It seems somewhat trite to suggest that sports can heal, because healing will come from a variety of sources far more substantive than sports, like family, friends, community, church groups, alumni, faculty, media, politicians and even total strangers. Sports are like the quarterbacks of life: They get too much credit when things go well and too much blame when they go sour.

Before Monday, it was probably no different at Virginia Tech. I’m sure there were administrators who bristled at the treatment and attention the football team received. I’m positive there were at least some underpaid professors who resented the money the coaches earn.

None of that matters now. Video of the campus with the crackling of gunshots in the background and interviews with survivors have underlined how imperative worrying about mundane sports-related developments really is.

Sports and real-life tragedies on a massive scale occasionally cross paths. The results are almost always positive. The most recent example, of course, was Hurricane Katrina. It turned the New Orleans Saints into America’s Team.

The insurance companies didn’t write checks at an accelerated rate to displaced residents in the Gulf simply because the Saints were having an outstanding season. The Saints couldn’t bring back the dead, or get FEMA to move faster.

Gene J. Puskar / AP Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech was felt across the nation. On Tuesday, Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury joins fans in observing a moment of silence for the victims before the team's playoff game agains the Ottawa Senators.

But the Saints gave people a little hope. They played hard and persevered, and people in New Orleans and surrounding areas drew inspiration from them. Those people were also thrilled, distracted, gratified, nervous and motivated.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the trauma was too widespread and too profound to think that anything could come along and help everyone return to their routine. But slowly, the nation did rally. It was a process, and sports acted as one vital component among many. Americans eventually put their feet up and began yelling at games on television again, and that helped to remind the world about our resiliency and about our determination to carry on.

Virginia Tech canceled Saturday’s spring football game, which is understandable. There are more important tasks at hand. Eventually, the horror will subside, and the campus will get back to normal.

It will be a new normal, though. Life will never be the same, but it will have to go on. And sometime in late July, Beamer will put his players through their first paces in preparation for the 2007 football season.

That Sept. 8 date at LSU is going to be a donnybrook. Homecoming is Sept. 29, when new head coach Butch Davis brings his North Carolina team to Blacksburg. The Florida State and Miami games are only a week apart in November, but both are at home.

It’s never too soon to get fired up about Virginia Tech football. The sooner, the better.

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