Celebrity Death Match

During the Pitt-UConn game that just ended, one of the announcers made some comment in an ominous-sounding voice about a player calling the game a "celebrity death match." A quick search turns up about 100 hits of the same AP article, most of which contain some reference to celebrity death match in the title. The article contains the following:

"We want UConn. It's going to be just like it was the last time -- it's going to be a celebrity death match," Blair said, laughing, invoking some pro wrestling terminology.

Nope, he's not referring to pro wrestling.

With all the research sports writers are used to doing for obscure records like the most consecutive home court regular season nonconference wins, you'd think they could have googled "Celebrity Death Match" and clicked on the first link to figure out he was talking about a bloody claymation MTV show pitting various celebrities against each other.

It was simply a way of stating that it's going to be a physical game, and someone might get bloody. As much as the sports media made a big deal about calling this game a celebrity death match, they have no idea what it even means. Of course, it doesn't come close to how excited they are when they get to say "Big Dance". Every time someone writes or says "Big Dance" I can picture them thinking, "Hee hee, I understand the phrases that athletes use. I'm in. I'm down with the playas." Of course, you are.