Mike Piazza just held a press conference to announce he doesn’t even know what channel the Olympics are on.

From the LA Times’ J.J. Adande.

Stunningly, after Johnny Weir had left a periodic table’s worth of elements out of his long program Thursday night and dropped from medal contention, he was asked about a Chicago Tribune online poll on whether people cared about his sexual orientation.

The poll sprang from a story in Thursday’s Tribune in which Rudy Galindo (above), an openly gay former U.S. figure skating champion, called on the media to call out Weir.

Just goes to show how bad ideas spawn more bad ideas. At least the Tribune’s readers showed better sense than its editors. As of 5 p.m. Central time, 93% of the 4,571 poll respondents said they did not care.

“I think it’s funny that people care,” Weir (above) said. “I don’t have a problem [with] people saying anything. People could be saying, ‘Let’s poll about Bode Miller, let’s poll Michelle Kwan being a lesbian [or not].’ Something like that. And it’s not a big deal. Who I sleep with doesn’t affect what I’m doing on the ice or what I’m doing in a press conference.”

I couldn’t understand what he was doing talking about it in this press conference. Could you imagine the losing quarterback of the Super Bowl being asked whether he liked men? That’s how ridiculous this sounded.

Asking someone’s sexual orientation? Is nothing off-limits anymore? That just shows how the Internet chat-room mentality has spread all the way to the Olympic mixed zones.

Figure skating would be the natural place for a gay male athlete to come out. There’s a built-in assumption anyway, and there aren’t any ignorant teammates’ reactions to worry about. That doesn’t mean anyone should have to sign up for it.

Adande’s point about a Super Bowl losing QB is well taken. Until the Colts figure out how to win the AFC Championship, I can’t possibly imagine such a scenario.