Let's be honest, everyone's sick of it.
NBC went overboard with the Olympics in 2000 and it's sucked like donkey ass ever since.
Were we watching sports or a LIFETIME ORIGINAL PORTRAIT?
Sports were out. Instead Katie Couric and company wanted to tell you -- before anything took place -- just who you were going to root for.
And they wanted to cue up these cute little glossy portraits.
Didn't matter if the athlete had the goods, if they looked cute, you were going to root for them.
Jesse Owens wasn't cute. Mary Lou Retton really wasn't cute. Jackie Joyner Kersee wasn't cute. Michael Phelps (even with the exposed butt crack) wasn't cute. Carl Lewis wasn't cute. Katie Ledecky wasn't cute. Bonnie Blair wasn't cute. Jason Lezak wasn't cute. Mark Spitz wasn't cute. Sue Bird wasn't cute. Michael Johnson wasn't cute. Okay, Greg Louganis was cute. But he's the exception that proves the rule.
The people who scored and who we remember are outstanding athletes. They weren't cuddly, snuggly and chushy. They didn't need to be handled with all the soft focus Hugh Hefner reserved for his Playboy pets.
They sweat.
They work.
Their goal was excellence in competition.
They threw it all on the line.
We screamed with joy and shouted with outrage when they were competing because they were truly inspiring, real athletes in an artificial world.
Blaine Carew Wilson?
Katie Couric and company were obsessed with little Blaine in 2000.
In fairness, he was a cutie.
He wasn't one of the best athletes, but he was easy on the eyes.
And NBC promoted him like crazy.
And he left the 2000 Summer Olympics with exactly how many medals?
That's right, boys and girls, zero.
All he got was participation nods.
There's a pattern here, by the way, and it's racism.
Nancy Kerrigan was never an excellent skater.
She was White. And cute -- in a traditional beauty pageant way.
And that was enough for her, in 1994, for the press to make her their pet. That was enough, even with her s**ty skating and inability to place, for her to get the spot on the Olympic team that Michelle Kwan actually earned.
When Nancy was injured in 1994, the only real surprise there was that she hadn't yet again fallen on her ass while skating.
Instead an attack was orchestrated on Nancy by the husband of one of her competitors, Tonya Harding.
Wink-wink, Tonya had no idea and was completely not involved in the attack, wink-wink.
Tonya Harding is the subject of I, TONYA and Margot Robbie is nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Tonya in the movie.
Long before that film, America had cheered TONYA: THE BATTLE OF WOUNDED KNEE -- Julie Brown's comedic send up which ruled SHOWTIME for years -- they knew people would watch whenever they aired, wherever they tossed it on the schedule.
Running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, at a December 2007 Iowa event, Barack Obama jokes, "Folks said there's no way Obama has a chance unless he goes and kneecaps the person ahead of us, does a Tonya Harding. We decided that's not the kind of campaign we wanted to run."
Tonya was stripped of her skating rights over the incident despite being wink-wink not guilty.
She was guilty as hell and everyone knew it.
But they could identify with the honesty of the attack compared to the plastique of Nancy Kerrigan.
There is no I, NANCY and there won't be because no one gives a damn about that media inflated loser.
She was a cry baby, she was ungrateful (her rude comments caught live on a microphone during a Disney parade will never be forgotten) but, worst of all, she was a press pet and the American people don't like those.
Especially when, like Blaine Wilson, they can't deliver.
And this year there was Lindsey Vonn.
Many Americans may ask who?
For good reason -- unlike USA TODAY's Christine Brennan, they don't have some sort of sexual obsession with Lindsey.
There are professional sports writers who demonstrate more professional detachment with basketball superstar and legend LeBron James than Christine does with Lindsey -- and LeBron is the real deal when it comes to once in a lifetime athletes.
That hasn't stopped Christine from publicly bathing Lindsey with her tongue for years now -- we see the tongue baths go all the way to 2002.
Brennan showed up today at USA TODAY to whine that people are hating on Vonn.
