A trip to Oklahoma City to take in some NCAA Tournament action provided plenty of material worthy of being dissected by The Writings. This is the first of such dissections.
When you watch the tournament on television, you get a good feel for the excitement surrounding each game; the pep bands, the zany mascots, the antics of the head coaches, and every smile or grimace painted on the faces of the student-athletes are all captured in fine fashion by the television cameras. Alas, there's an important facet of the tournament that goes unnoticed by the television viewing audience. I'm talking, of course, about the lane sweepers.
Every four game minutes, there's a media timeout scheduled in college basketball. This largely serves as an opportunity for television and radio stations to broadcast the commercials of their sponsors. But, while you are stuck wondering what Luke Wilson has done to be featured on three of every four commercials aired, back at the arena the limits of child labor laws are pushed to their max. Oddly, it proves frighteningly entertaining. You see, the third graders pushing mops at the Ford Center stuck it to the man in their own fashion: they didn't pay a lick of attention to what they were doing.
Sure, when a timeout hit the floor, they'd wield their mops and towels with ninja-like readiness, but when it came to actual sweeping, well, it didn't seem to be the primary thing on their minds. A young girl pushed a mop aimlessly while apparently searching the crowd for the Jonas Brothers. Typically, the in-game mopping is limited to the free throw lanes on the court, but this girl didn't bother to limit her range, reaching the mid-court line without thinking a second thought. Her two towel-dragging partners did not fare much differently, watching the scoreboard screens rather than actually making sure they were soaking up any moisture that might have dripped onto the floor. Sure, the static graphics on the screen were exciting, but the players that hydroplaned on slick spots might have appreciated if the gallon of sweat left on the floor by modern giants had been soaked up.
If my brother and I had any sense at all, we would have begun betting on whether or not this trio would actually come close to doing their assigned jobs each timeout. It was undeniably entertaining.
When you watch the tournament on television, you get a good feel for the excitement surrounding each game; the pep bands, the zany mascots, the antics of the head coaches, and every smile or grimace painted on the faces of the student-athletes are all captured in fine fashion by the television cameras. Alas, there's an important facet of the tournament that goes unnoticed by the television viewing audience. I'm talking, of course, about the lane sweepers.
Every four game minutes, there's a media timeout scheduled in college basketball. This largely serves as an opportunity for television and radio stations to broadcast the commercials of their sponsors. But, while you are stuck wondering what Luke Wilson has done to be featured on three of every four commercials aired, back at the arena the limits of child labor laws are pushed to their max. Oddly, it proves frighteningly entertaining. You see, the third graders pushing mops at the Ford Center stuck it to the man in their own fashion: they didn't pay a lick of attention to what they were doing.
Sure, when a timeout hit the floor, they'd wield their mops and towels with ninja-like readiness, but when it came to actual sweeping, well, it didn't seem to be the primary thing on their minds. A young girl pushed a mop aimlessly while apparently searching the crowd for the Jonas Brothers. Typically, the in-game mopping is limited to the free throw lanes on the court, but this girl didn't bother to limit her range, reaching the mid-court line without thinking a second thought. Her two towel-dragging partners did not fare much differently, watching the scoreboard screens rather than actually making sure they were soaking up any moisture that might have dripped onto the floor. Sure, the static graphics on the screen were exciting, but the players that hydroplaned on slick spots might have appreciated if the gallon of sweat left on the floor by modern giants had been soaked up.
If my brother and I had any sense at all, we would have begun betting on whether or not this trio would actually come close to doing their assigned jobs each timeout. It was undeniably entertaining.
1 comment:
Television does cover when Clemente takes over the mopping to be sure it is done right. I have wondered if the wee workers feel any humiliation from the obvious put-down by el macho man!
It does provide some comic relief to the high tension of the game! Makes the game fun! Now there's a novel idea - that a game should be fun!
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