04/25/24
August 14, 2012
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
are you sure gasol is mexican? cause that nigga be looking white as hail LOL
Wow, I don't even know where to start with this one.
posted by dfleming at 08:02 AM on August 14, 2012
If you live in America, Work in America, speak english, and pay Taxes here are you not American??
Hehe.
I believe a few American election cycles have based their platforms around that very questions.
posted by grum@work at 08:35 AM on August 14, 2012
I volunteer to be the one that breaks the news to these guys about Steve Nash.
He seems "nice" enough to be a Canadian, but as an African, he's even whiter looking than Gasol. And he's spent his whole career thus far playing in a part of the country where they don't speak English anymore.
If they can wrap their minds around that, then we can get started talking about his ex-wife.
posted by beaverboard at 09:10 AM on August 14, 2012
After competing in Olympic football for the first time since failing to qualify for the 1974 games, the Football Association has confirmed that Great Britain will not enter a men's football team for the 2016 Olympics in Rio and that it is "unlikely" a Great Britain women's football team will compete.
Bit of a shame, but not exactly unexpected on the men's side. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were worried about their FIFA independence and England can get knocked out of a major competition on penalties every four years without bothering with the Olympics.
Qualification for the Olympics on the men's side is through the European Under-21 Championships, while on the women's side it's the top three European teams at the World Cup in 2015.
"Great Britain" doesn't send a team to either event.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:08 AM on August 14, 2012
How did you celebrate your gold medal? Oh, you know, in usual London style: got drunk, got robbed and had to sleep in a train station because someone had nicked my accreditation for the Olympic Village...
German Robert Harting's night was just getting started when he ripped his shirt in half and then did the 100m hurdles during his victory lap after winning the discus gold medal.
posted by JJ at 10:19 AM on August 14, 2012
JJ, I'm bookmarking that story to show to the whiners in 2016 when they start bitching about how the Olympics is all just corporatized nationalist fascism blah blah blah.
posted by Etrigan at 10:30 AM on August 14, 2012
Man, Bode Miller didn't do half that and people are still tut-tutting at him. Conclusion: Americans are a bunch of pantywaists.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:13 AM on August 14, 2012
"Conclusion: Americans are a bunch of pantywaists."
Supporting evidence : They bleeped Eric Idle.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:17 AM on August 14, 2012
They did f*****g not!? Seriously? That's ****** ****** up.
posted by JJ at 11:29 AM on August 14, 2012
Yeah. They bleeped idle, they cut the 7/7 tribute from the opening ceremony, they cut Muse out of the closing ceremony all together, (because they only wrote and performed the official anthem of the London games, after all), and then once we got a sniff of The Who, they told us they were delaying the rest of the closing ceremony coverage by an hour to bring us the pilot of a new sitcom about monkeys.
What happened inbetween the ceremonies was largely ugly too. If it wasn't for TunnelBear allowing me to watch the BBC coverage of the games I'd have given up.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:41 AM on August 14, 2012
I have to declare an interest and say that the executive producer of the BBC's coverage is a friend of mine, but even if he wasn't I couldn't praise their coverage of the whole thing highly enough. Through the day on TV, radio and online, it was superb and comprehensive. The evening round-up programmes were brilliant (Michael Johnson, John McEnroe and Ian Thorpe offering their insights as sportsmen and their enthusiasm as sports fans), especially as most of them had to be put together in about twenty minutes after the end of the live coverage.
That's when the BBC gets it right - when they have to think on their feet and just put something out there. For me, they only tend to fall over when they have a lot of time to think about something.
Some of the presenters are useless and how they keep their jobs is beyond me (Gary Lineker with his simpering "How did that make you FEEL?" questions, and Sue Barker who looks permanently like she's just been caught smoking behind the bike sheds, or cycling behind the tobacconist's or something), but most of them were outstanding - Claire Balding, Gabby Logan, John Inverdale, even Colin Murray on the radio was good and normally I can't stand him. I think the secret was that you got the impression with the latter group that they saw it as a privilege to be reporting from the games and that if they hadn't been lucky enough to have been chosen to do so, they'd have been doing everything in their powers to get a ticket so they could at least watch the sport.
