One of the smaller and seemingly missed controversies in Beijing was NBC's handling of openly gay diver Matthew Mitcham of Australia, whose gold medal in platform diving prevent a sweep of the event by the host country. It is either a sign of more accepting times, a sign that the Olympics is more accepting as a world platform than American team sports are of such issues, a great credit to NBC for deflecting a non-issue or all of the above. Our vote is for all of the above.NBC's Bob Costas went all out to diffuse the story by doing an extensive interview with the websit.AfterElton.co.
Some other good reads…Terry Lefton in the Sports Business Journal has a great piece on finding value in even the smallest of brand designations by teams…John Branch in the New York Times has a good look at how football is reinvigorating historically black colleges…AP has a look at Michelle Wie's return to Q school…and ESPN.com takes a look at the solid effort by the Redskins Chris Cooley to identify with fans through his blog.