Brennan pretends to care about skater Adam Rippon and skier Gus Kenworthy but the whole point is Brennan putting her same-sex crush on Vonn into print yet again.
Use the link, you'll see what we mean.
Poor Vonn, she said rude things about Donald Trump, Brennan explains, and people hold it against her:
One would think that because criticism of Trump is so widespread across the country, his fans would ignore it by now. They didn’t lose the election; they won it. Declare victory, move on and wave the flag when Rippon takes the ice or Vonn and Kenworthy take to the slopes.
But no. These anti-American Americans become so rattled by the honest exchange of opinions that their anger gets the best of them. Then they end up treating a once-in-a-generation U.S. sports icon like Vonn as if she were a mortal enemy from the old CCCP.
Gee, Christy, you're the one who's gone on every outlet -- including PBS' THE NEWSHOUR -- treating Vonn's anti-Trump remarks like the biggest news in the world.
Now there's fall out for them and you rush to pat Vonn on the ass one more time -- lovingly pat her on the ass.
Maybe it's time Little Christy grew the hell up?
Lindsey's nothing.
She's a two time Olympic winner -- a bronze and a gold, both in 2010.
That might seem impressive to some.
To some -- some idiots, maybe.
She's been doing the Olympics since 2002. Sixteen years later, she's competing in skiing -- a sport very hard on the knees.
In other words, Lindsey Vonn should have aged out years ago.
NBC treats her like a god -- but, then, when her never ending injuries kept her out of the 2014 Olympics, NBC put her on the payroll.
She competed in 2002 and in 2006 -- well, she was medically evacuated out of the 2006 Olympics. She returned only to place eighth -- maybe the Olympics should have chosen a better player? (As Michelle Kwan's 1994 sidelining demonstrated, the Olympics do pick and choose who competes and who doesn't.)
In 2007, she sprained her knee. In 2009, she hurt her arm. In 2010, it was her shin. In 2011, it was a concussion. 2013 saw her suffering from illness that kept effecting her skills. Also in 2013, she was airlifted out of competition again -- after tearing a ligament in her right knee and fracturing her tibial plateau. This was why she didn't compete in 2014. 2016 found her fracturing her right arm.
All those injuries should have told her to drop out -- as should the fact that she'd been competing in the Olympics since 2002.
She had aged out of the sport but apparently couldn't accept that.
She needs that money from Red Bull endorsements, after all. It's not like she can work a real job.
So in December of last year, she tries to get a little more attention by saying she doesn't compete for the President of the United States but for the American people (and that she won't be going to the White House to meet the president).
This was offensive.
Sports aren't supposed to be political but there was the heavily injured and aged out of her sport Lindsey Vonn doing her trash talk only to flame out at the Olympics last week.
Go away, Lindsey, America doesn't root for losers.
Also doing trash talk was Gus Kenworthy -- another 'sports star' built by the media.
In previous times, the only term applied to Gus would be "himbo."
That's what a so-called athlete posing nude is usually called -- and laughed about.
And Gus didn't just pose -- and pose his peen to peak out -- for the photo, he went on to post it.
We've known about the photo for some time but, when discussing this article, people kept telling us we had to be wrong.
Nope.
In 2016, his 'tip' was posted at the OMG BLOG.
All this before he flame out at the Olympics.
And he did flame out.
He too had felt the need to trash Trump -- this 'athlete' NBC promoted like crazy with video of him taking a shower and flaunting his hairy armpit -- to reassure the country that he wasn't 'that' kind of gay, apparently. (Twinks can figure skate, not ski appears to be the NBC ruling.)
On the morning of his big competition what was he doing?
Tweeting in response to Britney Spears, "Oh. My. God. Was really not prepared to wake up to this. Not sure how I'm gonna ski today because I'm LITERALLY dead now but I'm gonna go that extra mile for you, Britney! Ilysm!!!"
For those who don't speak prepubescent, "ILYSM" translates as "I Love You So Much."
