Bryant Gumble, doing his best to stay relevant, made news this week on his HBO Real Sports show. Apparently he’s not a big fan of the Winter Games and he went to unusual lengths (even for him) to make his case. His reasoning: The ‘best athletes’ are not represented because so few blacks compete and he goes on to compare the games to “a GOP convention“. HBO has already pulled the transcript from their site but I have his comments here:

“And finally tonight the Winter Games. Count me among those that don’t like ‘em and won’t watch ‘em. In fact, I figure when Thomas Paine said, “These are the times that try men’s souls”, he must have been talking about the start of another Winter Olympics. Because they are so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too. Like try not to be incredulous when someone tries to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So 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. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a psuedo-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 writers 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. Face it, these Olympics are little more than a marketing plan to fill space and sell time during the dreary days of February. So, if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, and we can move on to March Madness, for God’s sake, let the Games begin.”

Apparently Gumble is not aware of the demographics of the cold weather countries that have historically dominated the winter games. Second, characterizing black athetes as being the best athletes runs counter to the long held notion by many, including liberals, that this is racist stereotyping. Finally and most importantly, how will HBO react to this? Their boards are heating up with lots of negative viewer reaction. They have already pulled the transcipts from their website but will they pull Gumble from their lineup? Rush Limbaugh was forced off ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdownshow for voicing much milder observations regarding the favoritism of black quarterbacks in the NFL. Will HBO do the same? Not holding my breath here.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2006 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Olympics 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.