Every major sporting event seems to carry and perpetuate its own particular bag of pure, untreated nonsense. The Olympics, to begin this week, barring international intrigue and calamity, are always good for plenty.
As if it were part of the pregame show, the American side got off to a good start when some grandstanding, ostensibly patriotic politicians chose to express their horror to learn that our team’s marching formalwear was not made in the USA but in China!
Boys, boys! That ship sailed — and far, far away — 35, 40 years ago. The far greater shock would have been had the ensembles been made here!
Other than their skin, there’s virtually nothing that U.S. Olympians practice in, warm up in, pose in or compete in that’s made in the U.S.
Are these politicians unaware of where Nike products are made? Nike’s a U.S. company, but in sales and profit only. Its products are made in the latest Third World country that can offer even cheaper labor than the previous third world country where they were made.
What’s still naively viewed as a warm fuzzy — the photo of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley draped in their own American flag during the medal ceremony for the Dream Team’s 1992 gold in Barcelona — was predicated on money and subterfuge.
The U.S. team’s uniforms and warmups carried the Reebok logo. Barkley and Jordan were big Nike guys, so they used the American flag only as props to hide Reebok logos. As patriotic sentiments run, Jordan’s and Barkley’s were a con.
You think any of these politicians would have held press conferences marinated in indignation had China’s uniforms been made in the U.S.?
Does anyone object that BP — British Petroleum — perhaps still eager to make nice since that catastrophic oil spill two years ago off the Gulf — is this year “a proud sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Team”?
But it’s Olympics time. We’re just getting started. There’s plenty more BP and BS where that came from.
And no matter that an extra nickel will win for a U.S. network the rights to the next Olympics — and the right to do to the Olympics what’s in the network’s most moneyed interests — NBC will treat the IOC with a far greater regard than it holds for the truth.
United States of shock! Brits keep Open classy
Couldn’t put my Windex finger on it. Sure, the British Open is different. Its courses look different; it’s on TV much earlier. But there’s something else about watching it that makes for far different. Then reader Mike Mignone nailed it:
Unlike world-class pro golf played and watched in the States, the British Open isn’t loaded with a load of apparently loaded and/or attention starved, obnoxious fools surrounding the tee boxes and greens screaming, “Get in the hole!” and “You da man!”
“You don’t hear much screaming and hollering from the spectators,” wrote Mignone. “And after good shots and putts, you hear applause.”
* More Open: Yesterday before Brandt Snedeker, four behind leader Adam Scott, teed off, ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi asked if he had a particular “strategy.” Snedeker said it was “to put as much pressure on Scotty as possible.”
“That’s pretty candid stuff right there …” said ESPN’s Paul Azinger. “Everybody’s thinking like that, but nobody says it.”
Azinger was pretty candid himself when he later dismissed those who tweeted their opinion on a ruling: “Well, there’s a lot of experts on Twitter. Geez, what a bunch of clowns.”
Whoa. ESPN had spent nearly four rounds encouraging “clowns” to tweet their opinions. But ESPN always cultivates the attention and participation of clowns. It even identifies Chris Berman as “the face of ESPN.”
Meanwhile, imagine networks encouraging their on-sight announcers to spend time reading and answering tweets rather than paying full attention to the national telecast of a golf major they’re working!
And More: Yesterday, after Tiger Woods tripled the sixth, there was some concern whether ESPN would continue to cover the British Open, especially when ESPN can scroll LeBron James’ latest tweets under tape of the 2009 Home Run Derby.
ESPN stuck it out, though, and soon would provide a super slo-mo replay of a Woods fist pump — seriously — almost as if he were winning! Regardless of why and when, imagine a producer calling for such a silly replay.
* It has taken Met Jordany Valdespin about two minutes in the majors to demonstrate he knows how to stand near the batter’s box or jog toward first while watching to see if he hit a home run.
College bar at new low
Removing Joe Paterno’s statue yesterday won’t change a thing. Big-time, TV-money-enriched college sports remain saturated in academic, financial and social fraud.
While it seems as if NFL players average three or four arrests per week, nearly all have something in common other than pro football and collars: They’re all college men. And almost all went to college on full scholarships.
What does that tell us? Remember, no college’s charter contains a word about facilitating a winning sports team. Not one word.
The new standard — rationalization — among college sports yahoos now becomes: “Well, at least we didn’t indulge a pedophile coach!”
And TV commentators will have an even easier time when, after a starter is charged with a crime, they sympathize with the head coach who had to spend the week “dealing with distractions.”
* Yesterday during Dodgers-Mets on WPIX, Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez recalled three-season Met Carl Everett for his contentious behavior toward umps.
“I liked him,” said Hernandez, adding Everett was intense even in batting practice.
Cohen said Everett had his “dark side,” including “some troubles since leaving the game.” And that was that.
Cohen’s assessment was vague but true. Last year, Everett was arrested in Florida, charged with witness tampering and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, i.e. holding a gun to his wife’s head. Four months later in Texas, he was arrested for assault.
* Jason Kidd’s apologetic tweet for his “accident,” as a police officer who addresses DWI offenders in court-mandated sessions had previously written us, badly misses the mark. Those who drive while drunk “don’t have accidents, they have crashes.”