A path through the worst football off-season ever

The die has been cast, our fate has been decided. How are we going to make the best out of these next four to (oh god when will this end) months?

I’m pretty bummed right now. Chances are, you are too.

No Cal sports til January 2021 (if we’re lucky) is sad, sure. But that’s just really the cherry on top of everything else. We’re going on 5+ months of life with COVID-19. For many, that means months without seeing various friends or family. For many, it’s meant awful economic uncertainty. For some, it’s meant horrible health problems.

Now our state has been hit by massive firestorms that now appear to be a near-annual reality. Lost homes, evacuations, days and weeks of awful smoke and a blotted out sun. A constant visual reminder of suffering and misery.

For the last month or so I’ve been pretty constantly writing about COVID-19, the NCAA, the Pac-12, and how it impacts Cal. I’m sure I’ll have to do so more in the future. But with the decision to push football out until 2021, and with four months at least until Cal sports return, it’s time to turn our focus elsewhere. I’m burned out trying to keep up with the almost universally depressing news, and you’re probably burned out from reading it.

So we’re going to try to make a pivot here at Write For California to try to make your life less miserable until January with some stuff that will hopefully be fun and not a constant reminder of our depressing reality.

What will we be doing precisely? Well, we haven’t mapped out everything, but here’s a quick preview with as much detail as I can share at the moment:

• Podcast content that you really won’t want to miss. I’m not going to steal Rob’s thunder by saying any more than that.

• Some articles that will act as both a replacement for what we would typically produce in-season, that will double as preview material for the season-that-might-happen-in-2021.

• Some fun pieces looking back at the decade of Cal sports that was.

• Trivia - are you not just a Cal fan, but also one of those fans who can recall a starting lineup from 20 years ago? We’re going to have some opportunities to strut your stuff.

This isn’t to say that we won’t be covering hard news that’s relevant to Cal. There are some interesting posts in the works looking at Cal’s fiscal situation, and we’ll continue to cover breaking news on the now-delayed 2020 season.

In a year that we would most like to have our favorite hobbies and traditions as parts of our lives, a big one won’t be there for us. It’s one more small insult to heap on top of the injury. Hopefully what you’ll see in this space over the next few months helps the days pass by with a bit more cheer until life starts feeling more normal again, with Cal sports a part of that normal too.

Go Bears, Go California