COMMENTARY: Olbermann Outs Himself With Super Bowl Admission

One final word, if I may, on the topic of our good friend Keith Olbermann.

The former ESPN SportsCenter anchor-turned late night political pundit offered valuable insight into what really makes him tick last week, announcing, “I don’t care about the Super Bowl.”

That assertion caught some viewers by surprise, since during his past lives as an ESPN SportsCenter anchor and commentator, he enthusiastically stoked the Super Bowl hype machine for more than three decades.

Apparently, however, Olbermann’s enthusiasm for the game stemmed from little more than an affinity for the almighty dollar.

“I have been paid to care about the last 34 Super Bowls,” admitted Olbermann last week. “This includes the one where I was paid to host the pregame show for NBC… the other one where I hosted the pre-pregame show for NBC and the other other one where I hosted the pre-pre-pregame show and the halftime online show for FOX.

“But now, after 34 of these, I’m out. Check please.”

Actually, Keith, that’s incorrect. Your checks were cashed long ago.

You lied to everyone – maybe even yourself – for decades, feigning enthusiasm for the sake of cold, hard cash. But now that you’ve burned your bridges with NBC, FOX and the NFL, you are free to admit what many of us suspected all along; that your opinions are – and have always been – for sale to the highest bidder.

Like Colin Cowherd, Skip Bayless and other members of the “look at me” media, you care nothing for integrity and fairness, instead spouting any view controversial enough to keep you in the spotlight and get you paid for a little while longer. Worse, even after making such a shameful admission, you expect us to believe that your views are somehow genuine today, and that you are suddenly not the “bought and paid for” Olbermann we have come to know and detest for so long.

For the record, Keith, we are not fooled.

In a shortsighted attempt to cling to relevance for just a little while longer, you have succeeded only in outing yourself. You have allowed us to see you for what you really are, and what you have always been; an angry, insecure little man who’ll say anything he is paid to say, whether he believes it or not.
 

In a perfect world, you would already have weighed-in on the late-game brawl that saw Seattle’s Bruce Irvin assessed a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and ejected from last night’s Super Bowl. When the teams of Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski engaged in a similar dust-up following the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway last fall, you were quick to trot out your usual “redneck” adjectives in defense of your longtime assertion that NASCAR is not a “real sport.”

Perhaps you really weren’t watching last night, just like you weren't watching the NASCAR race last fall. Or perhaps you hold NASCAR to a higher standard than other sports, failing to understand that in the heat of the moment, professional athletes of all kinds sometimes fall victim to their own heightened emotions.

I’m sure you will speak on this topic eventually, saying whatever is necessary to make you the center of attention, once again. Unfortunately, given Olbermann’s anemic ratings and dead-end time slot, not many people will be listening when you do.