by Julian Spivey

Team of the Year: Kansas City Chiefs (NFL)
There’s only one dynasty currently in professional sports: the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs have won three of the last five Super Bowls, including two in a row, and they’ve been to four of the previous five Super Bowls. Led by coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce, and defensive standout Chris Jones, this Chiefs squad has clinched a spot, in my opinion, as one of the five greatest teams in NFL history. And they’re poised to potentially add on this season with a current 11-1 record and have clinched a playoff berth already. Now, I understand they may not look like the best team currently in the NFL, but they always seem to find ways to pull out a victory, and that’s what winning teams do, even when they aren’t at their best.  

Athlete of the Year: Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets)
Over the last few years, my Athlete of the Year has been baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani, who I’ve often called a unicorn because he can do everything. While Ohtani was undoubtedly a candidate this year, winning the National League MVP, my pick is another rare unicorn of sorts in sports – Nikola Jokic, three-time NBA MVP center of the Denver Nuggets. The guy can do everything on the basketball court and does it while looking like the least athletic guy on the court. I don’t understand it. But you can’t argue with all-time great numbers. This year, Jokic has the opportunity to do something that has never been done in NBA history – lead the league in scoring, rebounding, and assists. He’s currently 4th in scoring, second in assists and first in rebounding. More likely is the opportunity to join Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook as the only players to average a triple-double in a season. 

Coach of the Year: Andy Reid (Kansas City Chiefs)
Remember when people thought Andy Reid couldn’t win the big game? Now he’s a three-time Super Bowl-winning coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, including the last two consecutively. This year, he’s led his team to a ridiculous amount of come-from-behind or close last-minute victories to an 11-1 record, and there is still more than a month left in the season. There were certainly coaches who did a more surprising job in 2024, but I have to give it to the living legend. 

​Game/Event of the Year: USA vs. Serbia (Olympic Basketball Semifinal)
The most exhilarating sporting event I saw this year was the Olympic Men’s Basketball semifinal game between the United States and Serbia. Serbia was in control almost the entire game, with dominant performances from Bojan Bogdanovic and Nikola Jokic. They looked to stun Team USA, which is always considered close to a lock to win the Olympic Gold Medal with its roster of NBA All-Stars. Late in the game, Stephen Curry got hot, and when Curry gets hot, we’ve seen from history that it could be the death knell for the opponent. Curry went 12-19 from the field, including 9-14 from three, scoring 36 points and leading Team USA to a thrilling comeback and victory. Team USA would go on to win the Olympic gold medal in another tight matchup against the home country of France. 

Best Broadcaster: Rowdy Gaines & Lewis Johnson (NBC)
This year being an Olympic year reminded us all how great Rowdy Gaines is as an Olympic swimmer analyst. He has the perfect combination of enthusiasm (without being over-the-top) and knowledge of the sport; he’s a three-time Olympic gold medalist and likely would have won more had the U.S. not boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games.

I was so impressed by one particular moment from Lewis Johnson as a sideline reporter for the Olympic track and field events, in which he was widely hammered on social media for his performance, that I wrote an entire article about it in August. It may not have been popular among the masses when Johnson held the U.S. track and field men’s relay team to the fire, but as a journalist, it’s your job to get answers, and Johnson refused to back down. 

Legend of the Year: Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal, one of the three-headed monster with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic that dominated the greatest era of men’s tennis, hung up his tennis racket this year. Nadal’s 22 Grand Slam titles are the second most in men’s tennis history, behind Djokovic’s 24. His 14 French Open wins are the most in that tournament’s history and for any Grand Slam tournament in tennis history, clinching Nadal’s status as the greatest clay tennis player ever. He’s also one of only three men’s tennis players to win the Golden Grand Slam career, winning all four Grand Slam titles plus an Olympic gold medal (Andre Agassi, Djokovic). Tennis is going to miss Nadal. 

The farce that was the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson boxing match on Netflix on Friday, November 15, was the perfect sporting event for modern America.

The fight pitted Paul, a 27-year-old Internet personality turned boxer who rarely ever boxes actual professional boxers, against former heavyweight boxing champion and convicted rapist Tyson, who is more than 30 years Paul’s senior.

It was a complete joke for money and viewers all along, and somehow, Americans turned it into one of the most anticipated and watched sporting events of the year – those who could actually view it, that is, as the Netflix live event was maligned throughout its broadcast due to streaming issues showing that Netflix, which is set to air an NFL Christmas Day doubleheader in just over a month, isn’t ready for live sporting events.

