Gimme an F

SO here's Bob Costas last night, after the Jamaican men's 4x100m relay team shattered its own world record:

"It's harder to have a higher opinion of (Usain) Bolt than he has of himself."

First, you supercilious, pint-sized Coca-Cola™ salesman: that's exactly the sort of thing smug little white sportswriters said about Muhammad Ali fifty years ago, and Ali was a hundred times more outlandish than Bolt, and hadn't yet proven them to be racist idiots.  Bolt's already one of the greatest Olympians who ever lived. And whatever anyone thinks of his antics--which are harmless and good-natured--they're dwarfed by fifteen celebrations of routine plays in every NFL game played. You really want this bullshit on your Wiki page forever, like Red Smith's carries his Ali hatred? 

Second, aren't you the same Bob Costas who rather hurriedly hosted Maurice Greene after the men's 4x400 in Sydney, so you, and he, could excuse the preening and clowning and flag-snapping he and the team had done during their victory lap and on the medal podium? I mean, once it became known to you both that Nike wasn't happy about it?

Fuck you, Bob. Just because you and your network institutionally missed the biggest story of the Games, and the most exciting athlete of the last two Olympiads, because he isn't an American, or a 16-year-old girl, or another boring corporate-spokesman wannabee, it's no excuse to miss what actually happened. Or maybe it is, since what Bolt accomplished involved athletics, and that has nothing to do with NBC's Olympic coverage.

While we're at it, I think the final count--ah, but it's not over til it's over--of Gratuitous Mentions of East German women doping in the 80s was five, and I'm not counting the Times article today, because it used the electrifying U.S. women's 4x100 m world record to talk about the previous record, set in 1985 by the Cheatin' Commies.

And even there, let's just note that Carmelita Jeter, who ran the anchor, is not exactly the least suspect athlete in the village.

The difference between the East German women and, say, Marion Jones, is that the former came through a system which didn't give them any choice. Or even tell them what it was up to. Not let them earn millions in endorsements.

The whole fucking record book is suspect. Nobody's more pissed off by this than I.

But, fer chrissakes, using the East Germans as the nadir, after all this time? That's so stupid and nearsighted I'm surprised I didn't catch Costas at it.