The world on tape delay

I was watching a documentary on the 1980 US Olympic hockey team on Saturday when it hit me. I knew before that The Miracle on Ice game was shown to the world on tape delay, but I never really thought about it and how big of a deal it was. One of the greatest games in American sporting history wasn't televised as it happened; it aired at 8 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. when the puck was actually dropped.

The reason? ABC wanted big primetime numbers. In today's world, that sounds absolutely absurd.

Virtually no one knew what was going on outside of that little arena in Lake Placid until the game was over. The Soviet Union literally woke up to the news that their super soldiers had fallen to a bunch of scrappy American college kids.

With the technology we have today, there's no chance this would happen in 2008.

Of course today there is something to watching games on tape delay, as long as it's self-imposed. My friend Ryan occasionally sets up his own "Cone of Silence" - homage to the gag on the old TV show Get Smart. Simply put, the Cone of Silence is, "I won't be home to watch the game. I've got it on DVR. Don't text me, call me, leave me an instant message, anything. I'll watch the game from start to finish in a vacuum when I get back. Don't ruin it for me or I will eat your children."

Think of one of the only good scenes in the awful, awful movie Fever Pitch. I'm talking about the scene where Jimmy Fallon is sitting in the restaurant with his girlfriend's family, missing the Red Sox game. He thinks he hears someone talking about the game three tables over and starts flipping out because he doesn't want to know any minute detail. Everyone thinks he's crazy, but we understand. Fallon was in the Cone.

My friend Ryan had the privilege of watching the Buffalo Sabres third period rally over the Tampa Bay Lightning last week while in the Cone.

"Games like this are what the Cone of Silence are all about," he told me after.

The Sabres scored six goals in the third period to overcome a three-goal deficit and keep their postseason dreams alive. No one saw it coming. Not even Ryan, some four hours later.

Look at what CBS is doing with the NCAA tournament this year. For the first time, every game is available on-line, including games that were previously blacked out because of local broadcast restrictions. Access to every tournament game is just a click away. You could have followed that crazy Western Kentucky overtime victory from anywhere, all while staying up-to-date on every other game that was going on.

This time of the year can be heaven for sports fans with everything that's going on, including March Madness, the NHL and NBA seasons drawing to a close, baseball starting up again and the NFL draft right around the corner. And fans have access to every one of these sports thanks to today's technology.

Tuesday's Major League Baseball opener between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A's was on ESPN2 at six in the morning. As long as you're willing to wake up with the sun, you wouldn't miss an inning of action. Twenty years ago, would ESPN consider holding the game until later in the day to boost ratings? Would ESPN have even bothered showing the game?

Luckily, those aren't even issues anymore. With all the sports packages available, every game is available to fans if they really want to see it. At home, I can follow the NHL playoff race every night with the Center Ice package. Watching out-of-market stars like Alexander Ovechkin or Evgeni Malkin has never been easier. All I have to do is change the channel and I'm there.

Imagine the whole country, not only actually caring about a single sporting event, but everyone being in the dark on it until hours after. Imagine no one knowing that the Giants beat the undefeated Patriots until the next morning.

The Miracle on Ice was the ultimate Cone of Silence game. Everyone in the world was shocked at the result and didn't know about it until after it was all over. As cool as it would have been to experience it, I'm thankful something like that won't happen ever again.