And because Paul is such a nuisance (among other things – there have been sexual assault allegations against him, too), many watching the event were actually rooting for the convicted rapist.

But, hell, that shouldn’t be all that surprising in an America that voted to elect a likely rapist (among other things) to the highest office in the land the week prior.

America wants spectacle.

In the end, they didn’t even get that.

The fight was embarrassing. Tyson looked like he was only in it for the $20 million payday. Paul defeated Tyson on points. He couldn’t even knock out a 58-year-old has-been. He didn’t even look particularly good against the elderly has-been. All that really happened for Paul is he proved he’s merely a circus act. The geek eating the live chicken.

Netflix, Paul and Tyson made a lot of money and in the end nobody really had any fun but them – the rich getting richer and the dumb getting dumber.

Ain’t that America.

I’m not sure there is anything in the world of sports predictions that is more of a crapshoot than attempting to predict the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway with its winner-take-all format that pits four drivers/teams against each other and the highest finisher of the four is crowned the champion.

But part of what we do here in the sports page of The Word on Pop Culture is predict sporting event outcomes so here we are attempting to predict something that we might have better luck at by rolling a die.

There are three factors I like to consider when predicting the NASCAR champion: season statistics, playoff statistics, and Phoenix statistics. The least important of these is probably season statistics because they give the driver’s year as a whole and not how they’ve fared lately. For instance, if season-long numbers truly mattered in this NASCAR playoff format, the championship race would likely have Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and maybe Denny Hamlin competing in it.

Here's how I think the Championship Four will fare in reverse order:

4. Tyler Reddick

Tyler Reddick, the 28-year-old driver for the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, is looking for his first Cup Series championship but the way the nine previous playoff races have gone for him and his team he’s pretty lucky to be here and likely has only gotten this far because of the 15 bonus points he earned by winning the regular season points title after the first 25 races of the season. The only reason he made it to Phoenix in the previous round of the playoffs was a last-lap pass to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway over Ryan Blaney. With two DNFs in the other two races of the round, even a second-place finish at Homestead would’ve knocked him out of title contention.  His luck this postseason has been dreadful with only two top-10s and his win being his only top-5. His average finish in the playoffs has been 19.8. He also has the least experience at Phoenix in the Cup Series with nine starts at the track, zero wins, two top-5s, three top-10s and an average finish of 17.9. With the Championship race being its own event these past results at Phoenix and throughout this postseason may mean little but the way that 23XI No. 45 team has been going lately I have to put Reddick as the fourth most likely to win the title.

3. William Byron

William Byron has gained a bit of a reputation over the last couple of seasons as a fast starter who fades during the season and that has undoubtedly been the case when it comes to winning races this season. Byron and his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet won three of the season’s first nine events and haven’t been to Victory Lane since. Byron has been the most consistent driver of the Championship Four this year with a 13.2 average finish, 12 top-5s and 20 top-10s and also has the most top-5s and top-10s throughout the playoffs but every year except for last year the champion has had to win the championship race and it’s been more than half a year since Byron has won. He does have a previous win in his career at Phoenix in 13 starts (something half of the Championship Four can’t say). His 11.8 average finish at the track is second among the four. I wouldn’t be surprised if Byron, who only made the title race due to Christopher Bell’s controversial penalty for riding the wall on the final lap at Martinsville last weekend, won the championship. Still, I’ve got him as the third most likely going into the race.

OK, here’s the part where you find out who I’m predicting to win the NASCAR Cup Series Championship and you already know it’s going to come down to the Penske Racing teammates of Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.

Blaney and Logano are the two most recent NASCAR Cup Series champions and both have done so by performing at the top of their game with their respective teams in the playoffs after having so-so/average regular seasons. Both have done the same this postseason, though the No. 12 team of Blaney has been more consistent in doing so and the No. 22 team of Logano has used timely wins and the disqualification of another team to make it this far.

Logano won the first race of the playoffs at Atlanta Motor Speedway to lock his way into the second round, got a bit lucky with Alex Bowman failing technical inspection at the Charlotte Roval to reach the third round and clinched his way into the title race winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on a killer job of saving fuel and strategy call from his crew chief Paul Wolfe. With only six top-5s, 12 top-10s and an average finish of 17.6 if Logano wins the championship he’d likely be the worst champion in the history of the sport.