Having failed to bring home the gold (or the silver . . . or the bronze), the media was left with still selling Gus and decided to turn him kissing his boyfriend into a world shattering moment because, until last week, two men had never ever kissed before -- only heavy petted, apparently.
He's 26 which means he's really too old -- unless he lies to himself like Lindsey Vonn -- to compete in the next Winter Olympics.
What's left for him?
Maybe a remake of BODY DOUBLE where he plays the Melanie Griffith role and gets to declare, "I do not do animal acts. I do not do S&M or any variations of that particular bent, no water sports either. I will not shave my [. . . -- keeping it work safe], no fistf**king and absolutely no cumming in my face. I get $2000 a day and I do not work without a contract."
Over the last 18 years, NBC has repeatedly told us who the stars of the Olympics were and it's always been based on something other than skill and talent. The stars are profiled and gabbed about and -- with the exception of Michael Phelps -- leave the Olympics with no medals.
They're like The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf or, to to use a more modern example, the VANITY FAIR cover declaring the latest actor who slept his way to a leading role under a gay director "the hottest male star of all time" -- even though they never live up to the hype.
People are tired of it. And that hurts ratings.
So does the political garbage.
If you want to say something about not meeting Donald Trump say it after you win a medal.
(Unless, of course, you realize -- maybe Lindsey did -- that you're a loser and no one will care what you say after the actual competition.)
The Olympics are about coming together -- or they're supposed to be. It's really not important to know your political thoughts. Equally true, Vonn didn't feel the need to make these statements when Barack Obama was president or when Bully Boy Bush was in the White House.
Let's dwell on that for just a minute, Bully Boy Bush declared war on Iraq and destroyed millions of lives but Lindsey Vonn's delicate sensibilities weren't bothered by that.
Here's another valid complaint: They aren't live.
They're broadcasting around the clock but NBC is delaying events.
Even though you can find out who won those events online, NBC won't air them live.
The only thing worse than watching 'live' on television an event that ended several hours prior is hearing the NBC 'commentary' that acts as though we're watching something where the outcome is uncertain.
These are serious issues.
But don't expect America to root for you when you're slamming this person or that.
There are Trump supporters who won't root for you if you're slamming him. There are people who won't root for you because they support the office of the president regardless of who is in it. There are people who are sick of the 2016 election and the refusal by so many to get over it and they're not going to root for you. There are people dealing with real issues -- war, immigration, labor, etc. -- and they're tired of your pretense that you're informed or political.
Partisan isn't political.
Partisan is Meryl Streep being silent on the Iraq War but vocal against Bully Boy Bush (or now Donald Trump).
Americans don't like it.
If you're just a partisan, like Meryl, maybe 52% of others in your political party will support you. Everyone else will grow tired of you -- including the largest group of American adults: non-voters.
There's a lesson to be found in the lowered ratings for network football.
Colin Kapernick's actions were political and were seen by most as such. There was no great fall in the ratings. When others became partisan and decided to also ape Colin, there was fallout. There were some Americans who loathed Colin's actions, some who didn't care, some who supported him (we support Colin). But whether you thought he was misguided or correct, you felt his actions were genuine. With others, it came off like posing.
America can take political -- and does. It grows weary of partisan very quickly.
NBC and others elected to go all touchy feely in their coverage and we were supposed to embrace the cuddly and the cute. In fact, we're still supposed to embrace them even though they flamed out and left as losers. That's really not what sports is about.
But on NBC, the Olympics aren't really sports and that's why this go round is shaping up to be the lowest rated Olympics ever. That's a shame because while the Team USA is in sixth place as we write, there have been great moments such as Japan's Nao Kodaira winning the gold in speed skating. But NBC's coverage of that made it clear that they're not covering the Olympics, they're playing E! with 'breaking bulletins' about celebrities. In other words, if Nadia Comaneci were competing for the first time this year and won three gold medals (as she did in the summer Olympics of 1976), NBC would ignore her to devote more time to babbling about the importance of Gus kissing another guy.
