8/03/2012

Shut Up, Al Trautwig

"Could you go for the knockout blow if your opponent was sobbing?"

I know everyone is hating on NBC for not showing things live, showing interviews instead of tributes to terrorist victims and assorted other fuck-ups. I wasn't going to blog about it because I'm sure Deadspin has done it better.  In many different ways.

But. I haven't been able to get Al Trautwig's comment out of my mind. He uttered it during the women's gymnastics team finals, when the Russians kept making stupid mistakes. The Americans were on target to win gold and he says this. As if only these little Russian girls cry at the Olympics. As if the Americans would stop doing their best because the Russians were crying.

This is Al. I thought about using a picture of the Russians crying, or the Americans going for the "knockout blow", but then I realized that this is really about Al himself. So here he is. 


Do you think he said anything like this during the men's team finals?

Do you think anyone said this during women's boxing?

Look, I get that almost none of the female gymnasts in question are legally women yet, being under 18 and all. I too thought the Russians were a bit over the top with the crying. . .at least according to the NBC broadcast, since they neglected to show that there were other teams in the competition. Maybe everyone was crying? I don't know. I do get that they get more emotional than the hockey players he normally reports on. But for the love of Christ, these are world class athletes. They do more in a day than Al Trautwig does in a week. They were in the freaking Olympics, not one hockey game among many. And if they were all so affected by each other's tears, none of them would win anything.

The Fab Five are way tougher than you are, Al. So shut up. 


1 comment:

LucidLotus said...

It's called competition, Al. Look it up.