Olympic fever!

Every 4 years while I'm deep in the PTDS (Post Tour Depression Syndrome) along comes an event that yanks me out of my funk. Yes, I'm talking about the SUMMER OLYMPICS! And it's THAT TIME again!

Tomorrow is the opening ceremony, where the world watches in wonder, anticipating the upcoming competitions where we see many of the worlds finest athletes go at it, all hoping for a shot at one of the shiny hunks of medal on a ribbon. That, and WORLD FAME FOREVER. You can't take away an Olympic medal!

Well, technically that's not true... as they've done it before. Didn't Tytler Hamilton have to send his medal back in after he was exposed as a doper? And some notable track and field winners were pulled from the record-books, sending THEIR medals back in also. So yes, they CAN take away your medal years after you've won it, if they find out you cheated. Or belonged to the Russian Olympic team (same thing). Well, that's not totally fair...I have to assume many of the Russian competitors didn't cheat at all....unless they're now doping in sports like shooting, and equestrian (well, maybe the horses are)...and knitting, and thumb-wrestling, and garden-hoeing, and kite-flying, and my favorite: checkbook-balancing (who does that anymore? It's surely a forgotten art!). All I'm saying is there are a lot of events where doping won't really help, so I hope they aren't wasting money checking them (kind of like TSA checking the 98 year old lady in a wheelchair going thru airport security...I'm pretty sure we can rule her out as a terrorist without compromising security one teensy bit...but that's just me...obviously the TSA doesn't see it like that).

But I digress....they SHOULD be testing all the physical strength/speed events Yep...all of them are suspect. HGH, steroids, EPO...yep....all the same stuff the cyclists used (and still do??), which seemed to work pretty well actually, are certainly still suspect. So the entire Russian Track and Field contingent have been banned...that's really something! I haven't heard if any other of their athletes were banned by their federations, have you?

Anyway...tomorrow (well, technically the other day if you're a soccer fan) the GAMES BEGIN! I kept my NBCSports Network package so I HOPE to have some extra coverage I wouldn't have had otherwise...hope it's worth it! There's certainly a LOT of events to choose from...I've said it before and I'll say it again: too bad we can't choose exactly what events to watch and just get those...in this digital day and age, why can't we? WHY do I have to watch many hours of broadcast to catch snippets of the one event I'm interested in during that broadcast? Why can't they just film EVERYTHING, and put it together in your package? You should be able to just go down the list and pick the events/sports you want, and viola...there they are, streaming to your TV, or tablet, or phone, or VR goggles, or your cars HUD (Heads UP Display)...or onto your video enhanced contact lenses. I mean, we were promised JET PACKS and FLYING CARS by the year 2000! Where are they?? I never got mine, did you get yours?? Did I miss that memo of when they were being handed out?

Oh well...I'll have to suffer thru a zillion hours of broadcasting to weed out the events I WANT to see. Hopefully the games go off safely, and not too many people come back with Zika virus (Jeannie is down in Florida right now...girls holiday down in Palm Beach...but she's one of the lucky ones...mosquitoes don't care for her...if I were there I'd be in HUGE trouble tho...they LOVE me!).

And so....tomorrow they light the torch and officially celebrate the opening of the games. I have to admit I get goose-bumps at the Olympic theme...gets me EVERY TIME! Can't possibly imagine what it's like to be an athlete...what an honor to make the team! Good luck to all, do your best and you have nothing to feel sorry or ashamed about no matter the medals.

Oh, and speaking of someone doing their best, do you remember Eddie the Eagle? The UK Ski-jumper from seemingly OH-SO-LONG ago? The guy who was being out-jumped by all the other jumpers by about 50% on every jump? The regular guy (NOT a ski-jumper) who still had the guts to go up the mountain, slide on out there on that little board, dangling over the stupid-steep ramp with those 2 single ski-tracks going downdowndowndown with those ginormous skii's on, and then actually slide off that little board and go zooming down the ramp to possible death and then fly off the edge come-what-may, and somehow land without killing himself, over and over again, never jumping very far but earning the respect of the world each time we went down that ramp? Well, they've made a movie about him, and my bro Greg saw it, said it was FANTASTIC! I don't even know the name of it, but can't wait to see it! I LOVED that guy! What a hero!!

So....I'll end this post with that thought...who will the 'heros' be from this Olympics? Who will show crazy spirit and bravery and motivate the world? You don't have to win a medal to do that. I DO wish the news EVERY SINGLE NIGHT wouldn't have "the medal count"...it seems to cheapen the games, as if THAT is all that counts. Every single athlete that competes is a winner in my book...why can't the world look at it like THAT? Yes, I'm a dreamer.

Games ON!

CHEERS!