Americans Disgraced on the Red Court

With the glorious amounts of free time I now have on my hands, (it seems to be mid-day sports watching for me for the next 3 months), I tuned to NBC’s coverage of the French Open. In case you haven’t heard, the "stars and stripes" have not faired particularly well this year at Roland Garros. In just the third round, the USA is left with just one player, Serena Williams. Our powerhouses Andy Rodick, James Blake both fell this week in matches they should have easily claimed. To make it that much worse, our very own American commentators on NBC, John McEnroe and Mary Carillo were dogging their country. They had the privilege of taking in one of the most memorable games of tennis that I can remember, Rafael Nadal battling Albert Montanes. In game 5 of the just the first set, these two warriors played 32 total points and 14 deuces! The game was epic to say the least. Sometime around deuce number 10, McEnroe made a comment, something along the lines of: ”Good thing there aren’t any Americans left, because there’s no way they would want to play this long". This really caught me by surprise. Johnny Mac has been an ambassador to the American tennis world, and the fact that he took a stab at this country’s game is a bit disheartening. Granted, John was just being John. Making jokes on the air and trying to keep the aura of the booth loose. Which seemed to work, considering each of the other two commentators got a big laugh from the whole thing. I know McEnroe didn’t try to direct his joke at any one specific. And it really is irrelevant in the long scheme of things. But our country’s performance this year at Roland Garros, and McEnroe’s comment only fueled my distaste for the way our American athletes treat a loss on the world’s stage, tennis and beyond.