I'm Drafting Him For My Curling Fantasy League
There are a countless things I could conjur to say about the 2010 Winter Olympics, but there's one that sums up what I like about them so much.
But first:
-- If you're going to wear a costume with feathers for a figure skating competition, why would you do black feathers that makes you look like a crow instead of, say, an eagle or swan or some other majestic or graceful creature?
-- It's amazing that Shaun White is so much better than the best in the world.
-- They shouldn't have kicked that other American snowboarder out for letting a girl bite his bronze medal around his waist.
-- Forget Lindsey Vonn ... I'm more fond of Julia Mancuso.
-- I am actually willing to watch men and women ski for long stretches, stop and shoot at targets and then start skiing again. But I'm not willing to watch figure skating.
-- The guys doing color commentary for snowboarding and aerial skiing are so much better at blending commentary on technical miscues while maintaining a cool and calming narration of the overall events. The figure skating talkers ... "Whoa! Nailed it! Oh yes!"
-- I feel bad that I enjoy watching figure skaters wipe out.
-- I don't feel bad enjoying the snowboard wipeouts, because that's just what they do.
-- Super G sounds really cool.
-- I'm glad I finally educated myself on the rules of curling. It's not like darts; you don't get points for being in the green, etc. I'd rather watch it than hockey.
-- The Canadians are getting owned by the Americans.
-- Apollo Ohno. Looks goofy, but a lot tougher and less of a whiner than other celebrated athletes.
-- I would rather watch a taped, primetime package of the best of the day's events than have to find a way to watch my favorite events at 11 a.m. And I think NBC does a good job. I like the event logos frozen in ice.
-- Too bad if Lindsey Jacobellis was going to wipe out again she couldn't have done it with style like last time.
-- Did they really say that 50-degree temperatures in a ski race was a serious hindrance?
-- The bobsledders. Whoa with the ass slapping, guys.
-- Etc., etc., etc.
I'm drawn to the Olympics. Yesterday, an interview with an athlete cemented for me why.
The USA men's curling team has struggled. In fact, they've been terrible. The commentators were talking about how perhaps the USA should put together an all-star team instead of advancing teams already put together that qualify for the Olympics.
In any case, a reporter is interviewing John Shuster, the captain -- the "skip" -- of the team.
In watching the NFL or NBA or NCAA, I've become used to players and coaches being presented with confrontational questions. On the spot. The ones that stick the dagger right through.
And those questions are often appropriate. It's big business. Athletes and coaches and owners and schools making tons of money. Craving the spotlight.
With the good goes the bad.
Sure there are participants in the Olympics who stand to gain on their mercurial celebrity.
But not with this guy. Not the curling guy.
A bio on the curling guy from the USA Curling team website:
His hobbies include fishing, hunting, fantasy football, golf and playing and coaching softball. He also wakeboards and has three dogs. Nicknamed "Shoostie." Works as a bartender in Duluth, Minn., in the winters and on the grounds crew of a golf course in the summers.
The camera light shines on him, and you can tell he's inexperienced. He doesn't have the polish applied by the coaching of a publicist. He's smiling, uncomfortable.
The woman sets it up by enumerating the team's failures in the Olympics.
Then she asks him, "So is there anything positive at all that you can take from this?"
He's unsure of what to say, because he doesn't want to be impolite.
"Umm ... wow, that's harsh."
Then he goes on to answer the question as best he can, as if he's emulating what he sees when he's watching post-game interviews of the NFL players who are on his fantasy team.
It struck me then.
That was rude.
And the fact that it was is what makes me like this brand of athlete.
