Two stories in the news involving odd hours. The first is a 24-marathon that ESPN is putting on to kick off the college hoops season come November. Central Michigan gets the graveyard shift, playing at Hawaii starting at 4AM Eastern. Given the time zone, that would be 10PM local time, which isn't that late for college kids. Michigan State gets a 10PM start that evening EST versus South Carolina.
The other story comes out of Dearborn, where Fordson High is having 11PM football practice this month... not just as a Midnight Madness promotional thing, but everyday. Dearborn has a large Arab community and about half the team is Muslim; since this is Ramadan, they can't eat or drink during the day, so practicing in August heat, even in a northern state like Michigan, is a real problem.
Since the sun doesn't set until about 9, the players will need time to eat and digest their post-sundown meal, so starting much earlier than 11 would be hard. Such accommodation to Muslims will probably make some usual suspects on the right apoplectic, but I'd rather see these kids practicing on the graveyard shift than in the graveyard from heat stroke.
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