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‘I try not to think about it’: Bars, Restaurants Brace for Novel College Football Season, or None At All

The wall of televisions affixed to the south end of Ozona Bar and Grill played a loop of broadcast news. The glaring chyron, that hazily illuminated open tables and empty billiards sets, was hard to miss: “US Death Toll Swells to Deadliest Day Yet.”

For people who have never entered the Dallas area bar, the scene looks apropos for a time like this. For the regulars, as manager Isaac Scott calls those who have continued to trickle into the bar the last four months, it is almost jarring.

For 30 years, those monitors have comforted bartenders and visitors alike with the reliable soundtrack of the Dallas sports scene.