2. Joey Logano

Thankfully, I don’t think he’ll be the champion. But I do think his team’s effort when it matters most and his past numbers at Phoenix – three wins (two of which came in this winner-take-all format) – will help him take the runner-up spot.

1. Ryan Blaney

That means that for the first time in this NASCAR playoff format, which began in 2014, NASCAR is going to have a back-to-back champion in Ryan Blaney. This format certainly isn’t conducive to repeat winners but Blaney is showing strength late in the season when it matters most and is following the same blueprint he did last season into the championship race. Last season he had to win the penultimate race of the season at Martinsville to make the title race. This season he had to do the same. He also finished second place the week before at Homestead and nearly clinched his way into the title race before being passed on the final lap by Reddick. So, he has an average finish of 1.5 in the two races leading up to the championship race. Blaney has never won at Phoenix – last season he became the first champion under this format to win the title without actually winning the race - which could cause some to believe he might not repeat but of the four drivers in the Championship Four his 10.9 average finish at the track is the best.

I’m not saying Blaney is going to walk-off into the Championship sunset with a win – but I do think he’s the most likely of these four drivers to win the title.  

 
The 2024 World Series begins Friday, October 25 between the American League champion New York Yankees and the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
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Dodgers vs. Yankees is the most common World Series matchup in Major League Baseball history. This is the 12th matchup between the two franchises, but the first in more than years. The Yankees have gone 8-3 in the previous 11 matchups.

The Dodgers and Yankees were their league’s best team record-wise during the season, making this the first time (in a non-shortened season) that the top team from each league during the regular season has made the World Series since 2013 when the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Dodgers last won the World Series in the Covid-shortened 2020 season. The Yankees last won the World Series in 2009.

Here is the positional breakdown for the 2024 World Series:

Rotation:
For much of the Dodgers success over the last decade-plus, it has been their starting pitching that has made the team dominant, but due to injuries, their rotation at this point in the season is pretty hurt, and the team has gotten this far based on great work from the bullpen this postseason. The Dodgers have a more impressive rotation in the injured list than the one they’ve been running out this postseason. Jack Flaherty, a midseason trade piece from Detroit, will start game one for the Dodgers. He went 6-2 in 10 starts for L.A. in the second half of the season but has been roughed up pretty harshly in the postseason against the Padres and Mets. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the big free agent pitching acquisition of the offseason from Japan, missed a lot of the regular season with a shoulder injury but was good when he pitched. He has struggled a bit in the postseason with a 5.11 ERA in three starts, only one of which he went five innings. Walker Buehler is the Dodger's No. 3 starter and, basically, the last one in their rotation as they’ve been pitching a bullpen game at least once a series. He hasn’t shown the same stuff he had before Tommy John surgery. He went 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA in 16 starts this season and has pitched nine innings over two starts this postseason, one of which he gave up six earned runs, and the other looked well over four innings.

Meanwhile, the Yankees have one of the best, if not the best, ace in all of baseball, with Gerrit Cole leading the rotation. Only making 17 starts this season due to injury, Cole went 8-5 with a 3.41 ERA, coming off a Cy Young Award in 2023. He’s 1-0 over three starts this postseason with six earned runs over 16.1 innings. Carlos Rodon is the No.2 guy in the Yankees rotation, going 16-9 this season with a 3.96 ERA. In three starts this postseason, Rodon is 1-1 and pitched much better in the ALCS over the Cleveland Guardians in two starts than he did against the Kansas City Royals in a horrid 3.2 innings in the ALDS. The No. 3 guy for the Yankees is Clark Schmidt, who went 5-5 with a 2.85 ERA during the season, and has pitched 4.2 innings in both of his starts this postseason, allowing four runs over those 9.1 innings total. If the Yankees use a fourth starter during the series, it’ll be rookie Luis Gil, who was 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA this season.

Advantage: Yankees

Bullpen:
As I mentioned above, the Dodgers bullpen is a big reason they’ve made it this far with all the injuries and issues with the team’s rotation. Picking which team will have the advantage in this series could be particularly rough as both teams have depended hugely on their bullpens all postseason and both run the risk of having run their arms out of gas. This postseason, the Yankees have gotten a 2.56 ERA in 38.2 innings from their pen, while the Dodgers have a 2.94 ERA in 49 innings. L.A.’s lack of starting is the biggest reason for more than 10-plus innings over the Yankees on their bullpen. The Dodgers’ best bullpen arms include closer Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Anthony Banda, Daniel Hudson, Michael Kopech (naturally a starting pitcher), and Alex Vesia. These six arms have combined for an incredible 0.84 ERA this postseason. The Yankees are enjoying a breakthrough performance from new closer Luke Weaver, who struggled for years as a starting pitcher. Weaver has appeared in eight games this postseason, compiling a 2.61 ERA and four saves. The Yanks' most used arms in the pen after Weaver are former closers Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle. Holmes has pitched 7.2 innings this postseason and Kahnle has pitched 7.

