John Thorrington knows how important sports are to offer a distraction from life’s most difficult times.
But the LAFC EVP and GM also realizes how that isn’t possible this time around with the coronavirus pandemic suspending sports from across the country and the world.
“There’s this great irony,” he told the LA Times. “Moments like this put sports in its place. It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Yet when things like this happen, we do tend to turn to sports. We typically do use [sports] to help us come together.”
Thorrington said it’s still important to keep the LAFC community engaged and connected during the league’s 30-day suspension due to COVID-19.
“We as an organization, it’s incumbent upon us to do our best to stay connected with our supporters, with our city, with our community in order to still be that unifying force,” he said.
Thorrington was a month into his professional career and playing for Huddersfield Town in England at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While sports in the United States halted, it was business as usual in England and Thorrington had a difficult time grasping that.
“We still had to play our games,” Thorrington said. “I’ll never forget that feeling of being like, ‘what are we doing? This does not matter.’”
Check out the full LA Times story by clicking here.
