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.
BRYANT GUMBEL CLOSING COMMENTARY
REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL
EPISODE #159
AIRS TONIGHT (6/22) @ 10:00 PM ET/PT, 9:00 PM CT
“Finally tonight, a few words about this year’s World Cup. I confess that I love everything about it, particularly, those aspects that many Americans are whining about.
Where the game is concerned, I love that they have running time and don’t compromise the flow for the sake of TV commercials. I love that the referees don’t stop the action to let replays warp their beautiful game and I love that their announcers, unlike Americans, don’t feel the need to characterize everything that’s surprising as also unbelievable.
As for the players, I love how they mimic NBA stars and go down dramatically, as if they have been shot whenever they are fouled. I love the single names: Ronaldo, Kaka, Drogba — all of which sound a lot more elegant than Manny, Pudge and Big Baby. And, I love the national pride that is shown each game. It’s real and it’s genuine, the kind the Olympics tries to force on us every four years.
Off the field, I love how the crowds never stoop to something as silly as ‘the wave.’ I love the purity of their sidelines — no hangers on, no mascots and best of all, no cheerleaders. I even love the vuvuzelas. Yes, they are noisy, but they are preferable to the deafening din of the weekly Billy Bob 500, or the phony piped in efforts at U.S. arenas, where choreographed chants of ‘dee-fense’ pass for originality.
Lastly, I love that at the World Cup, there are sporting people representing cultures from all over the world and befitting grownups, not a one of them seems obsessed with what conference Texas plays in, whether Brett Favre ever comes back, or where LeBron James ultimately goes. At least we’ve one pocket of sanity, if only for two more weeks.”
11:32 am on June 23rd, 2010
He is welcome to his opinion but calling soccer fans the one pocket of sanity is INSANE! Fans riot and players have been murdered over the outcome of games. That doesnt sound like behavior “befitting grownups” if you ask me.
11:43 am on June 23rd, 2010
Unbelievable analysis. If this excerpt is any hint of the content his show is apt to produce, then Gumbel is gonna kill his career with this one. Soccer players mimicking NBA stars? Uhhh, no, that would be the other way around, Gumbel.
The olympics are every 2 years now, btw, Gumbel. Been like that for awhile. Also, the World Cup IS every 4 years, so…. Yeah. Don’t know what kind of point you’re trying to make here.
12:36 pm on June 23rd, 2010
I wouldn’t tune in to hear that smug b*stard’s opinion on anything.
12:44 pm on June 23rd, 2010
he is, always has been, and always will be a giant douche.
12:54 pm on June 23rd, 2010
He makes Wayne Brady look like malcom X
1:15 pm on June 23rd, 2010
Sarcasm People!!!
1:21 pm on June 23rd, 2010
I have no problem with these comments, except for his comment about enjoying flopping.
But anyone who openly mocks NASCAR—I have no problem with that person.
2:22 pm on June 23rd, 2010
Sarcasm is like a vanity license plate, if it is too obscure for the general public, then it is a pathetic waste of time. Wrong forum Bryant,, your brother is much better at this.. Stick with being artificially serious on a lame news broadcast .
3:27 pm on June 23rd, 2010
Gumbel has always been an asshole and he always will be.
6:11 pm on June 23rd, 2010
LOL, “weekly Billy Bob 500.” Now that’s some awesome smack! And so true, NASCAR sux.
6:15 pm on June 23rd, 2010
I’m not going to bother with my opinion, it’s already been stated: asshole, douche, vain, smug bastard, etc. All perfect descriptions. I’ll offer this one too: pussy globalist. Too scared of the rest of the world’s opinion to be his own man.
6:57 pm on June 23rd, 2010
“there are sporting people representing cultures from all over the world and befitting grownups, not a one of them seems obsessed with what conference Texas plays in, whether Brett Favre ever comes back, or where LeBron James ultimately goes. At least we’ve one pocket of sanity, if only for two more weeks.”
Does that even compare to young Thomas McFadden, a Celtic supporter and member of Scotland’s ethnic Irish Catholic minority being cut up like turkey giblets and then left to die in the streets of Glasgow by a group of Rangers supporters celebrating a league title in 1999.
Or does it compare to the persecution faced by ethnic minorities supporting clubs in the Basque Country under Franco’s “Spanish State”
Or would it be wise to mention the Leeds supporters killed before a European tie agains the Turkish team Galtasary earlier this decade.
Oh I forgot like most “gens de coleur” polemicists Mr. Gumbel is a critical race theorist so if it isn’t centered on black-white tension he don’t give a damn!!!.
7:26 pm on June 23rd, 2010
Gumbel has covered the sporting realm off and on for the last 40 years. Most people dissing him on this blog aren’t even that old.
The Real Sports format is perfect for him - a weekly 60 minutes meets ESPN kind of hybrid.
As long as he stays out of the broadcast booth with NFL Network it’s all good.
7:50 pm on June 23rd, 2010
dude is the biggest (smallest?) racist in the universe,
YET marries a white chick. Peculiar,eh?
8:19 pm on June 23rd, 2010
El Freako, I have been around forty years and do you remember the circumstances by which he was put onto the NBC Game of the Week Coverage………………TOKENS anyone!