Advantage: Dodgers

Designated Hitter:
The biggest and best matchup that everybody will keep their eyes on all series long will be Shohei Ohtani for the Dodgers vs. Aaron Judge for the Yankees. But the two don’t play the same position. However, the DH matchup for these two teams could be the difference in the series as Yankees’ slugger Giancarlo Stanton has been the team’s biggest threat this postseason with five home runs over two series. His .294 batting average, 11 RBI, 10 hits and five walks are among the team’s offensive statistical leaders. Some would say Stanton has been the offensive threat people thought Judge would be this postseason. But it doesn’t matter how you shake it and how the two have played this postseason; the Dodgers have the single biggest threat at the plate in all of baseball in Ohtani. Ohtani’s three homers this postseason are second on the Dodgers’ squad to Mookie Betts’ four. His 10 RBI are second to Betts and Tommy Edman’s 12. He’s hitting .286 with 12 hits and 11 walks.

Advantage: Dodgers

Catcher:
Austin Wells has done a great job all season as a rookie calling the Yankees pitching game. He’s the better defensive catcher in the matchup against Dodgers All-Star Will Smith, but Smith is certainly a bigger threat at the plate. However, he’s struggled this postseason, only hitting .158 with two homers, six RBI, and six hits. Wells has been even worse at bat, hitting .091 with a homer and three RBI.

Advantage: Dodgers

First Base:
There’s little doubt that the Dodgers have the best first baseman in the World Series with Freddie Freeman. Freeman could very well be the best first baseman in all of baseball. But he’s also hobbled pretty badly right now and has been forced to miss multiple games this postseason with a bad ankle injury that has basically resulted in him playing with only one ankle. Max Muncy has been filling in at first when Freeman can’t go. Freeman has hit .219 this postseason, with seven hits and one RBI. Muncy is hitting .242 with three homers and five RBI. Expect the two to platoon this series if Freeman’s ankle allows him to go. On the other side, Anthony Rizzo is playing with two fractured fingers, which forced him out of the first round of the postseason but didn’t stop him from a torrid 6-for-14 at the plate in the ALCS against Cleveland. Based on what Rizzo showed at-bat in the ALCS, I’m going out on the ledge and giving the Yankees the advantage here, despite knowing both Muncy and Freeman are more significant threats to do something powerful in the series if they connect.

Advantage: Yankees

Second Base:
Gleyber Torres for the Yankees and Gavin Lux for the Dodgers both had good second half of the season numbers for their respective teams with Torres hitting .292 and Lux hitting .304. Their defensive numbers are pretty equal, too. Torres has had a better postseason, hitting .297 with a team-leading 11 hits and nine runs scored, along with a home run and five RBI. Lux is hitting .208 this postseason but went 0-for-6 in the NLCS against the New York Mets and lost some of his playing time to Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez, who’s a postseason stud. If Hernandez gets more reps at second base, this could be a push, but for right now, I’ll have to ride with the known, and that’s Torres.

Advantage: Yankees  

Third Base:
The Dodgers have basically been forced to run a platoon at third base due to Freddie Freeman’s injured ankle forcing Max Muncy over to first. Muncy was the everyday third baseman for most of the season. Kike Hernandez and Chris Taylor are the fill-ins when Muncy moves across the diamond. The Yankees have Jazz Chisholm Jr., who has been more of a middle infielder/outfielder throughout his career and is learning the position on the fly. Muncy recently came off an MLB postseason record 12 straight plate appearances reaching base safely, while Chisholm has struggled in the postseason, hitting only .147.

Advantage: Dodgers  

Shortstop:
Mookie Betts was the Dodgers shortstop for most of the season, which would’ve made the advantage between these teams a no-brainer in favor of the Dodgers, but some injuries have forced Betts back to the outfield in the postseason. The Dodgers have been using midseason acquisition Tommy Edman at short, and what did he do … he won the NLCS MVP with the biggest play of his career on the biggest stage. Edman leads L.A. with a .341 average this postseason, and his 12 RBIs are tied for the team lead position. His New York counterpart Anthony Volpe hasn’t been too shabby, hitting .310 himself, second on the Yankees, with six runs scored. He’s only driven in one run this postseason, though.

