Let the games begin...

Bryant Gumbel's Thought's on the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino/Turin:

"Count me among those who don't like them and don't watch them. In fact, when Thomas Paine said, 'These are the times that try men's souls,' he must have been talking about the Winter Olympics.

Because they're so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try, too. By trying not to be incredulous when someone attempts 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, where a pseudo-athlete sits and waits in what's called a 'kiss and cry area,' while some panel of subjective judges decides who's 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."

Commentary from HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel

I like the snow... and curling.