What we watched this morning was perhaps the greatest race of all time.  Wait, scratch that.  It was the greatest race of all time, and I think that it is safe to say that you’ll all agree with that opinion.

But with a collective sigh we can take a deep breath and say “thank goodness for the 32-year-old from Irvine, California.” It is quite safe to say that NBC’s Dick Ebersol was among those to do just that at the moment that Jason Lezak’s hand touched the wall.

Lezak saved sports as we know it.  As sporting fans, we all want to believe in something magical – to witness something otherworldly. We want something we can tell our children we witnessed.  We want something untainted in today’s world filled with drug-induced records. Michael Phelps presents us with that opportunity. For a moment some stopped believing. But in 46.06 seconds, Lezak was able to breathe life back into that dream by snatching life – and a gold medal – from the French.

Casual sports fans at home don’t care about the who’s and the what’s.  What they watched tonight was about “saving” Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals.  We can delude ourselves, as swimming fans, with the belief that sports fans care about that relay because of what it was – the greatest race of all time – but I am much more skeptical. While I will be the first person to congratulate each of the men on that relay personally when the opportunity presents itself, I believe that the casual fan is more fickle.

Jason Lezak has five Olympic medals – three gold – but this one is the most important of them all.  To Jason, it is about redemption after two prior unsuccessful attempts in this event at the Olympic Games.  To everyone else? It saved the Olympics as we know it, and gave everyone a reason to continue watching. Thank you Jason for your performance this morning, you are my hero.