When I watched the semifinals of this event and saw Bolt jog his way down the track to a tune of 9.85 seconds, I had a feeling he might break his own world record again in the final like he did last year in the Beijing Olympics. Not only did he break it, he annihilated it, lowering his 9.69 world record to a 9.58. Since the start of fully automatic electronic timing, that’s the largest drop in the 100 meter world record ever. And with a long career ahead of him, who knows how low Bolt will take it.

Also, probably the most amazing thing about this race is Tyson Gay’s performance (lane 5). He ran just about a perfect race, from start to finish, setting an American record 9.71. His time was 0.02 seconds off of the previous world record; but he still got destroyed by Bolt. Unbelievable.

Surprisingly it didn’t feel too cold out there today. With basically no wind, bright sun, and soft powdery snow, we had a great 5v5 game.

Ultimate Statistics (since January 2008):
Total Games Played: 145
Total Hours Played: 170

Out of curiosity I did a little research to find out. It turns out that I was right. Teams do have the option to kickoff, punt, or drop-kick after a safety. However, they are not allowed to use a tee, like for a regular kickoff, and must have a player hold it like for a field goal. Also, the rationale for almost always choosing a punt appears to be a combination of typical kickoff vs. punt distance in comparison to typical kickoff return vs. punt return yardage. Even though a typical kickoff would be slightly longer than a punt, because a punt travels so high, it’s much easier to cover, which amounts to much shorter returns. This makes the punt the preferred option, coverage of a punt is easier and more reliable.

What I found most interesting out of my little research effort, though, was not the specifics of the kickoff after a safety rule, but was another obscure rule that I stumbled across called a fair catch kick. A fair catch kick is a rarely used option that teams have after signalling for, and receiving a fair catch after a punt or a kickoff. From Wikipedia:

Fair catch kicks can only occur when a member of the receiving team signals for, and successfully makes, a fair catch (or is awarded a fair catch after a kick-catch interference penalty.) That team then has the option of restarting play either by snap or fair catch kick. If the team elects the fair catch kick option, the kicking team lines up at the spot where the fair catch was made, and the opposing team must line up at least ten yards downfield. The kicker then may either place kick the ball from a teammate’s hold (a kickoff tee may be used in high school) or drop kick the ball. Three points are awarded for kicking the ball through the uprights.

It’s something that would only happen in rare situations when a fair catch is made in field goal range within the final seconds of the half or game. Apparently the last successful fair catch kick for a field goal was made in 1968, but quite a few have been attempted since then, including one a few weeks ago on the last game of the season between the Packers and the Lions! I had never heard of this rule, and never seen it in action, have you?

So how about the 2008 Olympic Games? I’m sorry, but NBC totally dropped the ball (baton?) on this one. Where do I begin?

• It was clear that Phelps dominated the headlines for these Olympics. The hype was so strong, that the IOC scheduled all of the swimming finals for the morning in Beijing so that they could get live primetime slots in the United States. I must admit, that they hit a home run on this one, and if you’re a real swimming fan, then you got a great show. What about track and field though? No morning finals: zero. That meant no live primetime coverage for any of the track events.
• So maybe asking for live primetime coverage for events that are occurring on the other side of the world is a bit too much to ask. Ok, it is too much to ask. This meant that most of the track and field finals were scheduled between 7pm and 10pm in Beijing which translates to between 7am and 10am on the east coast in the United States. I can live with that, I’ll just get up in the morning and catch the events I want to watch live right? Right? Wrong. Because NBC wanted all of the track and field coverage to be in primetime, they tape delayed it. Arg!
• Ok NBC, so you want your primetime coverage? I suppose I can understand that. This is 2008, though, which means you’ll have live streaming coverage of any event that I want to watch on the internet. I’ll just watch what I’m interested in there; no big deal. What? I can’t do that either? Nope. NBC is only making live event streaming available for events that they’re not covering on TV (or events that nobody watches anyways). Even better, they’re not making any replay coverage available for track events that have already occurred until after the primetime, tape-delayed TV spots have aired.
• Ok well fine; maybe this isn’t so bad. The world championships in Osaka were tape delayed and I loved them. I’ll give in and watch your primetime TV coverage. But wait? When are you showing the track events? You’re sprinkling them all throughout your four hour nightly coverage?! So you mean if I want to watch all of the track and field action from the night before I need to sit through four hours of gymnastics, beach volleyball, diving, water polo, and everything else so that every half an hour you’ll show me one or two track events?! You’ve got to be kidding.

Ah well, I guess it wouldn’t be the Olympics without poorly executed television coverage. With regards to the actual action on the track, though, it has been something else to watch Usain Bolt annihilate the sprinting competition and take down a 200m world record that some thought would stand up for 50+ years. I remember seeing him live and in person in 2005 when I went to the Reebok Grand Prix track meet in NYC. He smoked the competition then and he was only 18 years old. He also looks even bigger in person.

I’ve been reading rumblings of him possibly running in the 4x400m for Jamaica in tomorrow’s final. Now that would be something, but there’s no way Jamaica stands a chance against the United States juggernaut of basically all of the best 400m flat runners and 400m hurdlers in the world led by Merritt and Wariner. The 4x400m is such a high intensity and high drama event in the high school and college versions of the sport (loved it!). On the world stage, though, it is disappointingly anti-climactic. A rant for another day though.

Looking forward to Berlin 2009.