Unfortunately, our country has had to learn the hard way that sports can be the best escape after tragedy.

After Sept. 11th, 2001, people gathered at baseball games to get away from the reality of what happened to New York City and our country. Professional franchises and leagues have helped organize many efforts to help the families of the attack of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Most recently, we have seen the city of Boston come together at Bruins and Red Sox games.

As I approach graduation from Marquette, I’ve started to think about what my role will be for others in the future. Whether I am writing or broadcasting is irrelevant. I want to be a distraction.

If you follow me on Twitter, and even for some of you who know me well, it would be easy to think that my life is all about sports. That’s not an unfair assumption. Every night I watch whatever game is on instead of my weekly television show – except for Monday Night Raw, of course. For me, it is the best form of drama.

Friday night, I was bowling at the Annex – fairly unsuccessfully – when the second suspect was caught in Watertown, Mass. I had been following the developments all day, but about 10 minutes after they caught the guy, I asked to have the Brewers-Cubs game turned on.

It wasn’t because I didn’t care. I talked with one of my friends about all the coverage we saw on television throughout the day. I paid attention to the whole thing. After the chase was done, though, I didn’t want to hear anything else about who the bomber was and how he was the least likely person to do something like this.

All of it was pretty depressing. I was sick of hearing interviews about how normal “Djokhar” was before the bombing and how he was the nicest guy. I don’t want to think of him like that. It would be an insult to the amazing people whom I am lucky enough to call friends because I don’t know anyone who would consider thinking about performing an act of that magnitude.

I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to watch except baseball. Actually, any game would probably have sufficed at that point. It has been attacks like the bombing in Boston that have taught me sports’ true role in our society: to distract and entertain.

Hopefully, our country is never attacked like that again. If it is, then I hope enough time has passed so that I can be a part of the distraction helping people forget about it. Sport is a game. While I will not be doing the actual entertaining on the field anytime soon, I want my work in the media to be part of that distraction.