Dear Michael Phelps,
Please get back in the pool and out of my favorite television shows. Please?
Far be it from me to criticize your right to make appearances on prime-time TV, but quite honestly, it’s getting kind of old. I guess you just didn’t get the hint that you weren’t cut out for television during your awkward post-Olympics interviews. They were kind of painful to watch, particularly the awkward 3-way interview with former record-holder Mark Spitz and host Bob Costas. Simple sentences and 5 letter words were the name of the game here.
So, take your stint on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, for instance. Having to be funny when thousands of other people are watching you on live television must be pretty nerve-wracking, but it really was a complete train-wreck, bad deliveries and all. You struggled through your lines throughout the monologue, and I’d wager that the writers were crossing their fingers and toes that the audience would help you pull through. Which, thankfully for everyone watching, they did.
I guess in his defense, the writing for athletes-turned-cameo-actors isn’t ever that stellar. So take a lesson from history and stick to what you do best. Would you WANT to have seen an actor like Chris Farley having a swim-off against the Australian national team? (Actually that might have been pretty funny, but that’s beside the point.)
Other guest appearances include MTV’s VMA Awards and The O’Reilly Factor. And apparently Phelps was written into the script of Entourage when he accidentally walked onto the set of the hit HBO series while it was filming in Manhattan. His episode is set to be released later in the season, but was it really JUST an accident, Michael?
Could a book deal be far behind? Oh wait. A deal for his memoir, Built to Succeed, was just signed in August. What don’t we already know about this guy?
Yes, you are one of the greatest athletes of our time and I was rooting for you along with the rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean you should be shown on TV doing anything but swimming. But don’t feel bad, some people just aren’t meant for TV. I’m certainly not, and neither are you. For my part, I wouldn’t be horribly upset if I don’t see Michael Phelps on television until London 2012.
