Bob Costas’ Grotesque, Festering Eyeballs Are A Metaphor For Sochi Olympics

This is what Bob Costas looked like last week.

On the first night of Olympic coverage, NBC’s Bob Costas kicked off the broadcast with an explanation about the proverbial elephant in the room. The elephant being his grody pink eyeball and the unidentified minor, yet surprisingly upsetting, infection that lurked within it.

Said a suddenly bespectacled Costas, “According to NBC doctors here, it’s some kind of minor infection that should resolve itself by the weekend. If only all my issues would resolve themselves that quickly, but that’s another story.”

Well, any hope that the infection would be cleared up by the weekend has come and gone. Not only has the condition of Costas not improved, it looks as though the infection may have actually spread. On Monday night his right eye, previous unaffected, looked…not so good.

And this is what he looks like this week.

Given the unmitigated disaster status of these Olympics, the fact that Costas’ eye(s) ailment(s) have become a national obsession of sorts is somewhat fitting. And if you think about it, his worsening ocular situation is like a metaphor for the Sochi Games.

At first it didn’t look great, but we all figured the ship would right itself eventually. After all, host countries almost always pull it together in the end and the worst of conjunctivitis is usually behind people within 3-5 days.

But much like problems with the games themselves, the infection in Costas’ eye has only gotten worse and continued to spread. The initial story, much like the dual toilet situation in the Olympic Village, was quite laughable, but has grown more disconcerting as each day passes.

Given the circumstances, you certainly can’t blame Costas for recently turning to the bottle for comfort. At least citizens of the host country won’t have to worry about that, since they’ve been drunk since the 1700s.