Darrell Davis: The intersection of sports and death

With all the mass shootings these days, it’s hard to think about sports.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ winning streak. CFL injuries and attendance woes. Tennis or golf tournaments. Major League Baseball pennant races. And the opening of NFL training camps.

None of them matter very much when 22 people get killed by a domestic terrorist with an assault rifle at an El Paso, Texas, Wal-Mart. A day later, nine people die by gunfire in Dayton, Ohio, a week after somebody with a gun murders four people at a California Garlic Festival. And to make sure the discussions don’t focus solely on U.S. politics and gun control laws, there’s a shootout in Toronto.

Sports can’t always be a diversion. Death and competition occasionally intersect, like when a 22-year-old Belgian cyclist dies during a race. Sports have rules. Life has laws. Nothing seems right when they’re broken, when people are broken.