As Bryant Gumbel’s HBO show is called Real Sports, I thought it’d be interesting to ask you, the typical sports fan and potential viewer of his HBO show, if you think Gumbel’s views on sports represent something you want to watch on television.

(Full text of commentary at bottom of post - thanks Dan & Paul)

In Gumbel’s most recent commentary for the show, which aired last night, you will find these comments about the World Cup:

• I love that the referees don’t stop the action to let replays warp their beautiful game.
• I love the single names: Ronaldo, Kaka, Drogba — all of which sound a lot more elegant than Manny, Pudge and Big Baby.
• I love that at the World Cup, there are sporting people representing cultures from all over the world and befitting grownups … at least we’ve one pocket of sanity, if only for two more weeks.
• I love how they mimic NBA stars and go down dramatically, as if they have been shot whenever they are fouled.
• I even love the vuvuzelas. Yes, they are noisy, but they are preferable to the deafening din of the weekly Billy Bob 500

Now that you’ve read that …

Full text of Gumbel’s commentary is below.

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Last September, HBO aired a REAL SPORTS exclusive on inhumane labor practices in India, where children were forced out of school to work in squalid conditions for pennies, stitching together soccer balls. Several children went before the camera and detailed the phsyical and mental anguish that the job put them through; one girl said she had to work until “her back aches and her eyes hurt.” Sounds brutal.

(If you look closely, you can see the discoloration from the orphans’ unrelenting tears.)

Of course, there might be a teensy weensy problem if the stories are completely fabricated, and according to the NEW YORK POST, that’s exactly what soccer manufacturing giant Mitre is claiming.

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