Chip Shots: Bryant Gumbel Has No Use For The Winter Olympics

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I'm Chip Ramsey a career broadcaster who has been a sports radio program director in Milwaukee and Nashville. I've covered everything from high school and college sports (including the SEC, Big Ten, MVC and OVC) to Major League Baseball, The NFL and the NHL. I have a few things to say, and when I want to say them, I say them here.

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Chip Shots: Bryant Gumbel Has No Use For The Winter Olympics

Bryant Gumbel Has No Use For The Winter Olympics

Bryant Gumbel must be this generations angry old man. Why else would he take the last few minutes of his HBO show, "Real Sports" to rip the winter Olympics?

First, Gumbel attacked the fact that there are few African-Americans involved in the games:

“Try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.”

Then, he goes on to compare the winter games to made up sports like the WPC, Arena Football or the X-Games:

Try not to point out that something is not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what's called a “kiss and cry” area while some panel of subjective judges decides who won. And try to blot out all logic when announcers and sports writer pretend to care about the luge, the skeleton, the biathlon and all those other events they don't understand and totally ignore for all but three weeks every four years.

Maybe not in your world, Bryant, but in the real world sports like skiing and sledding are a big deal. Here in Wisconsin, there is a training center for Olympic speed skating. And, the last time I looked, hockey was not only a major sport in the US, but gaining again both in popularity and TV ratings to the NBA. Just because you might not like to play in the snow, doesn't mean other kids don't.

On the lack of athletes of color, there are a few. Shani Davis is an accomplished US speed skater. Jerome Igilna is one of the best players in the NHL and a member of team Canada. So yes, Bryant, there are a few black faces in the games. Agreed, not like the summer games, but it's not like the countries with high black populations even field teams for these events, due largely to the lack of snow in their countries. That's why there is no Kenyan biathlon team.

Obviously, Bryant is annoyed that no one at his former employer NBC contacted him to participate in the coverage. But NBC sports has a fairly impressive roster of names right now and Gumbel's help wasn't needed. Not to mention the fact that it has been long documented that he's a diva of the highest order. If you have Bob Costas and Al Michaels available, why do you even need to contact Bryant Gumbel, who has been reduced to premium cable at this point in his career.

Gumbel's crying about the games is more about him and less about the games themselves. He is such a self-absorbed person, he won't let you enjoy them as he stews on the outside looking in. Don't let him sway you. The games are fun and exciting to watch. Brant Gumbel, not so much.