I thought that even if we as a nation didn't f*** up the actual games, we might well have f****** up the coverage. Amazingly, it would seem that not only did we do neither, but we actually did a good job on both.
posted by JJ at 12:03 PM on August 14, 2012
And just in case you ever doubted that the BBC guys are sports fans...
posted by JJ at 12:06 PM on August 14, 2012
Mind you, Colin Jackson is an idiot.
posted by JJ at 12:08 PM on August 14, 2012
Michael Johnson gets the prize for his reaction to Bolt's 100m in the 2008 final though.
posted by JJ at 12:11 PM on August 14, 2012
posted by rcade at 12:27 PM on August 14, 2012
What.
The.
Fuck.
posted by grum@work at 12:49 PM on August 14, 2012
Tim Tebow, ballerina.
posted by apoch at 01:14 PM on August 14, 2012
I'm now officially cheering for the end of Tim Tebow's career to come about as soon as fucking possible. C'mon down off your cross, Timmy, and fade into obscurity.
posted by tahoemoj at 01:20 PM on August 14, 2012
My Barbadian cousin, now living in the Netherlands, raved about the closing ceremonies in a Facebook post. So I watched the NBC coverage. I have no idea what coverage cousin Val was watching, but I'm sure it was not NBC. Somehow, NBC has come to mean Never Broadcast Content.
On a further note, TV watching could be hazardous. This has little or nothing to do with sports, but I had to include it for the laugh value.
posted by Howard_T at 02:20 PM on August 14, 2012
So, what product is Tebow selling there?
(also, ya know, really really looking forward to those division games this fall)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:40 PM on August 14, 2012
TV watching could be hazardous
That's why I always tuck my pistol into the waistband of my sweatpants.
posted by tahoemoj at 02:58 PM on August 14, 2012
Look very closely at the cloud behind Tebow's left shoulder and see if there's an image in there that is being revealed to you.
To me it looks like - I don't think I have the strength to say it...
... there appears to be the unmistakeable likeness of a woman's foot in there.
It is not a virgin's foot.
I am freaked out. I need a milkshake.
posted by beaverboard at 03:04 PM on August 14, 2012
The evening round-up programmes were brilliant (Michael Johnson, John McEnroe and Ian Thorpe offering their insights as sportsmen and their enthusiasm as sports fans)
McEnroe was doing double-duty with NBC, as he's done with NBC and now ESPN for Wimbledon, but I got the feeling that he enjoyed his BBC time more, because he wasn't shoehorned into silly spots that had little to do with the actual sporting contests going on around him.
Thorpe was a revelation: needs some media training to iron out the verbal tics, and camp as a row of tents, but he's the first swimming commentator I've encountered who talked in detail about the technical and psychological aspects of a sport that often keeps those things hidden from casual spectators.
Johnson remains a brilliant addition to the BBC team; again, I get the feeling that he enjoys being part of a setup that isn't trying to manufacture Olympic Product to maximise primetime ad revenues, and which treats athletics with respect regardless of who's winning.
posted by etagloh at 07:39 PM on August 14, 2012
Look very closely at the cloud behind Tebow's left shoulder and see if there's an image in there that is being revealed to you.
I wish it was a hand ready to smack him upside the head...
posted by MeatSaber at 10:17 PM on August 14, 2012
That Tebow photo turns out to be from his college days. The cropping and switch to black and white obscures the fact it's taken at UF.
posted by rcade at 11:07 AM on August 15, 2012
Some Americans are confused about why Pau Gasol was playing for Spain in the Olympics. (scroll down for the tweets)
"I'm confused as 2 y Pau & Marc Gasol R playing 4 Spain? I know they're from Spain but they're American so R they also playing 4 team #USA?"