Sunday afternoon, Canada prevailed over the U.S.A. 3-2 in overtime of an epic gold medal match.

After watching such a tremendous game, I could only think of one question to ask.

Who cares?

It’s just a bunch of failed figure skaters wearing matching sweaters who run into each other and occasionally have to go sit in time out.

This is America. And in America, there are only three sports that matter:

Football.

Basketball.

And baseball.

That’s it. Hockey is simply a nice distraction to pay attention to when there are no other sports on the TV.

Well, at least that’s what the majority of the country probably thinks.

I happen to like hockey. I think it’s a great sport that requires a lot of athletic ability. It’s fun to watch. And most of all, I like fighting and beards, and hockey has plenty of both.

But unlike Steven Colbert, I am not America. So my individual opinion of hockey doesn’t mean anything nationwide.

So let’s get something straight right now -- Team U.S.A.’s Olympic run will not make people care more about hockey.

At best, their success will end up being like the Mighty Ducks trilogy or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game series for this generation: it will inspire kids to go out and try a sport for like 15 minutes.

There will certainly be a flood of columns by idiot columnists who will tell you that people will start following hockey because they got so wrapped up in the U.S.A.’s performance in Vancouver.

Don’t listen to them. They are morons.

After every Olympics, we are bombarded with columns like this.

Consider what happened after Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in Beijing in 2008.

People claimed that swimming would become more popular because of Phelps’ domination in Beijing.

In actuality, people forgot all about swimming and won’t care about it again until the 2012 games. Phelps has only made the news since 2008 because he wanted to get a little stoned.(As a matter of fact, people probably care even less about swimming now then they did before Beijing since Phelps has been crushed at recent tournaments and then complained that the competition was using better swim suits. But I digress).

It’s the same story with figure skating and gymnastics: people care about them for only two weeks every four years.

Why does this happen?

Because the American people care nothing for fringe sports.

They only care about winning so they can chant U-S-A! U-S-A!

The Olympics are not about cheering for athletes who have worked their whole lives for a sport.

They are about puffing out your chest and proclaiming loudly, “HAHA my country is awesome! Your country sucks! The U.S.A. really IS the best country! Go America! We beat you in everything that matters: wars and sports!”

Column: Rob Jenkins, Sports Editor