This past week marked the end of an era in sports television, and you may have missed it. Real Sports, the HBO sports anthology series, marked its final episode after 29 years on the air. This vital program was more than just a sports version of 60 Minutes.
Hosted by the eminent Bryant Gumbel, Real Sports was truly in a class by itself, singular in sports journalism excellence. It was old-school, hardscrabble, thoughtful sports reporting come to life on the air. Moreover, Real Sports was light years ahead of the curve in moving sports into political and social themes.
The program combined the sobering reality of news with the gleeful escape of sports, and Gumbel appeared to be every bit the proud parent when his correspondents joined him in studio after another groundbreaking feature.
Real Sports featured a host of distinguished reporters including Bernard Goldberg, Frank Deford, Armen Keteyian, James Brown, Mary Carillo, Andrea Kremer, David Scott, Jon Frankel, and Soledad O’Brien. The latter five gathered with Gumbel for a roundtable reflection on Real Sports’ final edition. Over the years, each of Real Sports’ clever journalists brought their talent and temperament to a bevy of stories.
The show changed quality sports TV from an exception to a habit garnering numerous Emmys and the 2006 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for broadcast journalism, the first such award for a sports program.
Despite the honors, let’s face it, Real Sports was not for everyone. If your idea of a good sports show is quick blurbs, hot takes, soundbites, endless graphics, screaming hosts, and inane storylines about betting, fantasy sports, and garden variety BS, it definitely was not your cup of tea.
And that’s not to say that the aforementioned items are bad. In fact, they can make for a really fun sports viewing experience, but that’s not what Real Sports was all about. The program was not merely the soul, but in fact, the conscience of sports television.
Listen, we all like guilty pleasures. Mainstream shows like First Take, The Pat McAfee Show, Undisputed, Speak, First Things First, and Pardon the Interruption are all about opinionated, verbose, and cutting sports commentary. On each of these shows, the talking heads tell the story.
Conversely, on Real Sports, Gumbel and the reporters said very little. It was the story that spoke volumes. The words of the host and reporters were designed to set up the essence of each subject.
The program has long been lauded for pushing the envelope of sports storylines, but this is an understatement. Real Sports didn’t just push the envelope, it tore it into pieces, slammed it on the floor, and stepped on it. Indeed, there was no envelope left to push.
On the final episode of the program, one of the subjects discussed was the incredibly varied spectrum of sports that the show covered. Real Sports did not just react to headlines. Gumbel and company did not wait for stories to come to them. They went out and found the stories, and what stories they were.
The clichéd movie critic line reads, “I laughed and cried.” On Real Sports, cliché became commonplace. All of the reporters who worked with Gumbel were excellent. For me, a few stand out prominently.
Andrea Kremer always brought professionalism, content, persistence, and heart to every story she did. Mary Carillo, a former pro tennis player, was a quiet assassin — equal parts empathetic and emphatic, tender and tough. David Scott was the world traveler, bringing class, presence, and pointed questions to the most remote of locations and productions.
Still, when it came down to exposing corruption, greed, ill will, or just plain stupidity in the world of sports, there was no one better than the late Bernard Goldberg. This dude was a hardened, grizzled reporter with unmatched wit and guile.
Goldberg always struck me as a guy who could dine with aristocrats at a five-star restaurant, then go across the street and play craps in the back room of a dive bar. Interview subjects didn’t screw around with Goldberg. The guy would slice them up with his intellect and eat them for lunch with his raised eyebrow, ironic slant.
Every great symphony needs a conductor, and on Real Sports, the unquestioned maestro was Gumbel. Since bursting onto the national scene in 1975 as host of NBC’s NFL, MLB, and NCAA basketball coverage, Gumbel has been a lightning rod for everyone from David Letterman to Dave Chappelle.
He spent 15 years (1982-97) as the cohost of NBC’s Today show and has always been an intensely private man, eschewing the showbiz spotlight. Gumbel’s air of seriousness has tagged him with the labels aloof, hard to reach, and stoic. Don’t believe everything you read.
A few years back, Real Sports correspondent James Brown interviewed then-Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb. In the interview, McNabb stated that that African-American quarterbacks are judged differently than their white counterparts. The statement incurred the wrath of media types everywhere.
FOX’s Terry Bradshaw dismissed McNabb’s feelings saying that McNabb needed some love. Barry Switzer, also a FOX analyst at the time, implied that McNabb was degrading black quarterbacks who came before him.
I wrote a column defending McNabb stating that I cannot judge him because I am neither black nor an NFL quarterback. Out of the blue, I received an email from Gumbel agreeing with my assertion.
I used the opportunity to ask Gumbel if he would consider doing an interview with me. As expected, he very politely declined saying that he prefers not to do interviews and speak publicly.
A few weeks later, Gumbel emailed again. He told me that he was doing a speaking engagement and felt that it was only fair that he agree to be interviewed by me since I had asked first. The gesture belied his reputation for standoffishness. In the interview, he could not have been more enthusiastic and accommodating.
I’m sure there are a lot of sports fans who don’t care one bit that Real Sports has signed off the airwaves. For those of you whose channel flipping and ceaseless streaming never stopped on this program, too bad, you missed out on a show that was equal parts quiet and deafening, serious and hilarious, dark and brilliant.
Real Sports uncovered hidden tyrannies, exposed criminals, showcased the best, and vilified the worst people in sports. If this sounds like a eulogy, it might just be that the genre of sports television that Real Sports championed is dead, or at the very least taking its final breaths. Depth has been replaced by dumbness, feeling by fanfare, and conversation by cussing.
Some may counter that Real Sports was a relic of the past, lacking a contemporary feel and pace. Wrong again. Real Sports was gritty, tough, argumentative, controversial, tense, surprising, dangerous, and just plain ballsy. It took more chances than any show on television today. In truth, there has never been a more aptly named program on television. Real Sports. Damn right, it was.
John Molori is a weekly columnist for Barrett Sports Media. He has previously contributed to ESPNW, Patriots Football Weekly, Golf Content Network, Methuen Life Magazine, and wrote a syndicated Media Blitz column in the New England region, which was published by numerous outlets including The Boston Metro, Providence Journal, Lowell Sun, and the Eagle-Tribune. His career also includes fourteen years in television as a News and Sports Reporter, Host, Producer working for Continental Cablevision, MediaOne, and AT&T. He can be reached on Twitter @MoloriMedia.
