NEW YORK (AP) – Bryant Gumbel’s “Real Sports” focuses on the NCAA this week during March Madness. As is typical of the HBO newsmagazine that marks its 20th year on air, the focus won’t be on jump shots or bracket busting.
Scheduled reports will discuss the lack of long-term medical care for athletes injured during college sports, and the pressure placed on students to perform or lose their scholarships. A roundtable discussion to follow will feature Kirk Schulz, chairman of the NCAA board of governors.
“We wanted to do something that is not a sycophantic look at what is going on,” Gumbel said Monday. “We wanted to take a critical look at the NCAA’s relationship with its athletes and the extent to which it is functioning properly.”
That’s typical territory for “Real Sports.” Gumbel was still a “Today” show anchor when the HBO program began in 1995. It aired four times a year initially, bumped up to six and now is once a month. “Real Sports” has taken a lead in coverage of concussions in sports and won awards for stories about racism at European soccer matches, baseball recruiting in the Dominican Republic and boys forced to be camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates.
February’s edition had a typical mix: a David Scott report on the dangers faced by Sherpas guiding inexperienced tourists up Mount Everest, a Soledad O’Brien story on injured athletes who shift from painkillers to heroin and a Jon Frankel profile of snowboard star Amy Purdy, a double amputee.