I think that I will watch some of the Olympics; my wife is nuts about the Olympics, so I may end up watching more than I planned. I feel the Olympics has just gotten way too big and commercialized, which takes away some of the fun for me.

That being said, I am really looking forward to watching the curling and the hockey. Olympic hockey, when the NHL players are involved, is always great to watch because it truly is the best of the best from each nation (unlike the regular world championships which just feature NHLers that didn't make the NHL play-offs).

The curling will also be a nice change of pace; Canada has a very deep field of curlers, which is why a lot of other countries come here to train and compete. And while it's fun to see the top Canadian teams go head to head (which is the same caliber of curling as we'd see at the Olympics), it will be nice to watch some teams I don't see as often (like Team Murdoch from Scotland, for example).

~Hat~

I doubt I'll get to see much of the sports here. The coverage here is okay but tends to be at times I'm not home or awake or on channels I don't subscribe to. Still, I hope that other folks get their moneysworth out of it.

... if I do watch then it'll likely be how I watch most sports these days, with the commentary muted.

I've taken a real dislike to today's inane commentator chatter, which is often more about making sounds to keep the airwaves full than about the game itself. Most of the key information like past records or stats get flashed up across the screen anyhow.

What do you think? Does commentating help you feel as if you're there? Does it give you insights into the sport? Whip up your excitement? Or is it just former jocks with limited communications skills prattling over the action?

My parents and brother are sports junkies... doesn't really matter what the sport is. (My brother will be attending the Olympics this year.) For me, I like watching football (our kind), and can get sucked into some other sports championships, but that's all for regular viewing. However, I do enjoy the Olympic games, and will watch most any event if it's on... I just don't go out of my way to find it on television.

Growing up outside of Detroit, we used to prefer tuning into the Canadian broadcast of the Olympics from just across the river in Windsor, Ontario. They actually would show the games, relatively unedited and live. The US networks always spend way too much time making "stories" out of their coverage, telling us the entire background of certain athletes, and then editing down the actual events to show the highlights, or time delaying them to show the most watched events during prime viewing hours, meaning you had to avoid "spoilers" in the news all day long because NBC was withholding their coverage of that event until 8pm the next night.

Add to that the chatter that Ian's talking about... US sports are drowned in commentary these days. You never really lose anything if the sound is turned off on a game, and it's often good for one's blood pressure. I will give them credit in that it can be good for someone who is still learning a sport, or for sports that have a great many rules that need explaining, but the rest of the chatter is usually pointless. What drives me up the wall is when the commentators are completely wrong about the play, and yet prattling on anyway. It happens fairly often, especially now that we're treated to high-definition, multiple-camera coverage of sports. We get a better view at home than they do live at the game, and quite often clearly see a fumble that they completely miss out on, leaving us waiting for the "experts" to catch up to the rest of the audience. "I think there may have been a fumble on that play, Dan..."

Sadly, there's only one more football game this season... Next weekend's Superbowl. Then it's back to the occasional hockey game and ignoring basketball and baseball until the new season starts in the fall.

The stats that they come up with are pretty ludicrous sometimes. I did find when I first got into football (not soccer) I would have been lost without the commentary explaining what was going on, but I'm at a point now I could probably get by without the commentary.

There are certain commentators I like (Bob Cole on Hockey Night in Canada is the man), but others I could do without.

For people new to the sport commentary is good (curling is a good example; I have a pretty good idea of what shots are and aren't possible, but someone that doesn't play or is new to the sport would have no idea), if you have experience with the sport you can probably do without it, although it can help to get the adrenaline running (I can't imagine the final goal of the 1972 Summit Series where Paul Henderson scored the winning goal for Canada without the commentator freaking out "HENDERSON!").




Commentary can whip up the excitement, but you need a good commentator to do it. Sometimes I see sports highlights on the news where the local guy is doing commentary and they flip out over a goal and it's the first period of a hockey game; little too early to cram in that much enthusiasm.

Some sports like figure skating I definitely need the commentary; I have no idea how to tell the different jumps apart. For others, I'd be fine without it. It all comes down to the quality of the commentator.

What really gets me is the all day pre-game shows for games like the Superbowl; do we really need to devote that much time to the game beforehand? The pre-game is longer than the actual game!

~Hat~

>>What do you think? Does commentating help you feel as if you're there? Does it give you insights into the sport? Whip up your excitement? Or is it just former jocks with limited communications skills prattling over the action?

Sometimes when I watch the cricket or the rugby I turn the TV down and turn the radio onto the channel with the 'zany funny comedian' announces who have nicknames for the players etc.

Other than that I prefer to just go to the cricket and watch it live really. Even better with a group of mates who like a drink or two and enough watermelons to go round for funny watermelon hats to be made. Hilarity ensures...what are we here for again? Ah yes those fellows in white out there are playing some kind of sport *shrug* hand me another beer please.

I really like to watch curling, but unfortunately it's actually much better to watch on television than in person; you can really see how the rocks are set up in the house on tv, whereas if you don't have really good seats at a large curling event it's hard to tell who is shot rock (or counting for points, if that's easier for you!) and what the shot options are (which is half the fun of watching curling, figuring out all the possible shots they can try).

~Hat~