If you’re up early in the U.S., maybe you saw this on one of NBC’s platforms, if it’s available …

Stop me if you’re heard this one:

A U.S. relay team dropped the baton.

Oh, yeah. You have heard it before.  Like five minutes ago.

This time it was the women. And the circumstances were eerily (stupidly) similar.

Even with the object lesson of the men throwing away an almost certain medal right there in front of them … the women did the same thing.

Same spot on the track. Same handoff, third leg to anchor.

This time it was Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams, and from what I can tell it clearly was the fault of Williams.

Edwards laid the baton on William’s hand. And left it there … and Williams didn’t grasp it. When she finally did, it slipped away and fell to the track.

Edwards bent over in disbelief. Williams ran back and picked up the baton, long after the field had gone past (I swear, I saw this happen just a minute ago … oh, yeah, I did. The memory is the first thing to go.)

She finished the race, so maybe they will have an official time of 50 seconds, or something. No, wait. You leave the baton on the track, you’re DSQ’d.

Said Williams: “I guess I dropped the baton. It seemed like it was right there and it jumped out of my hand. … I thought my hand was there. Maybe somebody has a voodoo doll of me.”

Said Edwards:”I’m obviously disappointed. It was my chance to be a gold medalist.”

This is a joke. No serious track country should do this. And twice in one night?

Again, the Jamaican team managed to negotiate one lap and three handoffs. Criminy.

As I said in the post below, the coaches should be held accountable, because clearly they’re not getting through to the runners.

In this case, the head coach is Bubba Thornton. Guys listed as “relay” coaches are Brooks Johnson and Orin Richburg.

Sorry, but all of you are gone. Now. And you don’t come back. That’s how I would believe it ought to be handled.

USA Track and Field needs to get serious about this. I mean, this is what they do. It’s their job … and they are failing at the most basic level.