Olympics: NBC Tries For Their Own "That 80s Show"

The Black Crowes remade "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." Steve Martin once starred as Sgt. Bilko, and Tom Arnold graced us with "McHale's Navy." Anne Heche went as nutty as Gramma's fruitcake. And she starred in a remake of "Psycho."

Marketing types and huge corporations love nostalgia. It's an effort to get you to buy something new by associating it with something old. It's also a lot easier than coming up with something new.

Let's bring this back to sports.

When Gary Gaetti threw across the diamond to Kent Hrbek and gave Minnesota it's first title in decades, I was well past euphoric. I left Cloud 9 in the dust and settled comfortably somewhere near Cloud 47. It was magic, and the goodness of it sat in my belly for much of that Minnesota winter that followed.

A mere four years later, the Twins again claimed the throne and the celebration began anew. While the Series itself was the greatest ever, and to win it meant true respect for my Twins, the celebrations were a bit more subdued. People still drank enough for a Kennedy but this time there was a hangover. Monday came, the alarm went off and we all went back to work.

In 1980, a band of collegiate hockey players from across the country, but many with Minnesota roots, took the ice in Lake Placid. The country whose flag they waved was in turmoil. There was trouble in the Middle East. We were in the throes of recession. Even on home ice the team was given little regard and their first few wins were seen merely as moral victories. The team however hung together and went into a game against the Mighty Soviet Empire for a chance to go to the Gold Medal Game.

Remember The Evil Empire? This was more than David versus Goliath. This was David versus Goliath's bigger, meaner older brother Stan. The Soviets were still spending all their rubles on sports and hockey was their crown jewel. The puck dropped, the game was on and you know the rest. Many point to that game, those scruffy amateurs draped in Old Glory as the start of a nation-wide rebirth.

Now we find ourselves with another Winter Olympiad on our soil. The Middle East is as unsettled today as it was 22 years ago. Another recession is running its course. Herb Brooks is again behind the bench and the media is taking great pains to try to get you to remember that 1980 squad. They even reunited the team and had some light the torch.

But it's no different than Britney Spears singing "Satisfaction."

Instead of Jim Craig in the nets, you have NHL All-Star Mike Richter. You have All-Pro Mike Modano instead of Mike Eruzione. It's safe to say the thought of Brett Hull on a breakaway is a tad more intimidating than Mark Johnson.

The simple fact is you can never go home again. You can try and you can take great pains to put all the pieces in the exact same spots but in the end, it's different. It's a reproduction, and as such it can't convey those same emotions. You can't bottle the joy that brought even non-hockey fans like me to my feet. You can't replicate the tension, that horrible night-sweats tension that we shared as those final seconds just would not tick away.

Simply winning another gold medal won't do it, especially with multi-millionaires moonlighting as Olympians. Simply having NBC run interview after interview with that 1980 squad won't do it. That's a good thing. For as hard as they try, the best they can do is stir some synapse, some long forgotten dusty corner of your brain. You'll remember where you were, what kind of chips you were eating and who the first person you gave a hard enough high-five to leave a welt to.

Trying to pass off this hockey team as Team USA is like trying to pass off Bronson Pinchot as Stan Laurel. It just ain't right.