You can set your watch to it.

Read a story about an athlete or a local sports team on a newspaper’s website or on social media these days, and you’re almost surely to be met with a “Who cares?” or “There’s plenty of bigger issues than sports right now” on one of the first few comments. (And those are some of the nicer things being said).

I think we all grasp that sports are on the backburner for the foreseeable future — as they should be — and that the most important articles to read are those with information on how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and how to keep your family healthy.

To that point, I’ve seen very few national sports journalists putting the return of the NBA or the NHL over the health of millions of Americans. I have yet to hear or read any of my District 9 colleagues clamoring for the spring sports season to start or for the winter sports championships to conclude. We all realize that the nationwide shutdown over the coronavirus is necessary, and in fact, life-saving.

But, we also have jobs to do.

And if writing about the Bills’ or Steelers’ free agent acquisitions or about the details of the 2020 trout season can serve as a temporary distraction from COVID-19, then maybe we have an important job to do.

If highlighting the seasons of a few high school athletes who had their season cut short, or college kids that saw their careers end can help people feel like they aren’t alone in all of this, I think it’s very important.

Besides the obvious feelings of uneasiness and worry about the virus, there are also warranted feelings of frustration and sadness.

J.P. Butler and Chuck Pollock have done a fine job of putting into perspective just how unprecedented it is to have this time of year go on without live sports. The month of April, typically the busiest on the national calendar, will have no NCAA Tournament games. No Masters. No NHL and NBA playoffs. The list goes on and on.

Nobody is being asked to feel sorry for multi-millionaires who may have their seasons cut short by a few games or a few tournaments. But inside every stadium or field, there are thousands of concession stand workers, ticket-sellers and merchandise vendors. They’ve all lost their jobs and every postponement or cancelation of a major sporting event impacts them directly.

On the local level, even though the school shutdown is the right, and potentially life-saving, call, you still can’t help but feel bad for teenagers who could miss out on some of the best moments of their high school careers.

I was taking a drive through the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford campus late last week — what else is there to do? — and that very thought dawned on me as I was passing the empty fields.

On a day where the Bradford high school baseball team would be hosting Brokville in its season opener, the field instead was covered in tarps.

Further down the road, the tennis courts were buzzing, but rather than the balls being hit by the Bradford boys varsity team against St. Marys, it was a quartet of adults playing a doubles match. And yes, they were six-feet apart, though I’m not sure that matters when you’re using the same tennis ball. I digress …

At The Era, we’ve been trying our best to highlight some of the local folks that have been impacted by the coronavirus shutdown.

On Saturday, we ran a small notice asking for story ideas. The results, not surprisingly, were overwhelming. We had current coaches, parents, community members and the like all reach out with suggestions.

Charlie Burchfield, one of outdoors writers, asked if he could submit an additional article each week detailing how the coronavirus has impacted things like trout season or taking a hike.

I also received an email about two McKean County natives that saw their spring track seasons at Slippery Rock University cut short.

The list goes on — to ideas spanning decades.

Dave Fuhrman, the former Bradford boys basketball coach, inquired if we’d be interested in doing an article on the 25th anniversary of his 1994-95 team that had an undefeated regular season before losing in the PIAA quarterfinals.

I spent most of Saturday and some time Sunday responding to those various messages about whether we’d be interested in writing about their ideas. My answer, without fail, was a resounding yes.

See, it’s not as if we folks in the sports world live in a bubble and don’t pay attention to what’s going on outside of the field or the court. In fact, it’s the exact opposite.

Sports have always done the nearly impossible job of bringing people from different classes, ages and races together. And now, when everything that we know about the world has been turned upside down, maybe they can serve as that needed distraction and that brief, but important, moment to tune out the fear for just a second.

After all, doesn’t debating with a friend over who the Bills or Steelers should select in the upcoming draft help us — even for a fleeting moment — believe that we will someday soon return to a state of normalcy?

(Anthony Sambrotto, Bradford Era sports editor, can be reached at asambrotto@bradfordera.com)