A few months after 9/11, I had an idea for a website: www.everythingbutthetopstory.com. The fanciful concept was that there should be one place that highlighted all the other stories being overwhelmed by the big story.

The notion came back to me the other day as I fumed about stumbling on the Olympic men’s downhill results hours before NBC’s prime-time broadcast. As you can imagine, it’s pretty tough for a guy in my job — with Twitter feeds and RSS feeds practically hard-wired into my cerebellum — to avoid such news.

But then it hit me: Maybe some enterprising site should’ve tried everythingbutthetopstory.com for Olympics results.

I know there are other folks out there, sticking their metaphoric fingers in their digital ears and shouting “la-la-la” anytime they surf near an Olympic story. But what if a major news operation created a version of their site that promised zero spoilers? A place where we could be assured of getting all the day’s news ... except that story many of us are trying to avoid for a few hours?

Given the millions of Olympic-watchers — NBC is basically trebling its rivals, ratings-wise — a loud no-spoiler pledge could represent a web marketing coup of epic proportions.

Let me be clear to avoid chest-thumping like this: I am not suggesting news sites censor real-time results entirely. Don’t touch your main site! Uphold your journalistic principles! But for a couple of weeks, create, say, a http://mprnewsq.org/noolympics that precisely mirrors http://www.mprnews.org ... except for Olympics results. In other words, give people a choice.  You might find your existing audience appreciates the option, and — depending on how unique this really is — a new audience finding you.

I have no idea how hard this would be to program, or the uniqueness of the concept, which would be key to getting audience-grabbing attention from social networks. (While I'm sure there are niche sites that avoid sports entirely, I have not been able to find any general news site trying the alt-approach, but my search was hardly exhaustive; if you know of one, please tell us in the comments.)

When I threw out the idea on Twitter Tuesday, there were all kinds of objections. Some were of the “how dare we dance to NBC’s tune” variety. I, too, would love it if the Peacock Network broadcast events in real time. However, we’re not going to overwhelm the organizers’ lust for rights fees, and we want the excitement of not knowing, so for now we’re stuck with NBC’s finagling.

Some asked how long a “Nolympics” mirror would wait to publish results: after NBC’s East Coast feed, or the West Coast feed three hours later? I don’t have a good answer for that, but the easiest tactic would be to hide the results behind an “Olympic news here” link on the home page, suitable for clicking at individual discretions.

A few others, mocking the whole concept of a newsman suggesting a news brownout, asked where I would stop. Would I, for example, suggest a “no Vikings results” mirror during the NFL season to avoid disturbing DVR users? A “No British Open results” mirror next summer?

My response is simple: DVR folks, you’re screwed. If it’s an event most folks can watch on a weekend or in prime-time, I have no sympathy. As for the British Open, it’s no Olympics. Sorry.

But then again, why not? Try what you like and see if the audience shows up. It’s not like the media should avoid experimentation these days.