NBC: Taking Sport Out of the Olympics

As I've previously written, I've come down with a semi-problematic case of Olympic fever.

I find myself watching horrible things like weight-lifting and gymnastics, just because international competition gets me excited.

But the more I watch it, the less I turn the sound on. Why? Because you can't go five minutes without hearing about Michael Phelps, lip-syncing, walls over ghettoes, the murder of an American, or any combination of these.

The complete overexposure of Phelps is the same reason why I'm not a Tiger Woods fan—I'm sick of hearing about how good he is.

Every morning I click on ESPN.com only to see a picture of Phelps, even if it's just to say he didn't race, when others had.

How demeaning is that to other athletes? It's just like when Tiger is in the lead sentence of any golf article, even though he's not involved in the tournament in question.

Isn't there enough going on without the same stories being beaten to death at every single broadcast?

Now, this Spanish photo controversy plans to dominate the new for the next few days. Don't believe me? Here's an example:

I've been following the German hoops team, because the Dirkster is on it, and upon getting to work this morning I went to read the recap of their bout with Spain.

The recap totals 573 words. How many do you think are dedicated to basketball? Eighty-five.

Fifteen percent.

After a quick mention of the score, the recap discusses the Spanish coach's frustration with questions about the photos, then quotes Olympic officials on their response to the pictures.

Then there is a brief mention at the end about Dirk and Jose Calderon's stats.  Wow, that's good sports journalism.

My question is this: Who cares about the Spanish team making slanty-eyes? I laughed when I heard that. Then I forgot about it—Uuntil NBC and ESPN ran out of storylines to push and brought it to the forefront.

I mean, really. What is so bad about a team having fun at a photo shoot? Especially when the photographer said they should do it.

So here's my advice for NBC: We get it. Spain sucks. Phelps is great. Now why don't you concentrate on some other athletes? There is plenty of good happening that doesn't involve Phelps, Dana Torres or a lost wedding ring.