Column: Sportscasters pay too much attention to drama
Published March 2, 2010
I am a sports fan. Plain and simple, I enjoy competition. I enjoy watching others compete. I enjoy drinking beer, eating chicken wings and playing pool.
Many things recently in my world have really irked me.
The Winter Olympics aren't really conducive to real sports talk as far as I am concerned, other than the hockey. The speed skating is very impressive, but why do I care about Apolo Ohno's eight medals when most of them are due to others’ falling or being disqualified? Yes, I know it is amazing to even qualify for the Olympics four times, but how impressive is longevity when it's riddled with mediocrity?
Too many broadcasters and reporters want to make Ohno out to be the winter's Michael Phelps. Are we forgetting who Michael Phelps is? I'm not talking about the guy who is a really bad sketch actor on Saturday Night Live; I mean the real Michael Phelps — the one who eats Subway and swims.
Ohno is not Phelps. Phelps won six gold medals in six events. Ohno has won one gold, because a skater from (you'll never guess) South Korea was disqualified.
Clearly the coverage is going to do its best to squeeze every last drop of Olympic drama out of those two weeks, which even means interviewing the numerous athletes suffering the loss of their loved ones. Olympic athletes always seem to have three years and 50 weeks of good fortune, and then everyone in their family dies when they go to the Olympics — perhaps Bob Costas is a hit man or something else is going on.
I think we should just leave them alone. I feel terrible for the girl who lost her mother two days before competing, but to immediately pull her off the podium and start asking questions about, "How do you feel about the death of your mother?" might be going a little too far.
As a fan of everything sports, it's storylines like these that make me second guess what's really important. And I don't know about you, but those aren't the realizations I'm looking to have with a face full of chicken wings.
Family is what really matters, and sports are usually a great example of brotherhood, teamwork and people trying to achieve a common goal. That's why in light of all the Olympic pseudo-drama and real life tragedy, the story of Mark McGwire's brother blasting him in the press is particularly disheartening. Yeah, McGwire took steroids. The reason why he took them, his intent, doesn't matter. What matters is the guy admitted to taking them — end of story.
His brother blasting him in the press goes against everything that sports and family stands for. This is as close to a literal stab in the back as you can get without actually stabbing. Plain and simple, you do not do that to family, no matter how much money you might make. Besides, nobody is buying a book that tells them things they already know unless the new edition comes out, and the MU bookstore won't buy it back.
Sports are what maintain and create numerous relationships across the world. In the case of the dying mother and the Cain and Abel McGwire situation, it's a shame to see sports is dragged into the middle.
Such rash conclusions and storylines aren't acceptable, and the public shouldn't put up with the exploitation of these tragedies.
Comments (2)
6:22 p.m., March 3, 2010
blank said:
Ohno has two golds. One from a disqualification, yes...which is a part of that sport, so it has nothing to do with mediocrity. The second gold from Torino was from the 500m in which he led from start to finish, and no one was disqualified. Maybe before you publish things for everyone to read, you should get your facts right.
5:03 a.m., March 2, 2010
Muus said:
Phelps won 8 gold in 8 events last olympics.. not 6 ;) that was 4 years earlier ;)