The House of Sports … On A Saturday Night

We enjoy the roar of the crowd, the high-fives, the energy of the stadium, the players on the field, court, and ice.

We are a House of Sports.

We watch it. We play it. We groove to it.

We even enjoy it when we’re watching in HD or our old school TV. I enjoy the Madness of March, the Run in October, the Bowls in December and January, The Australian Open. The playoffs. All these are special. All the sweat and hard work. You can hear the Eminem 8 Mile Soundtrack as you cheer on your favorites. And when it comes to events that happen every so often, they’re supposed to be even more special.

The Olympics.

You see old school grainy video of the athletes as kids, playing their sport with tiny shoes and a smile. Growing up to reach the highest level of competition, they get choked up, with tears in their eyes and say Hi mom, on camera. You cheer for them and hope they empty the tank.

Now of course I prefer the Summer Games, but we enjoy the Winter Games. Hockey is our jam. Snowboarding. Speedskating. The Luge. We dig it.

BUT …

We’d love it even more if they had just postponed a bit, you know … when we still weren’t in the middle of a stupid pandemic. Common sense and safety would have said, yeah let’s wait, just like we did in the Summer Olympics. Instead, you got people who showed up with clean records that ended up not being able to compete because they got Covid while they were at the Olympics. So, they’re one shot, they’re one opportunity gone. Years of training. Gone.

Should they have waited? Yeah, why not?

But no. They went on … to make money … and to have it … in China.

China.

IOC? What happened? I’m sure Sweeden or Norway or Alaska would have loved to host. They don’t have shady human rights abuses. At least not that I’m aware of … I mean they probably even have real snow and don’t have to make 100% of the snow at the games. How are you going to have the winter games when you can’t provide snow?

Then you have the drugs.

With athletes that were supposed to be banned for their intense secret drug doping scandals in the past, to just show up again. And again. And again. Under no flag but being from the same country.

Russia.

What’s up with that?

You know they did it. We know they did it. They know we know they did it. But IOC is going to pretend that these are new athletes under no one’s influence. You know, even though they’re training in Russia, living in Russia, and probably getting their travel paid by Russia. But they’re not participating under the Russian flag because they’re independent.

Which comes to the most recent drama …

Is it the Russian skater who doped it up and now everyone is pretending to be innocent? No that’s not the drama I’m talking about, but let’s explore it for a minute. Threatening reporters that break stories on it and playing innocent because she’s a teenager. How could she possibly know what was going on?

Cut it out.

Have you met a sixteen-year-old? They know what they want to know. Did she think they were Flintstone Vitamins? And even if she didn’t know, and let’s say she didn’t, the other people around her knew. They knew it was banned and that’s it. Period.

Should be no exceptions. Especially … especially being from Russia.

Just like that American Sprinter in the Summer Olympics knew marijuana was a banned substance (not that it would have helped her performance in anyway in fact it probably would have hurt her), but she smoked anyway because she was self-medicating after the death of her grandmother. She was banned.

The skater tested positive. That’s it. Period. I

The IOC is still discussing whether or not this ice skater can compete?

Dude. They’re worse than the NFL.

It’s ugly. And the House of Sports is sad about the whole situation. Sports. We loved watching them, but people are dirty. Letting things slide to appease some powers that be … that be selfish and greedy.

But my main drama was Leslie Jones. The highlight … the one x-factor that made watching some of these Olympics enjoyable was Leslie Jones commentating on The Games.

I thoroughly enjoyed her commentary, play by play, natural reactions, and epic enthusiasm. That’s the kind of friends you want with you at any game. Her vibrant energy and support for the athletes. I watched through her posts and reactions. Good commentators work their magic to make the games even more enjoyable. But now … that’s over.

NBC did something behind closed doors and all of a sudden, she wasn’t posting any highlights, and there was no more spice in the air.

The Olympics from all angles proved to let down The House of Sports. We cheer and support the athletes though, we always do, not the cheaters, or their enablers. Just the athletes. We hope they find their way to gold. We hope they Pump Up Their Jam.

Jock Jams — Various Artists

.

.

.