Because I, like millions of sports fans across America, watched 13-year old Sean Conley ask for the word's definition and correctly spell it, to win the 74th Annual Scripps Howard Spelling Bee on Thursday. Although I have no idea how much ESPN pays for the rights to carry the event live, it's well worth it. For only one time a year do we have the opportunity to watch young kids, in a ballroom in Washington, D.C., make complete idiots of us all. Most of us couldn't get 100 percent on our grade-school spelling tests even though we knew all 20 words that were going to be on the test. I don't care what critics say.
Spelling is a sport.
And it takes guts to do it. One of the greatest parts about watching the spelling bee is that if you let it happen, you find yourself rooting for someone. Or even better, putting money on your favorite genius. Pollock approached the microphone as if he was coached by Deion Sanders. As if he was so Prime Time that the only reason he asked for the word origin or definition was because he was just being respectful to the others.