“You donât have to be an expert to judge downhill skiing, fastest one wins.” Well, if lack of rules is what makes a sport then I guess snowboarding, with a 114-page official rulebook is twice as much a sport as NCAA football, which has a 226-page official rulebook. Oh, wait, the argument is that some rules are applied objectively by judges and other rules are applied subjectively, thus snowboarding is not a sport and downhill skiing, speedskating, and presumably football, are sports. We’ll just leave short track speed skating, boxing, and NFL pass interference and unsportsmanlike conduct to one side.
Hope not hate, baby. The athletes at the Olympics are competing with skill and exertion for entertainment: all the events are sports. The competitors deserve our applause and encouragement. At their best, the Games represent some of our highest and finest ideals. That is the essence of being a good sport.
(I won’t even dignify Poorman, which currently features a blood spattered picture from Abu Ghraib under the headline “Wacky Frathouse Hijinx” on their home page with more than a postcript mention.)
I could rebut each argument (aside from the poor taste exhibited at Poorman). But I won’t. The time has come for this particular sport to end.
would be better with a puck.
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“There’s a triple axle into a double-toe-loop… KICK SAVE! ORR WITH THE REBOUND! SCOOOOOOOOOORRRRRREEEE!”
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USA! USA! USA!
You’re aware that the Poorman is referring to Rush Limbaugh’s dismissal of the older, somewhat less nauseating pictures of Abu Ghraib as “fraternity pranks”?
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I mean, it’s really, really bitter irony, but I can’t be too upset about it. The photos themselves make me so ashamed I can’t see straight. (If you haven’t already, make yourself look at them. This is being done on your behalf, America.)
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And what’s that got to do with sports again?
I linked to a post on fake sports over at Poorman in my last post on the subject.
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Clearly, I have created the blog equivalent of the Frankenstein monster by wading into the evidently touchy subject of the relative merits of different events at the Olympics.
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WOOAAAAAH!
That’s a conclusion I can agree with.