Advantage: Dodgers

Outfield:
Both of these outfields are mighty impressive. The Yankees, in fact, probably have the two best outfielders in all of baseball with Aaron Judge in center field and Juan Soto in right field. Alex Verdugo in left field isn’t shabby, either. The Dodgers have former MVP Mookie Betts back in the outfield in right, slugger Teoscar Hernandez in left field and Andy Pages in center.

Soto has been one of the Yankees’ biggest producers this postseason, leading the team with a .333 average and 11 hits, and is second on the team with eight RBI, seven walks, six runs, and three home runs.

Judge has struggled pretty mightily in the postseason, and the Yankees will need him to step up in the World Series if they want to win. I don’t see them coming out on top if he doesn’t wake up at the plate. Judge is only hitting .161 this postseason and has struck out 13 times.

Verdugo is also hitting below the Mendoza line, with a .194 average. He has three RBI and six hits.   
Behind the surprise of Tommy Edman, Betts has likely been the Dodgers’ biggest offensive threat this postseason with a .295 average, a team-leading four homers, and tied for the team lead with 12 RBI.

Teoscar Hernandez has driven in a bunch of runs for the Dodgers with eight, with almost all of those coming in the NLDS against the San Diego Padres, but he’s only hitting .200 for the postseason. He struggled mightily against the Mets in the NLCS, going just 2-for-22.

Pages, the Dodgers’ rookie center fielder, is only hitting .210 this postseason, with most of his playing time coming in the NLCS. This is another spot Kike Hernandez has been seeing a lot of playing time. He’s been one of the team’s standouts this postseason, hitting .303 with two home runs and five RBI.

Even with Judge struggling at the plate, I can’t turn away from the combo of Judge/Soto.

Advantage: Yankees

Prediction: Yankees in 7

I think this series is set up to be a modern classic, and I know Major League Baseball is looking forward to the biggest TV ratings in years, with arguably the biggest franchises in each league playing each other in the fall classic.

The Yankees' starting rotation has more depth and success this postseason than the Dodgers', which was the most significant factor in my prediction of them winning it all. The Dodgers' bullpen has been near perfect, but I’d worry about the pen running out of gas as much as it’s been used.

I expect Judge to start hitting well, and the battle between him and Ohtani at the dish will be must-see TV.

I also worry about how much Freeman’s injury will impact the Dodgers. The trio of Ohtani, Betts, and Freeman in the lineup is fearsome and necessary when the Yankees have Soto, Judge, and Stanton. His inability to play or perform at his usual capabilities could have a big impact on the series.

 
It doesn’t take much talent to win a race like Austin Dillon did on Sunday night, which is good for him because, based on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, Dillon was only the 32nd most talented driver out of the 34 full-time drivers.
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On a two-lap overtime run at the end of Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Va. Dillon, who was likely going to win the race under green when a late caution involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece came out, was passed on the overtime restart by Joey Logano.

Knowing that a win was the only way Dillon could clinch a Cup Series playoff spot for his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Dillon made the last-ditch decision to wreck Logano to win the race. He didn’t try to pass Logano. He didn’t try the widely believed to be fair “bump-and-run” move on Logano. He just aimed the front bumper of his Chevrolet at the back bumper of Logano’s No. 22 Penske Racing Ford and sent him spinning around and wrecking into the outside wall. The contact between Dillon and Logano was enough to both slow Dillon down and push him up the track, allowing the third-place driver of Denny Hamlin to pass Dillon but as soon as that happened Dillon hooked Hamlin in the right rear of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, widely considered the most dangerous move in the sport, and put him into the wall. With Dillon having demolished any car in his path, he crossed the finish line in first place, was granted the victory, and clinched a playoff berth.

It was a miracle there was no post-race incident involving Dillon, Logano, Hamlin and pit crews for all three teams.

In post-race interviews, multiple drivers used the word “chickenshit” to explain Dillon’s method of racing and winning, and it’s pretty appropriate. I’ve never seen a more disgusting, despicable, unsportsmanlike, cowardly and chickenshit way for a driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race in 23 years of watching this sport.

