The Olympics may be over, but the sports world is heating up for you
If nothing else, the Olympics in Rio was a nice way to kill a couple of weeks before the start of the football season. Don’t forget, there will be a college football game played this week with Cal and Hawaii kicking things off in Australia. Say what you will about the Olympics and the coverage of it and the concerns that were shared heading in, but the Olympics once again offered a good dose of the best the sports world has to offer in terms of talent, emotions and special moments that can be shared around the globe. I enjoyed them, and I hope you did as well. But now it’s back to business as usual with the baseball pennant races about to hit their home stretch, the NFL and college football kicking off and the Premier League fresh into a new season. Sports never hits the pause button for you.
Carmelo Anthony captures third Olympic gold
Carmelo Anthony may not have an NBA championship to add to his bio, but he did become the first player to win three Olympic gold medals. That is nothing to simply skip over. Anthony’s third Olympic gold came in blowout fashion, with the United States cruising to a 30-point victory over Serbia in the gold medal game on the final day of the Olympics. After the game, Anthony was noticeably emotional about the journey, which started for him with the 2004 bronze medal winning team.
Best part of Carmelo Anthony's Postgame interview. More than just basketball. Thank you for this message pic.twitter.com/1VUNe1UfQ7
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) August 21, 2016
Some people like to suggest a gold medal means more than winning an NBA trophy. That is really only a judgement and opinion that can be made by those who actually get to compete for either. Would Anthony trade in a gold medal or two for an NBA championship? Who knows, but we know for darn sure Anthony takes great pride in being a part of the United States basketball team, and it’s pretty cool to see a multi-millionaire basketball player get all emotional talking about representing the country.
Meanwhile, some of the NBA’s other big names not in Rio made sure to check in and offer their congrats to their friends from the NBA.
S/O #USABMNT on nearing their
Congrats 2 @usabasketball taking care of business & getting the Gold! Go down the line, they all put in the sacrifice & work 2 get it done!
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) August 21, 2016
Congrats @usabasketball for bringing home another #gold #USMNT
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) August 21, 2016
United States wins the Summer Olympics
I find it humorous how much pride we seem to take in the medal count at the summer Olympics. Considering the USA tends to have the largest or one of the largest delegations at the summer games and competes in more sports than just about every other nation that attends the games, it would be a shock to see the USA finish out of first place in the overall medal count, right? Going by total medals, the 2016 Rio Games was no exception. We dominated. Heck, we even took the gold medal in the gold medal count, if such a thing exists.
Final medal count:
Team #USA finishes with 121 total medals, 51 more than any other nation. pic.twitter.com/hM8DQlSzLf
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 21, 2016
Cool, cool. Next comes the breakdown by college athletes, with the Pac-12, SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten making some noise…
The Pac-12 put on a show with 55 medals at #Rio2016, check out the final count breakdown https://t.co/C5f20MpdJk pic.twitter.com/MuuG7R3mba
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) August 22, 2016
One final time, our #SECinRio medal count. #ClosingCeremony | #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/QiFmFOiTbP
— SEC (@SEC) August 22, 2016
#Big12inRio final medal count:#Gold – 14#Silver – 3#Bronze -12https://t.co/Jn1zWymiGO
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) August 22, 2016
Texans, meanwhile, are focused on their own medal count…
If Texas was its own country it would rank eighth in the 2016 Olympics medal count with 41 total medals.
— Todd Fisher (@etoddfisher) August 22, 2016
Some athletes won more medals than others, of course. Simone Biles took a lesson from Michael Phelps…
michael phelps taught me how to stack my medals
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) August 21, 2016
At this point it seems like the United States counting medals is like McDonald’s advertising how many burgers they have sold. To borrow a joke from Jerry Seinfeld, we get it. We’re doing very well.
The winter Olympics tend to be a much more competitive field in the medal count, but we’ll have to wait two more years to see how that all goes down in South Korea.
Alabama lands top spot in AP preseason poll
This was totally expected and not at all surprising. Defending national champion Alabama was labeled the No. 1 team in the preseason AP Top 25, followed by Clemson. Our pals over at The Student Section have been counting down their own preseason top 25, which features Clemson at No.3. Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Florida State, LSU, Ohio State and Michigan each received first-place consideration from the AP voters, and Stanford, Tennessee and Notre Dame rounded out your preseason top 10 in the AP poll. Let this be another reminder, however, preseason polls are dumb and not going to be retired any time soon, so deal with it.
Quick Hits
– The final day of the Olympics saved some wackiness to hold us over for a while. Mongolian wrestling coaches staged quite the protest by stripping on the mat.
– Simone Biles carried the United States flag in for the closing ceremony, and everybody wanted to get their picture taken with her.
Everyone wanted to stop and take a selfie with #USA's @Simone_Biles at the #ClosingCeremony. https://t.co/NgblGZD4gY https://t.co/q1cWOe009V
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 22, 2016
– Not sure if Olympic closing ceremony or a Katy Perry Super Bowl halftime show…
Thank you, Rio!
Relive #Rio2016: https://t.co/NgblGZD4gY https://t.co/fBVfqfnlQ8
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 22, 2016
– The world’s favorite Tongan judo star was once again catching looks at the closing ceremony…
Opening Ceremony sensation, Tongan flag bearer Pita Taufatofua, made his triumphant return. https://t.co/NgblGZD4gY https://t.co/ygrDrRMgT8
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 22, 2016
– With the summer games heading to Tokyo, the prime minister of Japan tapped into his inner princess-saving-plumber to make his appearance in Rio. Seems like a missed opportunity to advertise the NX.
With a little help from Mario, Tokyo is ready to host the 2020 Olympics.
Relive #Rio2016 https://t.co/NgblGZD4gY https://t.co/8g3kNK94RF
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 22, 2016
– In related news, Rio residents are saying good riddance to tourists.
– American wrestler Frank Molinaro was bitten by Andriy Kvyatkovskyy during a heated match to advance to the bronze medal match. Despite attempting to show where he was bitten, nothing was called.
– Billy Butler and Dany Valencia reportedly exchanged words, and Butler got the worst of it.
– The things some people do just to grab a souvenir baseball at a Cubs game.
– David Ortiz taking a selfie with a fan before hitting a home run is 100 percent why we’re going to miss Ortiz next season.
– Sometimes when you miss the bus, you have to improvise. That’s what this woman did with an ambulance.
– This may come as a shock, but Jerry Jones spared no expense on the Dallas Cowboys’ training facility.
– I think it would be funny if nobody informed this NFL ref the Rams moved to Los Angeles this season.
– Guardians of the Galaxy in the next Avengers movie, confirmed?
– What if the Montreal Expos came back as an NBA franchise? This NBA 2k16 fan cooked it up.
One last gratuitous moment of procrastination
If you have been watching the Olympics on BBC, then you have been treated to a fun animation sequence seeing jungle animals pick up and start competing in various activities reminiscent of Olympic events. But if you felt the soundtrack could use a little sprucing up…