It was sympathy more than anything else I felt for world sprint superstar Usain Bolt upon his arrival in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games.
Fronting up to 300 international journalists he may have thought he'd get a few thought provoking questions, but they were few and far between. They ranged from the sycophantic to the bizarre.
Usain Bolt Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The most popular question 'Mr Bolt can we get a selfie?'
And before you ask, no I wasn't among them.
The Scottish Sun then offered him a kilt. Red, though, was not his favourite colour. Next he got thrown a "Hey Jimmy!" hat. You know the one - tartan cap with the ginger hair hanging off the back.
He did get asked about the Israel-Palestine conflict, but offered no opinion.
There was the compulsory independence for Scotland question. Bolt didn't break into 'throw off the yoke of your imperial master' but rather said he wasn't aware there was even a vote taking place in September.
"Weird" was his response when asked if he was actually going to run in Glasgow. "Why would I come all this way not to?"
He's only running in the 4x100m relay as he was injured when the Jamaica Games trials took place and says he didn't want to deny someone else a spot on the team who had gone through the qualifying process.
What sport did he want to watch the most in Glasgow? "Netball. I want to see the Reggae Girls in action.
No he won't be staying in a flash hotel in town, he'll spend the next week in the athletes village but won't be strolling about too much. He doesn't want to get swamped with more selfie requests.
Perhaps he could take a lead from the Queen. If it's good enough for her to photo bomb why not Usain?
The Games need Bolt and they need him more than ever after the withdrawal of the 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic champion Mo Farah.
What he doesn't need though is an Australian Network 10 journalist telling him "none of us are here for work, we're all just here as fans."
No. Some us are here to work, but the selfies, the kilts, the "Hey Jimmy" hat are getting in the way from time to time.
For Bolt it was quite possibly par for the course which means he'd most probably readily endorse the saying "No news is good news. No journalists is even better."
And after the circus we saw in Glasgow I'd be hard pressed to mount a defence.
