Are Sports ‘Back’? My Favorite Shots from an Iconic Weekend

I saw this question circulating throughout Twitter last night, and it got me thinking.

This past weekend, May 21st, 22nd and 23rd, may have been the first weekend that you can make the argument that sports are, in a word, back. I don't want to use the term normal, because I don't think we're at 100% normality across all leagues. The NHL still has Canadien teams without fans, and the NBA and MLB still have teams in certain states at limited capacity. So, we're not quite complete, and may not be until the NFL kicks off in September.

That said, being "back" and being "normal" are two different things. A few pictures from a few iconic moments show us, after 14 months of waiting, our beloved sports world is back in business.

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We can't talk about sports from this weekend, without talking about Phil Mickelson. The 50-year old made history by being the oldest player to win a major championship in the PGA, and the crowd at Kiawah Island's Ocean Course was going bananas. There was a mob scene on the 18th fairway as Phil and Brooks Koepka approached the green, and there were very few masks in sight. From a PGA perspective, golf was back on Sunday.

It wasn't the outcome that Knicks fans wanted for their team's playoff debut, but man, was that game entertaining. The electricity at MSG was palpable, and some of our fan favorites were front and center. Playoff basketball at Madison Square Garden was BACK.

PLEASE tell me you guys saw the video of the guy on the far left absolutely DRAINING a beer. That guy was Jets' offensive lineman Dan Feeney, who while rooting on the Islanders, decided to quench his thirst and become a fan favorite in NY at the same time. What a moment for the Islanders, who brought a playoff atmosphere back to Nassau.

Again, it's not 100%, but this weekend was one heck of a stepping stone.