The fact NASCAR allowed the entire thing to stand in the immediate aftermath of the race has drivers and fans alike challenging the sport in serious ways, no more than 54-time Cup Series race winner Hamlin, now one of the sport’s elder statesmen, who told Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass post-race: “Where’s the line, Bob? I mean, that’s the thing. We have rules to prevent ridiculous acts but it’s been a long time since those rules have been enforced.”

He added: “We’re never ever going to get taken seriously as a sport because we have no real officiating.”

Hamlin is right. NASCAR has rules it can enforce in situations like this that can penalize aggressive driving, and we’ve seen the sport enforce them in lower series this season in far less egregious on-track incidents than what Dillon did on the final lap at Richmond. Maybe NASCAR views the final lap as an “anything goes” scenario? But shouldn’t the rules matter the most when the most is on the line?

NASCAR not penalizing Dillon for his egregious overaggressive driving on the final lap and his reaping massive rewards as a result makes the whole sport look like a joke.

It should’ve been an easy call for NASCAR to make and they blew it.

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, told the media about an hour after Sunday’s race that the sport would review video, audio and data to determine if any penalties would be announced as a result of the final lap and any such penalties would be announced on Tuesday, the day of the week NASCAR typically announces such penalties. But I wouldn’t expect anything major to come out of that review. It would be unprecedented for the sport to take a win away from a driver two days later.

And so, NASCAR has potentially set another dangerous precedent in that a driver doing anything at all to clinch their way into the playoff field is fair game even if it’s the most cowardly, chickenshit way of ever doing so.

There were many fantastic Olympic moments and feats that I saw on Friday, August 9, at the Paris Games, but the moment that made me raise an eyebrow in surprise and say, “Let’s go!” didn’t come from one of the athletes but NBC Sports track & field reporter Lewis Johnson.

Johnson has held the position of track and field sideline reporter, essentially, throughout the athletics portion of the Games. He’s worked every Olympics, both Summer and Winter, for NBC Sports since the 2000 Sydney Games. He has interviewed the American athletes following their events — both when they brought home the gold and on Friday night when once again they faltered spectacularly in an event they’ve continuously shot themselves in the foot at in the last two decades of the Olympic Games.

On Friday night, the American men were tasked with the men’s 4x100m relay, considered one of the biggest track events of the Olympics, an event they have struggled in time after time over the last few Olympics with disqualifications due to dropping the baton, other transfer issues and a doping ban that took away a silver medal from the 2012 London Games. The men’s relay team has failed to medal in the 4x100m since the 2004 Athens Games. Since 1995, the U.S. has had 11 baton errors that have resulted in disqualifications, according to NBC News.

The men’s relay team was considered the favorites to win gold in Paris but started at a disadvantage when Noah Lyles, gold medalist of the men’s 100m earlier in the week, had to be scratched from the event with Covid. His replacement was Christian Coleman. Coleman led off the event, and the baton transfer issue occurred at the end of his stint when Kenny Bednarek, the second stint runner, took off, and Coleman couldn’t catch him. Bednarek almost had to come to a complete stop to take the transfer, and the costly error wound up with the USA crossing the line in seventh place in the event, outside of the medals. The finishing position didn’t matter anyway, as a post-race review revealed the Coleman-Bednarek exchange took place outside the exchange zone, resulting in this team’s disqualification.

The job of a journalist isn’t merely to ask questions. It’s to get answers. It’s to ask those questions during the good and bad times. You can’t just get the smiles and happy tears moments. Doing so would essentially make NBC Sports public relations for Team USA.

So often, in sports journalism, journalists ask questions, and they receive non-answer answers from athletes—statements that don’t really say anything and don’t answer the questions as asked.

This has somewhat trained sports fans to see the act of a post-game/event interview as just a formality. It's a “how was the game?/It was good” moment between media and athletes that does nothing to provide substance to the broadcast we’re watching.

Nobody expects journalists to hold athletes to the same level of questioning they would expect for politicians—though journalists won’t even demand things like basic facts from politicians anymore—but that’s another story for another time. When a question is asked, it’s reasonable for a journalist to want a real, true, authentic answer and, if they don’t get one, to keep pushing for it.

That’s what Johnson did on Friday night.

He opened his interview by asking Coleman what happened during the baton exchange, a valid question viewers should want to know the answer to.

Coleman gave a typical athlete non-answer answer.

“In the heat of the moment, we just didn’t get it done today.”  

OK, we saw that. We know that. The question was, “What happened” to cause that?

