At a time when a good number of us from coast to coast are being asked to self-quarantine or shelter at home in a national effort to curb the potential deadly spread of the coronavirus, it got me thinking about life without spring sports and, in particular, Oklahoma football.
You’re probably thinking right now, why would I be all that concerned about OU football at this time of year when it isn’t even the right season for it?
The short answer is that while Sooner football games are played the last four months of the year, the sport itself is never really out of season, with news happening and something meaningful going on throughout the year. And as for the time of the year, spring football is more than a social exercise.
It is a time when early enrollees from the incoming recruiting class are introduced to the program, position adjustments are made as a result of roster turnover and system changes and corrective actions are put in place to shore up problem areas from the prior year. Aside from the requisite number of practice sessions, the highlight of spring football at major college programs like Oklahoma is the annual Spring Game.
Besides offering fans the opportunity to see the players in action again and preview what the coming season will look like, the Spring Game is also a prime time for recruiting visits. This time of year is always a very active recruiting period.
So circling back to the original premise of this article, football is never far from the minds of passionate Sooner fans. Given the new normal that most of us are currently experiencing in our daily lives, I began wondering what it would be like to be quarantined along with several all-time greats in Oklahoma football history.
No one likes the idea of being quarantined or socially isolated, but if it had to be that way and you could choose four others, alive or deceased, from Oklahoma’s football’s illustrious past or present to be quarantined with, who would they be?
Here are my four, three of whom are now looking down from up above: