In the strange stillness of a sports shutdown, we’ll do the best we can to give fans their fill

At The Sporting News — then a print publication that had found its way to press every week since 1886 — a team of managing editors walked into a conference room on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and tried to wrap their heads around a difficult question.

How in the world were we going to put out a magazine that week?

It’s easy to recall the depth and complexity of the questions on the table — about what was doable, what was appropriate and whether or not at least trying to figure it all out would be, at such a horrible time, a service to our readers.

One thing became very clear: We had to do for our readers the very best we could.

Anyone who was working in sports journalism then was confronted with similar questions, much as anyone who is working in sports journalism in 2020 is trying to figure out how to do a good job in the face of a near-shutdown of sports because of the coronavirus pandemic.

How in the world are we — the Sun-Times’ sports department — going to fill daily sections and weekly Sports Saturdays amid so much stillness, with entire leagues on lockdown and no games to cover?

Watch us try.

But it’ll take some heavy lifting because this is typically one of the greatest times on our sports calendar.

College basketball is supposed to be entering its inimitable home stretch, with weekend conclusions of the major-conference tournaments yielding to Selection Sunday — did somebody say “Illinois”? — and the frenzy of fun from there.

Baseball’s Opening Day is supposed to be just around the corner, the sweet, sultry aroma of possibility in the air on both sides of town.

The NBA and NHL regular seasons are supposed to be heading for furious finishes, after which the Bulls and Blackhawks would step aside while the big-boy teams get down to playoff business.

That’s not nearly all. Golf, soccer, tennis — all of it was in season when the thrilling music of sports suddenly stopped. The new XFL was doing whatever it was doing. (Sorry, some of us hadn’t gotten around yet to noticing.) High school basketball’s state playoffs were in high gear, as were lots of other prep and college sports.

The coming weeks will be challenging for us and hard on you, too.

If you’re an Illini fan, you were counting down the days until the school’s first NCAA Tournament game since 2013. What now? Are there orange roses somewhere to stop and smell?

If you’re wired for baseball, there are certain rhythms to the spring that you depend on. Staring at the ceiling or curling up into a pathetic ball on the couch is no way to spend three-plus hours.

If by chance you’re a Wolves fan, you know an AHL wild-card spot was still within reach. If you dig the Fire, you were excited to see how a return to Soldier Field might play out.

All of it, the sports we eat, drink and otherwise obsess over. All of it, off the menu for now.

It’s strange and bewildering, and it hurts. It’s not life or death to be without these games — we all know that — but it’s a diversion we’ll all wish was available to us as we hunker down, take “social distance” measures and hope for the best.

Also: One wonders if it’ll be just like old times when the games return.

Will baseball, coming off an appalling scandal in Houston — and already struggling to broaden its appeal — lose a slice of its fan base to the many other things there are to do as the weather warms?

Will the Fire lose any and all momentum? Will the XFL survive or simply disappear?

And what about next college basketball season? Can we be certain Illinois will get another crack at the Big Dance? The heart may say yes, but we should know better. It can be awfully hard to keep the good times rolling. Just ask Loyola, which hasn’t been back to the NCAAs since reaching the Final Four in 2018. Just ask Northwestern, which hasn’t come within 100 miles of the tournament since breaking through for the first time in 2017.

And, oh, all those poor young athletes — the boys and girls, the young men and women — whose high school and college careers met such abrupt, joyless ends. Speaking of the stillness of sports, isn’t that the saddest part of all?

“I’m so sad that the season ended like this,” tweeted Illini senior Andres Feliz, “but all I know is God has a reason for everything.”

There certainly is a larger picture right now that sports isn’t even a part of. We’re all smart and sensitive enough to understand that, aren’t we?

Here in the sports department, what we hope most for all of you is that you stay healthy and safe.

But we also hope you’ll stick with us as we work through the stillness — as we figure it all out.

You’re damn right we’ll be trying.