Johnson followed up with a more specific question to attempt to pull an actual answer from Coleman. “Why didn’t you catch up to Kenny [Bednarek] there?”

Coleman: “We just didn’t get it done.”

Johnson: “But you have to explain, don’t you, exactly why, after all the practices, that exchange didn’t happen?”

At this point, I truly noticed the interview and realized this was a journalist who did not accept the stereotypical athlete's babble. I literally blurted out from my couch, “Good job, Lewis!”

It’s fair of Johnson to ask because he’s still trying to get to the truth behind the error, but no, an athlete isn’t obligated to answer the question. But to not do so could make them look poorly in the eyes of the viewer – though it should be noted the overwhelming online response was that Coleman and his teammates took the interview admirably and Johnson was “unprofessional” (I’ll get to that in a moment).

Coleman responded: “It just didn’t happen. It wasn’t our day today.”

Johnson continued to ask specific questions. “Did Kenny leave early?”

Coleman: “I think as a team, we just didn’t get it done today.”

And that was the end of the interview because you can only ask so many times before ultimately giving up because, as I said, an athlete isn’t obligated to answer.

I knew immediately that Johnson was going to be hammered online. Journalists are among the most hated professionals in this country – not without some good reasons but also mostly misguided people who don’t understand the profession.

Many don’t realize there’s more to it than asking a question and accepting whatever answer is given.
Many online called Johnson’s interview unprofessional. Many viewed it as him trying to get Coleman to throw his teammate Bednarek “under the bus,” as if a “what happened” question could be wrong. Do we not remember our Five Ws (Who, What, Why, When & Where)?  Some online even called for Johnson to be fired by NBC Sports.  

But this is what actual journalism looks like, and it’s unfortunate that so many sports journalists specifically sit back and accept the non-answer answers they’re so frequently given. 

​If there is something I’ve learned from watching the last few Olympics, it’s that you can’t criticize American Olympian heroes, not even in the slightest. Not even when asking others on your platform a question that might result in a negative answer.

American Olympic viewers don’t want to think of their Olympian heroes as anything less than perfect, maybe not so much as athletes, but as people.

It’s truly a positive response. It’s nice to want to go to battle for people even when their athletic performance might not be up to their best. To see them as human because they are. They might have things going on off or outside the court, mat, pool, etc., affecting their performance.

But as someone who has followed sports for a lifetime, it’s weird to see this response from fans. I’m used to the cutthroat type of sports fan. The kind that when an athlete isn’t perfect, they’ll let you and, often even them, know about it in their reactions, either with boos at the venue or with tweets/comments on social media.

Often, this vitriol is dumb, as in the basketball fans who believe LeBron James is a bum despite a resume that rivals most of the greatest players of all time in his sport.

Sometimes, it’s warranted. Example: Why isn’t Clayton Kershaw the same pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the postseason as he is in the regular season?

As long as sports fans don’t go out of their way to completely bash or belittle an athlete, these criticisms are valid, just as they would be if one were to review the performance of musicians, actors and authors. It’s just a part of public life.

So, when I ask our followers on our various social media pages a question like: Has American swimmer Caeleb Dressel negatively affected his Olympic legacy with his poor performance in the 2024 Paris Olympics after the defending champion failed to medal in the men’s 50m freestyle and failed to even qualify for the final in the men’s 100m butterfly I’m dumbfounded to receive replies like: “No, it doesn’t and you should be ashamed for posting this” as I did from one person on our Threads post.

I’m dumbfounded because if I were to ask a question like: Is Atlanta Braves slugger Matt Olson letting his team down amidst a season slump? I wouldn’t receive a response like: “He’s trying his best. Leave him alone.”

I think some of it has to do with the big USA and American flag on their Olympic uniforms, too. There’s a bit of that “how dare you say something bad about America!” uber-patriotism about the Olympic games.

It may also be that the Olympic Games attract a more casual sports fan than the professional and collegiate sports we watch on an annual basis.

But sports is and has always been graded on performance.

Athletes are under pressure. It’s part of the game, part of the competition. These games and events are win-or-lose, and athletes are scored on their performance.

We can feel empathy and sympathy for them when they don’t do well, but they are graded on how they perform in their field. Performing poorly on your sport’s biggest stage will affect how some view one’s legacy.

