Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
Michael Phelps' dream of winning seven gold medals has turned to gold dust (although he's still going to have a heck of a time getting through airport security with all that precious metal around his neck).
The USA women's gymnastics team probably won't make the Wheaties box this year, having had to settle for silver.
And track and field, still the best reason to tune into the Olympics, doesn't get under way in earnest until Friday.
So there's still hope that NBC eventually will get around to covering the best story of these games. Because so far, The Peacock has ignored the indomitable Iraqi soccer team like day-old pita bread.
The Iraqis should receive a gold medal just for making it to Athens. While the Olympic soccer bracket is more watered down than a nightclub cocktail (most of the world's top soccer-playing nations have begun their domestic seasons and aren't playing in Athens), that war-torn Iraq has managed to win its first two games has become bigger news than David Beckham's latest hairdo.
But if you wanted to watch the Iraqis continue their improbable run today against Morocco you had to channel surf the Banzai Pipeline on your cable box or satellite receiver over to MSNBC, which is where NBC elected to farm out the game and thus cover its backside.
Being relegated to NBC Lite, its array of cable networks fast becoming known as the home of synchronized water polo and production pieces on how grass grows in Athens, is a slap in the face to the Iraqis. But, I suppose, it's better than a caning of the feet, which is what the Iraqi players were subjected to following a 1997 loss to Kazakhstan in a World Cup qualifying game.
When it was reported that Uday Saddam, Saddam's son, ran Iraq's soccer federation and Olympic committee with a big stick, they meant literally.
Nice guy, this Son of Saddam. After another loss, Iraqi players who played poorly were dragged across pavement until they bled, then forced to leap into raw sewage. While it's understood that facing the demanding New York press can be difficult after an 0-for-4 day, at least when Derek Jeter or A-Rod pops out with the bases loaded they aren't marched to the sewage pit behind the right-field bullpen.
When Uday was found on the deep end of a pile of mortar rubble last year, the Iraqi players danced around like Munchkins when Dorothy's house fell to earth with the Wicked Witch of the East serving as the foundation. Indeed, in the 17 months since American forces have occupied their homeland, the Iraqi players' uniforms are smelling a little fresher.
But they still have to wash them themselves. In wash basins. The laundromats, like almost everything else is Baghdad, is closed. Or blown up.
According to a compelling story in this week's ESPN The Magazine, the Iraqi players aren't exactly being treated like Manchester United, or for that matter, even the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer, since our guys have assumed control.
The pitch at People's Stadium in Baghdad has been resodded, but the boarded-up holes in the stands, the result of stray rocket and anti-aircraft fire, remain. The domestic pro league in Iraq has been suspended, meaning the players are existing on $200 monthly stipends. The streets around the stadium are still more dangerous than Pele in the box, with the players needing bodyguards just to get to and from practice.
It's one thing to play your home games across town at Shea Stadium, which is what the Yankees did when Yankee Stadium was being remodeled. It's quite another to play your home games in Jordan, which is what the Iraqis have done since the tour buses begin bypassing Baghdad.
Even worse is that Hussein Saeed, one of Uday's primary stooges according to the ESPN story, is back running the soccer federation, having replaced replaced Bernd Stange, a coach of the former East Germany.
It was Stange who kept the soccer team afloat amid the tracer bullets, developed a bond with the players and earned their respect. But he valued his life more than soccer, and when he felt his was in jeopardy, he quit.
Saeed's presence aside, it's highly unlikely the players will be subjected to further torture, what with big shots such as L. Paul Bremer III, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, occasionally swooping into practice via a Black Hawk helicopter. But the players, according to reports, say the American brass only feigns interest in the soccer team when there's a photo opportunity.
"Mr. Bremer, what did he do?" Adnan Hamad, the Olympic team coach, told ESPN. "He took photos with the players. The truth is, he never helped us."
Granted, the forces trying to restore order in Iraq have more pressing concerns than how the soccer team can shore up its midfield. Sometimes even sports have to take a back seat when the Real World insists on driving the bus.
Democracy, as I hope the Iraqi players will some day come to realize, is a wonderful thing. But like the buildup to a winning goal, it takes time.
So you have to wonder why NBC has been reluctant to jump on the Iraqi soccer bandwagon.
Maybe a men's soccer game featuring players with funny-sounding names doesn't fit the prime-time demographic (read: women and kids) that NBC has promised its advertisers. I hope that's it.
Because the only other reason I can think of is that any up close and personal look at the Iraqi soccer team will reveal that it has made it this far despite American intervention, not because of it.
archive
