Flake-Gate

olympic_rings_fail_getty_1392068024894_2487809_ver1_0_320_240The 2014 Winter Olympics are in full swing and already we’ve seen fantastic finishes, thrilling upsets and stories of perseverance and determination. Unfortunately, most of the social media world’s attention was focused on “Flake-gate”; the unfortunate malfunction which occurred during the opening ceremonies.

Some of the posts are goofy, others are mean spirited. There were even “reports” which claimed that the man responsible for the 2014 Winter Olympic ring failing to open at the Sochi Opening Ceremony had been found dead (and you know they can’t put anything on the internet that isn’t true).

Before we go off and laugh too hard, I would urge Houstonians to remember another notorious malfunction that took place, and ended up dominating a different sporting event. I speak of course about the infamous wardrobe malfunction that took place at Reliant Stadium during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. We all remember the event, but who remembers the game?

Many NFL fans and sports writers widely considered Super Bowl XXXVIII one of the better, if not the best Super Bowl. Sports Illustrated football guru and writer Peter King hailed it as the “Greatest Super Bowl of all time.” The game went back and forth in thrilling fashion and was finally decided on New England kicker Adam Vinatieri’s 41-yard field goal with four seconds left, yet it was Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s performance that people talked about afterwards.

So what will we remember from the 2014 Winter Olympics?  The amazing stories of accomplishments, or a technical mishap? I think I’ll remember how, once again, a world can come together with different countries and cultures, compete with great sportsmanship and respect, and remind us that it is possible, if only for a few weeks, to believe that we more alike than we are different.