THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Something about those two weeks ... and that song

Man, I miss me some curling. 

Isn’t that crazy?

Sports we normally wouldn’t watch any other time of year, we wind up glued to the TV set (or computer monitor) for two-plus weeks every two years. 

But mostly every four years, during the Winter Olympics. 

Doesn’t matter the sport — skiing, bobsled or the aforementioned curling — we can’t get enough. 

And who cares if it’s live, or a re-air? Does a curling match lose some of its luster if it’s tape-delayed? 

If it’s USA especially, we’re in. 

AND TWO-plus weeks of events seems just about the right length for the Olympics, to hold your attention — though listening to NBC’s Olympic theme music never gets old. 

Even the aforementioned curling, which you could probably find on TV or online any time during the four years between the Winter Games, but would never watch. 

But when it’s the Olympics ...  

Still, after a while, after two weeks of watching curling teams strategically line up their “rocks” (also known as "stones") as “guards”, and watch the folks with the brooms try to steer the stones (without tripping over the rocks that are already there) into the "house," you secretly wish they would mix it up. 

You just want to see someone launch that stone like a Nolan Ryan fastball, and send a bunch of those other stones flying off the ice and all over the arena — sort of like when you play shuffleboard at the pool hall, and you slide that puck down there as fast as you can, hoping to send the other pucks sailing off the table, onto a nearby pool table, or into someone’s pitcher. 

Anyway ... 

ON DirecTV, they had an Olympics “mix” channel which mostly showed a split screen — one of the NBC feed, one from USA Network. But the NBC feed was from the Eastern Time Zone. So if you were watching in the late night/early morning, on the NBC feed you saw the early morning news show from the NBC affiliate in New York. 

If you weren’t totally awake when it was on, you might be watching the traffic report and suddenly getting worried about your commute to work that day. 

(“Hey, wait, there are no trains here.”)

It reminded me of the early days of cable.

I was sitting in my living room in Sandpoint one afternoon.

The weatherman on TV was warning of dangerous thunderstorms coming, and to stay home if possible. 

I looked out the window at the sunshine, and wondered.

Then I realized I was watching WGN in Chicago.

THEN THERE’S the events where they ski for a while, then stop, grab their rifle and take five shots at something (we don’t ever get to see what it is). Then they sling that rifle back onto their back and continue skiing.  

What if there’s a road-rage incident on the course? 

And who else tears up during the medal ceremony after a USA victory, listening to The Star-Spangled Banner?  

Who else envisions themselves up on that podium, listening to the song and trying to keep it together?  

And what sport do you imagine yourself winning? 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.