Just a quick observation as I plow through the Nth day of Olympic coverage:

Was NBC completely out of options for on-air talent, or does someone at NBC Sports really think that Bob Neumeier is a good choice as a field reporter?

We escaped Neumeier’s assholish demeanor throughout most of the first week and a half of coverage, mostly because none of the track and field events had started. But now that track has gotten the lion’s share of coverage over the last week, it’s been impossible to escape him.

Neumeier is best known (if you can even claim he’s “known” in the first place) as a longtime fixture in the New England media market, having been a sports anchor in Boston, as well as a play-by-play broadcaster for the Whalers and the Bruins. Recently, he’s become a fixture on NBC’s horse racing coverage…at least, that’s what Wikipedia tells me. Does anyone watch horse racing regularly? Maybe they can fill us in.

I keep trying to figure out what Neumeier’s schtick is supposed to be during these interviews, but I’m honestly baffled. He’s curt, he asks rude and insulting questions, he doesn’t seem to understand how the events work, and he does a terrible job establishing any sort of repartee with the athletes he’s interviewing. The best analogy I can come up with is that he’s somehow managed to combine the worst aspects of Jim Gray and Larry Merchant…and having said that, I’m hard-pressed to think of a worse combination in the world of sportscasting. Warner Wolf and Pam Ward, maybe?