by A.J. Coltrane
You probably missed it. I did too. (This happened on the 6th and I didn’t hear about it on the 15th.) Bob Costas went on the Today show and ruffled some feathers with this comment about the new Olympic snowboard event, Slopestyle:
Costas: I think the president of the IOC should be Johnny Knoxville, because basically, this stuff is just Jackass stuff that they invented and called Olympic sports.
Lauer: You mean that in the best possible way, though.
Costas: I mean it in the kindest possible sense, yes.
If you asked the average person on the street to name ten sports broadcasters:
1. They couldn’t name ten.
2. The names would include: John Madden, Dick Vitale, and “That guy that bit the woman on the back”. (Marv Albert.)
I’m not even sure that Costas is relevant anymore, or the story would have made more waves than it did. Fundamentally, it doesn’t sound like a “Bob Costas” thing to say. He has a carefully cultivated image — he’s practically Dick Clark.
The other contributing factor that made it a non-story? C’mon. It’s slopestyle. It’s a bunch of rich white kids who are 3rd-tier athletes.
But he couldn’t say *that*. That would have offended people outside of the slopestyle community. People would have noticed.
Deadspin link with video.
FlatbreadGarden 