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Stuart Crosby Columnist

Published Monday, August 11, 2008

What I watched besides the Olympics

Over the weekend I developed the mentality of the “couch potato” and let my remote do some work in terms of what to view on the tube and I am fortunate that it didn’t implode.

Like most people I did watch some portion of the Olympic Games (mainly the U.S.-China basketball game and some of the swimming), but I don’t consider myself to be a big fan of the Games.

For example, the officiating for basketball is wretched (that is being kind) because the arbiters are not on the same page in terms of rules because in some cases Greece may have a different interpretation of a foul than Turkey or vice versa.

Also, I almost find it amusing when the network that holds the Games’ television rights or a certain product will promote certain athletes only to see them flop in their actual event.

How many of you remember the commercials of Dan and Dave?

It is also uninteresting to get news that is not concerned with an event such as the “fake” fireworks that were used in the opening ceremonies due to health and safety concerns by the Chinese government.

It was also sad to hear of the stabbing of the father-in-law of the U.S. Men’s volleyball coach, but I was mortified of the comments of the United States Olympic Committee spokesman who stated the party wasn’t wearing anything that indicated they were Americans or with the U.S. delegation.

What being an American citizen without a sign has to do with anything is irrelevant when the murdered man and his family were simply seeing the sights or why this man was killed.

Now that I have expressed my view of the Olympics, I did manage to see other events on the television that had some entertaining value.

For example, the Matt Ryan era began for the Atlanta Falcons in their exhibition game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday night.

Since the two teams played half a small village in the opener, the game was sloppy at times but it was fun to watch nonetheless.

Ryan throws bullets as evidenced by the touchdown pass he tossed to Roddy White as the latter nearly flew to the St. John’s River.

My only gripe during the evening was the reception of the signal from WATL-TV which was pretty dark but the game was still fun to watch.

While the chance of postseason is said to be kaput for the Atlanta Braves by many, the games continue and the weekend was good for our team as they won three games in Arizona.

There were the laughs from shots of a lady in the stands who had approximately 10 flags and waved them whenever the Diamondbacks were at bat as well as the usual swimming pool shot inside of Chase Field.

On the field, I have to say that the running exploits of Brian McCann brought tears of laughter as he ran to second on one play and stole third before taking home on a throwing error.

There was also the dynamic duo of Jair Jurrjens and Jorge Campillo doing their thing on the mound and Jurgens recording an RBI and a run scored in his start.

The NFL Network also proved to be a solid ally over the weekend with the number of exhibition games that were broadcast in between the Brett Favre updates which continue to annoy the masses.

The Pittsburgh-Philadelphia game was probably one of the more enjoyable I saw because those two teams will give the fans a show regardless of whether it is preseason or when it counts.

Hopefully the Olympics will offer more excitement as we approach the medal rounds in a lot of the events but if that isn’t the case, then get the remote ready again.