Olympics Diary: Attempting to overcome another language barrier

TOKYO — I was fortunate to cover the NFL as a beat writer when you could sneak up the back stairs at Winter Park and sit in a coach's office while he broke down film. That was my first exposure to NFL jargon, because sometimes you need to reddog the Mike through the A gap to blow up the trap. Or something.

In Tokyo, as the United States women's gymnastic team trains, reporters are live-tweeting in a language I do not recognize. The Yurchenko Double Pike. Simone Biles doing a "Biles." Emily Giambalvo of the Washington Post is Tweeting about Chengs and Amanars and double tucks and I want to introduce her to a few old football coaches and see how many translators they would need.