Dave’s Football Blog

For as long as we can remember, sports have always had the ability to help us escape from real life for a little while. When tragedy strikes, we can always turn to the games of our youth to help us cope and make us feel a little better about life. There’s something comforting in that, and the last week has shown us several examples of this.

For starters, there was the tribute to Rhys Jones at Anfield last Tuesday:

Rhys Jones was an 11-year-old Everton fan who was shot and killed in what appeared to be a gunfight involving rival gangs in Merseyside. Last Tuesday, before Liverpool took on Toulouse in a Champions League qualifier, the team took a minute to pay tribute to Jones, who loved playing football as much as he loved watching it.

Keep in mind that Liverpool and Everton are archrivals in the Premier League. These two teams and their fans pretty much hate each other. When something this terrible happens, though, people put aside these alliances and remember that we’re all in this together. The Liverpool fans’ rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” after the tribute seemed much more poignant than usual.

There was also a moment of silence for Antonio Puerta on Friday at the UEFA Super Cup match between Sevilla and A.C. Milan. Puerta suffered a heart attack on the field during a Sevilla v. Getafe match on August 25 and died three days later. He was only 22. Many thought that the Super Cup match should be cancelled in his honor, but while the mood and the tributes were somber, sometimes the best thing to do is to keep playing.

That was the backdrop in Blacksburg on Saturday, where Virginia Tech played its first football game since a lone gunman went on a shooting spree last April, killing 32 people:

Here, Virginia Tech students, alumni and fans took a different tack. Some would say that they were simply trying to return to normal, but it goes much deeper than that. We believe that those who have passed on don’t want us to just give up because they’re gone; they want us to keep going. In a way, Virginia Tech honored the dead by celebrating life, and I can’t think of a more fitting tribute than that.

Here’s to all the football games that help us through the tough times. Keep on playing, and keep on living.

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