Update: Bode Miller defended Christin Cooper during an interview with Matt Lauer on Today.

Matt Lauer:  We saw a very emotional side of you, Bode, after the race, not only in a tweet you sent out, but also in that interview that’s getting a lot of attention, and the interviewer is getting attention as well. Christin Cooper is being criticized for some by pushing too far on questions about the death of your brother. I just would like your take on that?

Bode Miller: I’ve known Christin a long time and she is a sweetheart of a person. I know she didn’t mean to push. I don’t think she really anticipated what my reaction was going to be and I think by the time she sort of realized it, I think it was too late and I don’t really, I don’t blame her at all. I feel terrible that she is taking the heat for that because it really is just a heat of the moment kind of circumstance, and I don’t think there was any harm intended. So, it was just a lot of emotion for me, it’s been a lot over the last year and that you sometimes don’t realize how much you contain that stuff until the dam breaks and then it’s just a real outpouring.

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Another day, another sideline reporter under fire.

In December, Heather Cox caught flak for a post-game interview with Jameis Winston about his off-the-field problems.

Sunday, it was Christin Cooper. The Internet erupted after Cooper asked repeated questions to Bode Miller about his brother, Chelone, who died last year in a snowboarding accident. The negative fallout got so intense, Miller felt compelled to come to her defense.

This morning, NBC felt compelled to issue a statement:

“Our intent was to convey the emotion that Bode Miller was feeling after winning his bronze medal. We understand how some viewers thought the line of questioning went too far, but it was our judgment that his answers were a necessary part of the story. We’re gratified that Bode has been publicly supportive of Christin Cooper and the overall interview.”

Here is a link to the video.

The transcript:

Cooper: Bode, such an extraordinary accomplishment, at your age, after a turbulent year, coming back from knee surgery, to get this medal today, put it in perspective. How much does this mean to you?

Miller: I mean it’s incredible. I always feel like I’m capable of winning medals but as we’ve seen this Olympics it’s not that easy. To be on the podium, this was a really big day for me. Emotionally, I had a lot riding on it. Even though I really didn’t ski my best, I’m just super super happy.

Cooper: For a guy who says that medals don’t really matter, that they aren’t the thing, you’ve amassed quite a collection. What does this one mean to you in terms of all the others.

Miller: This was a little different. You know with my brother passing away, I really wanted to come back here and race the way he sensed it. This one is different.

Cooper: Bode, you’re showing so much emotion down here, what’s going through your mind?

Miller: Um, I mean, a lot. Obviously just a long struggle coming in here. It’s just a tough year.

Cooper: I know you wanted to be here with Chelly, really experiencing these games. How much does this mean to you to come up with this great performance for him? And was it for him?

Miller: I don’t know if it’s really for him but I wanted to come here and, I dunno, make myself proud, but …

Cooper: When you’re looking up in the sky at the start, we see you there and it looks like you’re talking to somebody. What’s going on there?

At this point, Miller breaks down and cries.

OK, America, was it too much? Richard Sandomir of the New York Times thought so:

He was holding up, but tears had started to trickle down Miller’s face.

He was being a stand-up guy, even if he was being pulled through a wringer.

Now was truly the time to stop. If you’ve made a medal winner cry, it is time to simply say “thank you” and move on. It was on tape, so NBC could have cut it off and gone to Matt Lauer in the studio. Instead, Cooper forged on, wondering whom he seemed to be talking to when he looked up in the sky before he started his run down the mountain.

It was not a bad question, but by this point, it was overkill.

“What’s going on there?” she said.

Miller’s helmeted head was bowed and he was unable to answer. The clock kept ticking, and I expected NBC to turn its camera elsewhere or for Cooper to say, “Thanks, Bode, you had a great race.” That did not happen. And there was no interview with the gold medalist, Kjetil Jansrud, to plug in and change the tempo.

Of course, it was too much. Sure, viewers like to see raw emotion, but please spare us a therapy session in these postgame, or post-ski, interviews.

The whole thing felt intrusive and highly uncomfortable. It wasn’t necessary for Cooper to get her Barbara Walters moment at that moment.

It was yet another example of the interviewer, not the interviewee, becoming the story. When that occurs, it is a sure sign that the interviewer crossed over the line.

Put it under the file of another lesson for discussion in upcoming sports journalism classes.