8:47 pm on June 23rd, 2010
Biggest liberal p#ssy loser I’ve ever seen
1:32 am on June 24th, 2010
What a gaywad.
8:37 am on June 24th, 2010
Brooks I don’t see the problem. He his voicing his opinion of sports on TV. Between your subversive post about Obama (clearly inferring that he spending excessive time on at a driving range), and this one (in which a sports commentator…GASP… comments on the most popular sport in the world); I wonder how racist are you? Or do you just try to appeal to the obvious large number of racist readers??
What is the meat of this story? He likes soccer? So do billions of other people, does that make them smug? OR does it make us smug and vain for being so close-minded towards a sport just because we aren’t good at it?
10:18 am on June 24th, 2010
Madbatter the problem with Gumbel’s “like of the World Cup” has nothing to do with “soccer”. As someone who grew up idolizing Liam Brady and Diego I like soccer but when i speak to many “up-market” American soccer fans who bat left politically i get the impression that there like for soccer is not about the game but about what its not.
But then again to paraphrase Lenin, “the issue is never the issue”
1:10 pm on June 24th, 2010
madbatter,
Quote for me in the post where I criticized and/or made racist comments about Gumbel.
Quote for me in the post where I criticized and/or made racist comments about Obama.
1:27 pm on June 24th, 2010
BG is a racist and a snob but MOST of his commentary is pretty good.
5:47 pm on June 24th, 2010
I saw a few games where they were doing the wave. The commentator called it “the mexican wave” though.
6:50 pm on June 24th, 2010
So if a white guy called the NBA Finals the “Gangbanger Shootout,” would that be acceptable?
8:04 am on June 25th, 2010
I have through the years have always enjoyed Gumble’s work (except on the NFL Network, where he was highly over-matched by the task)… I for one while not surprised by his liberal leaning but the fact that like most liberals he cannot try to make a simple case for his point of view without trashing something else in the process. Like in this case, most liberals prop up their POV solely by this method and fail to support their argument in any other way leaving you scratching your head saying well I know he likes World Cup soccer but only because all these other sports( which by the way have made him a very rich man) have their faults…
8:39 am on June 25th, 2010
He is a talking marshmallow.
11:00 am on June 25th, 2010
I stopped in to watch the show because of the story on Browsville schools and the success they have had with Chess. I just started watching soccer this past year and thought the following story was just as interesting and thought, wow, this is a pretty good show. Gumble then goes off and ruins it by saying what he said…wow…speechless. If I watch the show again, I’ll make sure to skip his two cents at the end, which if you ask me, if you give him two cents for his thoughts, that’s two cents to many…
3:46 pm on June 25th, 2010
Real Sports is an awesome show, and I’d watch the World Cup over the Billy Bob 500 any day.
8:23 am on June 26th, 2010
“Off the field, I love how the crowds never stoop to something as silly as ‘the wave.’ “…
I commented about this on my site…THE WAVE STARTED AT THE WORLD CUP Bryant, you idiot…
11:44 pm on June 29th, 2010
I’m curious about, whether or not anyone that naively(ignorantly?) posted about B.G’s own opionion,has ever heard of sarcasm.I mean,it’s obvious: “I love how they mimic NBA stars and go down dramatically, as if they have been shot whenever they are fouled.”Idiotas.
7:56 pm on June 30th, 2010
the “billybob 500″ are you kidding me, this guy is as racist as it gets
9:35 am on July 4th, 2010
I just viewed the replay of this episode and couldn’t help but be dismayed by the hypocrisy and irony littered throughout Gumbel’s last story (soccer)…and especially his commentary. Coming off a story about racism running rampant throughout Europe’s soccer leagues, Gumbel has the gull to praise the “purity of the sidelines.” He loves “that at the World Cup, there are sporting people representing cultures from all over the world and befitting grownups, not a one of them seems obsessed with what conference Texas plays in…” Sadly, the only obssession in European soccer seems to be the color of one’s skin and the disgusting animal grunts and the comparisons made to monkeys.
Of all the things liberals like Gumble love about socialist Europe, it was truly disturbing to hear him sing the praises of soccer…with (as he acknowledged) its strong nationalistic and racist tendencies…something he and his friends would never tolerate here in the states. Further exposing his hypocrisy and own racial animous is his obvious disdain for NASCAR and the “Billy-Bob 500.” While I have occassionally caught Gumble in similar, sad situations, nothing so clearly as the end of this particular show exposes Gumble for the angry, disillusioned person he really is.
11:23 pm on July 14th, 2010
I think it’s pretty safe to say that Mr. Gumble is a member of Al Quaida. I mean , what kind of unamerican hater disses” the wave”?!
6:13 pm on July 15th, 2010
The weekly Billy Bob 500???
This is quite simply a raciest comment. Billy Bob is obviously a white man’s name. If a white reporter dissed basketball by using a name that is associated with African American men, the media would be all over him.
Where’s the outrage?
3:28 pm on February 17th, 2011
I’m not even thinking about his color…but man, he is the most “I’m above everyone else” liberal there is….I canceled my HBO after watching one of his shows a year ago…Lata