Idiots Write About Sports

NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol — who has been the subject of some playful teasing from yours truly in the past — sat down for an interview with the New York Post and gave me plenty of reason not to squeeze too much of NBC’s Olympic coverage into my busy schedule during the next fortnight or so.
Let’s go to the videotape:

Q: What is success for NBC?
A: Success at the Olympic Games here in Athens is obviously tied up into three things. From the corporate end, it is profit. We already know we are profitable. It is just how much. Two, is what kind of impression it has on the audience in terms of ratings? Particularly the primetime telecasts over 17 nights. And, lastly, a sort of sense that it moved people. That is sometimes a little bit hard to define.

Missing from that list: whether or not the coverage produces compelling, accurate coverage of a worldwide sporting event.
But hey — so long as NBC’s able to turn a profit, I think we all win.