Hyperbole and the Olympics

Let me preface this post with some background. I am a sports fan; I watch sports all the time, all types; I understand sports and the commentary of sporting events lend themselves to hyperbole. Did I mention I'm also from New York; not exactly a hyperbole free zone. That said Tuesday night Tim Daggett and by proxy NBC Sports jumped the hyperbolic shark.

During the girls gymnastics team finals Tim Daggett called Alicia Sacramone's fall during the floor exercises a "Disaster of Epic Proportions". (I had to rewind TiVo three times, I thought I was having an audio hallucination.) Once I processed what I'd heard, I became incensed. My first thoughts were this is only a sporting event and not winning a gold medal in no way shape or form constitutes a disaster of any proportion. The odds were the against the USA team winning gold anyway. then I began to think about really constitutes a Disaster of Epic Proportions; let's see, the destruction of an American city due to government incompetence; the occupation of a sovereign nation that has this nation on the verge of bankruptcy; the death of American men and women in Iraq and Afganistan not to mention the toll taken on the citizens of those nations; the genocide that continues to this day in the Darfur area of the Sudan. These are Disasters of Epic Proportions made worse by a President who refuses to acknowledge there is anything wrong. Daggett made this statement on the same day the Attorney General of the United States of America said to the American Bar Association with a straight face; that not all violations of the law are crimes as an explanation for not prosecuting those who violated .

I began to think that Mr. Daggett lives a life uncomplicated by things such as reading a newspaper or watching the evening news or quite possibly reality. He should have been removed from all commentary immediately until he apologized not only to Ms Sacramone but also the viewers for equating a Silver Medal at the Olympics with a disaster and to paint it as a failure. It doesn't even equate to a Sporting Disaster of Epic Proportions. Here a few examples for sporting disasters:

October 2007: The New York Mets had led the National League East since the first week of the season, in the final week of the season they blew their lead and fell out of the post season not even qualifying for the wild card.


January 15 2005: The New York Jets blow three field goals and lose to Pittsburgh by three points and after a great run are out of the post season. Three field goals are you kidding me???!

October 2004: During the ALCS the New York Yankees led the Boston Red Sox 3 games to none only needing one more win to move on to the World Series; Boston won the next four games because the Yankees fell apart and the Boston Red Sox go on to win their first championship since 1918.


October 25 1986: Game Six of World Series; the Boston Red Sox were one strike away from winning their first championship since 1918. The management of the New York Mets had broadcast on the big screen: The New York Mets congratulate the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox when Mookie Wilson dribbled a ball down the first base line that went through first baseman Bill Buckners legs allowing the Mets to win game six and go on the following night to win game seven and their second World Series.

I told you I was a sports fan. Stacked up against this very small sampling of sports disasters Alicia Sacramone's fall isn't even a blip on the radar and winning the Silver Medal is certainly not a failure.