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Bob Costas = Gaper?

4K views 24 replies 16 participants last post by  Triple8Sol 
#1 · (Edited)
Not sure if anyone posted this anywhere, but I just heard about this today.

In an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show earlier this week, veteran sportscaster and host of NBC’s Olympic coverage Bob Costas denounced slopestyle — a discipline of snowboarding added to the Olympics for 2014 — as little more than a byproduct of the MTV show Jackass. “I think the president of the IOC should be Johnny Knoxville,” Costas said, laughing. “Basically this stuff is just Jackass stuff they invented and called Olympic sports.” After prompting from Lauer, Costas added that he “mean that in the kindest way possible.”

Read more at: Bob Costas Rips Olympic Snowboarding Slopestyle, Calls It ‘Jackass Stuff’ | Olympics | NESN.com


I watched a video of it, seemed like he was joking around about it, but still it would probably piss me off if I was an Olympic snowboarder. They work their asses off as hard as anyone else competing at that level. It seems to me a bit ignorant to write off Slopestyle in the way he did.
 
#13 ·
as hard as they work, as impressive as it is, personally i don't think slopstyle is quite ready for primetime, as everyone knows the decision to put it in the olympics was mostly driven by ratings and money

i just don't think it has that lasting power to be in there for years and years, like halfpipe. the tide of public opinion is quicky turning against the the 12's 14's and style-free tricks, as if it's not watched, and not to the public taste it will be gone. just look at slalom, gs, and downhill

costas, jaskass and all that noise: slopestyle on toilets or shopping carts! that i would pay to see
 
#19 ·
I agree with this also... obviously having sloepstyle in the Olympics is a step in the right direction in terms of mainstream acceptance of the sport but I also don't think it's exciting enough to keep the average viewer watching. They would have been better served doing a big air or quarter pipe type of competition as at least that will get people who know nothing excited about what they're doing. In slopestyle it will be essentially the same groups of tricks by all the riders just executed to different levels of perfection.
 
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