The X Games

The X Games were this past weekend... The X Games are what ultimately occured when a group of atheletes looked at film of Joe Theisman writhing in pain after his final play on the football field and said "heh, wuss". First there was "MTV Sports", which was hosted by Dan Cortese - who I like to think of as "the poor man's Keanu Reeves". Every week he would go out with a group of people who were riding mountain bikes down the side of mountains, bungee jumping, etc. It was the early 90s and Extreme sports were all the rage. In fact, everything became extreme. Soda, deodorant, toothpaste, paper plates. Pretty much anything you could sell got the word extreme plastered on it. I think when they came up with extreme programming that was the end of the line. Because it was sort of like saying "extreme geek" or "extremely uncool. Perhaps that's why just the 'X' stuck.

The X Games pretty much involve people taking bicycles, skateboards, and mortorcycles, riding them over jumps as high as they possibly can, and doing tricks while in the air. There used to be a few more games, but I imagine that bungee jumping on television just didn't hold the same alure after Fox's "When Bungee Jumping Goes Bad".

I love the X Games. I'm not sure why. I've always liked watching this sort of thing, and never seriously entertained doing any of it. You see, when I saw the replay of Joe Theisman's last play that Tuesday morning in 1985 I didn't go "heh, wuss" - I went "My God, he may never walk again", and since he did, I figure I might not - so don't tempt fate.

My favorite is watching the bikes. The greatest X Games althelte ever is bike rider Dave Mirra. I have a lot in common with Dave. He lives in Greenville, NC, and I used to live there. I had a bicycle as a child, he rides a bicycle professionally. He got Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher, and I have seen several episodes of both Punk'd and That 70s Show. So maybe that explains my love for the X Games, with Dave and I being so close and all. Dave Mirra suffered a lacerated liver during practice this year and was not able to compete.

The highlight of this years X Games seems to be Travis Pastrana doing a double backflip on a motorcycle. This marks the first time this trick has been performed succesfully in competition, yet he didn't receive a perfect 10 in the scoring. I just want to reiterate - this young man flipped a motorcycle that he was riding twice in the air - and didn't receive a 10. I was hoping for a Nadia Comaneci reference here, but I can't seem t0 make it work.