Not on Everybody's Watch

Try as he might, Dan Steinberg was unable to find any area athlete who had watched "The Sopranos" finale -- until he asked Ben Olsen .

During quiet moments this week, I've asked our local athletic stars for a few opinions on the final episode of "The Sopranos," since, judging by the media coverage, it was one of the more important cultural moments of the past two centuries or so. The feedback was, how shall I say, muted.

"I didn't see it," the Mystics' DeLisha Milton-Jones said. "But I heard people had mixed reviews about it."

"Nah," the Ravens' Willis McGahee said, when I asked if he caught the finale. "What time it came on?"

"The who?" said Antwaan Randle El, when I asked him the same question. "I don't watch 'Sopranos.' They cuss too much, man. All they do is curse. Curse curse curse curse curse. I watch 'Forensic Files,' I watch 'Wheel of Fortune.' I used to watch that with my granddad a lot."

"The who?" said Jason Campbell, probably reflecting more on my poor enunciation than anything else. "Nah, I didn't watch 'The Sopranos.' I watched the basketball game." . . .

"I don't watch regular TV," Santana Moss said. "I watch BET a lot. That's good TV for me. They can get me anything and everything I need to know. I'm mostly MTV, BET and 'SportsCenter,' especially in the season." . . .

But the stars aligned, and I finally found one area athlete who actually witnessed the most significant cultural moment of the year. Ben Olsen, naturally.

"Did I?" he said. "Of course. Loved it. Kind of controversial, but it was great."

In fact, Olsen made sure to watch the episode on Sunday night, with a bottle of Chianti Classico, just a few hours after he had recorded his first career hat trick against the Red Bulls. Like so many bloggers, he said the ending could have been dreamed up by comedian Andy Kaufman, of whom he's a big fan, so he wasn't insulted or outraged by the cut-to-black. Actually, he thought the episode was perfect because it was just another episode, without any relieving resolution, without any grandiose attempt to sum up the previous decade.

"People wanted people to die and stuff, but that's why I liked 'The Sopranos;' they're always keeping it real," Olsen said. "They don't care about that instant gratification. . . . The one where Tony and his sister's husband fight? I mean, that's one of the greatest episodes I've ever seen, right?"

I agreed. Although to be honest, I didn't see a single episode this season. And, like Jason Campbell, I missed the finale. I was watching the NBA Finals.