And for the many people who responded that Dressel had stepped away from the sport for mental health purposes, I can feel empathy and sympathy for him. But Simone Biles also stepped away from gymnastics for multiple years (longer than Dressel was away from swimming), and she returned to the biggest stage and furthered her legacy as the G.O.A.T. in her sport. She’s already won two gold medals and will likely win more.

So, if I can celebrate Biles's comeback furthering her legacy, I should be able to knock Dressel down a notch or two for not doing the same.

Nothing is ever going to keep Dressel from being an Olympic legend. Nine gold medals have clinched his spot among the greatest in his respective sport and the Olympic Games.

But athletes aren’t free from criticism simply because they’re competing for their country.

​I’ve been having a problem over the first week of the 2024 Paris Olympics that I’m sure many people can identify with, especially those who work full-time jobs during the day.

Spoilers.

Time zone differences have always been a problem for people who want to watch the Olympics, but in today’s world of 24/7 access to the Internet, news, and social media, it’s harder than ever to avoid spoilers for Olympic events before you’ve had the chance to see them.

The Games are only halfway through, and I’ve already known the results of many of the most significant events before sitting down in the evening to watch what I’ve recorded on YouTube or catch up on via Peacock from earlier in the day.

The days of being able to go into the evening telecast of whatever network is broadcasting the Olympics without being spoiled are over. Back then, you had two ways of finding results: watching the evening broadcast or waiting for the next day’s newspaper. Now the results are all over the Internet the moment the events end. There are some plusses, though, if you have the ability to you can see any and every Olympic event live.

I completely understand this is a first-world problem of the highest order. If I could just shut my phone off for the day, there would be no problems. But how many of us, especially with our shortened attention spans – much of which have been caused by our phones and the Internet/social media – can bring ourselves to do that?

So, the question is … in this modern world of direct-to-audience media, should publications, websites, etc., cater to their audience by time-delaying their coverage of Olympic events?

In theory, it would be great. We’ve been doing it on our social media feeds for this website, but that’s more out of necessity. We cannot see many of these events live because this isn’t our full-time gig. When the Olympics are held in Los Angeles in 2028, you can bet we’ll be timelier with our coverage.

The answer is no. The media shouldn’t delay its coverage because some of us haven’t had the chance to tune into these events live.

One of the central tenets of journalism is that it be timely. That used to mean getting it out in the newspaper the next day. Later, it meant making the nightly or evening news. Once the Internet was created, that meant once the event ended.

The Internet has led to a lot of bad journalism. Sometimes, publications/websites/journalists try to get the story out so fast that they make mistakes or are just plain sloppy.

However, delaying content would be unethical.

As sports fans, we must be more vigilant about avoiding these spoilers. It’s entirely on us, and that’s how it should be.

 
The culture wars have come to the Olympics because it seems a large sect of American conservatives want to express their displeasure with any and everything that doesn’t sit right with their specific brand of Christianity that you won’t often find in the actual Bible.
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The kind that lets them vote for a man for President of the United States that would surely make Jesus weep.

The latest problem for this set of right-wingers – you know, the crazy Marjorie Taylor Greene type - was a particular moment in the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday (July 26), which they took to be a mockery of The Last Supper, the mural painted by Leonardo da Vinci representing the scene of the last supper between Jesus and the Twelve Apostles, as told in the Gospel of John.

The opening image of the Opening Ceremony skit briefly resembles the painting but was intended to be a fashion show-type depiction of an ancient Greek Bacchanal with the Greek God of fertility, Dionysus, later known as the god of wine and pleasure.

As these culture warriors so often do, those looking to be offended saw what they wanted – yet another sign of the world gone woke. They took to their social media feeds and bitched and moaned about how the Paris Olympics made a mockery of Christianity with drag queens and nearly naked Smurf men instead of depicting cultures of the Greek – you know, the guys who created the Olympic games – and France, you know the guys hosting these games.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson tweeted: “Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the open ceremony of the Olympic Games. The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today.”

Well, Mr. Johnson, you’re shocking and insulting to basic human decency and world history. Maybe you should do more research next time before looking like an idiot in front of the world — or were you just virtue signaling to your constituents (something you guys often claim others do)?

I’m so tired of the so-called “culture wars” attempting to ruin everything. The only people battling this “war” are these folks on the right offended by everything. The rest of us are just trying to be who we are, live our lives, and have fun here and there. Try worrying about your life, traditions, and religion, and leave everyone else alone.

And for those talking about how they’re boycotting the Olympics because they “mocked their God,” I say: Good. We didn’t want you buzzkills hanging around anyhow.”