still getting this, but the fans aren't.  It's like the difference between watching the game at home in your living room versus attending in person.  You see more of the game watching at home, but you don't have the same experience.  You don't get the same level of emotional response, excitement, positive feelings for those you attend with, etc.  Sports without fans is just not the same.  We've all either been to or even watched games where the stadium was electric.  The environment was awesome.  Think about the UTL game against ND in 2011.  The game was awesome, but the stadium was electric.  You can't replicate the excitement that organically happens when lots of people witness something special together as a group.  There is no comparison.  Again, sports without fans is not the same.

Maybe matters would be different if the media didn't habitually and repeatedly stab knitting needles in our eyes with 50 commercials per game without even saying "Sorry."?

The announcing is also awful, across the board, with very few exceptions - and none of them cover Michigan football/basketball, etc. 

I've been all-in on the basketball team. Admittedly, though, I feel degrees of ennui/indifference about the upcoming football season.

Hey Blue and Joe,

Sorry you're going through this.  I was in a similar period a while ago, not relating to sports but to public life in general.  I'm not really that much better but the light at the end of the tunnel that is the vaccine is cheering me up.  While it may be a while for things to return to 2019 levels of "normality" things are going to open up significantly (as long as we keep vaccinating).

Maybe that is the light at the end of the tunnel for you that it is for me.  Is there something else that you can look to?  Something to bring some joy back into your life?  Have you found that this same malaise in other aspects of your life or just sports?

I just finished reading a book called Flow by Mihaly Csikscentmihalyi and one of the premises is that there is a different experience from doing something challenging that you enjoy vs. something relaxing that you enjoy. And I think right now many of us are missing the "Flow" we experience from work and being around others as much. I think that's part of the reason many are easily irritable on social media right now. 

For me it has been the opposite as well as with my family.  We all stop everything, and just watch every game together.  We yell and scream.  We high five.  We only use the bathroom during commercials (the only game we did not see live together is the @ Minnesota game and we all know how that turned out).  

I have let this begin to take us out of the doldrums of COVID.  

It's a question of mental bandwidth.  All the COVID-related stuff is taking up a LOT, what with job stress, family stress, general why-is-there-still-a-pandemic-after-a-freaking-YEAR stress, the works.

If there's just not enough bandwidth left for Michigan sports, that's fine. 

This happened to me with the NFL and most pro sports actually. I've been a Bucs fan since the mid 90s and I felt nothing watching them win the Super Bowl this year. I've barely watched any of their games the past few years.

Your fandom might come back naturally over time, but I wouldn't view this as a bad thing. One less thing to be stressed about, in my opinion.

People deal with stress differently. This past year has been hard on every single person in the world. Whether you think the government isn't doing enough or you think the government is infringing on your rights. Those are two side of the same coin. You have people pissed off and stressed out at the same thing for different reasons. The emotional burden is a lot too. Even if you haven't been directly effected. People are dying, people are losing their jobs. You might have survivor's guilt for not having to deal with those problems. Life's a mess right now. 

I always loved to jump into sports to ignore life's problems for a few hours. But I'm like you right now. The skies are too heavy and too gray to ignore completely right now and it does make it hard to fully immerse myself into the action.