Four years after he and Bob Papa were ejected from the Olympic boxing arena for calling out perceived corruption, Teddy Atlas is now calling out NBC for covering up the same.
Atlas, an ESPN boxing analyst who worked Olympic boxing for NBC from 2000-12, criticized his former employer in a Sports Illustrated interview for failing to highlight corruption in the sport. In particular, he accused NBC of doing a “really good job of hiding the boxing” during the ongoing Summer Olympics. Atlas: “Surf through the channels, they don’t show it. They’re hiding it. So if that’s the answer, shame on them.”
He also said that with neither he nor Papa working NBC’s Olympic coverage this year — the network went with in-house Premier Boxing Champions announcers Kenny Rice and B.J. Flores — “bad decisions” were not being highlighted as much as in 2012. As mentioned at the top, Papa and Atlas were removed from the boxing arena late in the 2012 competition for speaking out about preferential treatment given Azerbaijan, which had given ten million to boxing’s international governing body AIBA.
On the surface, NBC’s boxing coverage has improved this year. Bouts have aired each night on NBCSN in primetime, compared to the early evening on CNBC four years ago. On closer look, coverage has declined dramatically. CNBC aired daily three-hour blocks consisting exclusively of boxing in 2012 (two a day on the weekends) as well as late night re-airs. This year, boxing has shared telecast windows with several other sports and typically has been held until the end of the night.
The scheduling changes may have less to do with NBC hiding corruption than with a simpler explanation — ratings. CNBC, airing Olympic coverage in the same 5-8 PM ET timeslot it did four years ago, replaced its boxing coverage with a hodgepodge of sports from rugby to field hockey. The result, at least in the first week, was substantial increases in viewership.
(News from SI.com)
