As federal agents prepare a grand jury case against Lance Armstrong (a dubious undertaking, from a legal standpoint, on many levels) several questions must be asked. The outcome of the investigation may lead to the downfall of one of the greatest sports stories (and athletes) in the history of the world, or it could lead to the complete exoneration of a legend who will then deserve an enormous apology from his many doubters. More likely, it will lead to some sort of messy place in between those two things. Wherever it leads, it will cost an enormous amount of money and time and will be unlikely to change much about sports, cycling or improve the public perception of either. With all that in mind, Andrew Corsello may be on the right track when he pleads with Lance to just stick to his story, regardless of the actual facts. (more…)
Bike racing is not like other sports, and the Tour de France is not like other bike races. In the Tour, there is a long-standing tradition that says you do not attack when your rival goes down, whether he goes down as a result of a crash or a mechanical difficulty. This tradition exists because it is considered poor form to win because of the temporary difficulty of your opponent. The race should be won based on strength and skill and strategy (and other tres importante words beginning with S). This tradition goes double when the rival in question wears the fabled Maillot Jeaune. Thus, the peloton waited for Lance Armstrong when he crashed in previous years and Armstrong himself waited for opponents when they crashed. And Armstrong is not really known to be an especially nice guy.
That’s what makes today’s events so difficult to understand.
Contador was booed as they put the yellow jersey on him at the end of the ride. And this in an area of France that is near to Spain, his home country. You have to work hard to generate that much bad blood.
Contador says he didn’t know Schleck’s chain was off. Schleck says, “my stomach is filled with anger.” One thing’s for sure: the next few days should be very interesting.
*Update: Contador apologized to Schleck and the two shook hands. It’s nice to see this kind of classy move from Contador, who appeared to not only take advantage of Schleck’s misfortune, but also appeared to be lying about it when he said he didn’t know Schleck was having a difficulty. I’m glad Contador acknowledged the mistake and that there will be no continuing bad feelings between these two great riders.
Here is Contador’s video apology:
It’s a classy move, as I said, but it leaves some lingering issues:
First, Contador claims credit for stopping the peloton when Andy crashed on the stage to Spa. Most people think that credit belongs to Fabian Cancellara (holder of the yellow jersey at the time) and Saxo Bank, though it’s obvious that the decision could not have been made without the full cooperation of Contador.
Second (and this is the biggest problem) he throws some blame Schleck’s way for not waiting for him when the field was split on the later stage after the cobblestones. The problem there is that no one, even Contador himself, suggested that Schleck should have waited at that time. Further, there is an enormous difference between the two incidents: Contador hadn’t crashed and had no mechanical difficulty, he was merely caught behind the crash of other riders. The case could easily be made that this was his own fault for not being up front with his team where he should have been. Also (and this is the critical difference), Schleck didn’t attack at that time, the way Contador attacked in the Pyrenees. That makes all the difference in the world, and makes Contador’s apology seem like not so much an apology as a massive rationalization built on half-truths.
Despite that, he did say he was sorry, and I’m glad for that.
Now that the United States has made it farther in the World Cup than since before the Second Great War to End All Wars* [*Note to Kulturblog editorial staff: please fact check this for me.], the Americans (middle-north region) find themselves in an enviable position of being a top seed by virtue of two ties and a 1-to-nil victory brought to us by Landon Donovan in the 91st minute of a 90-minute game** [**Check this one too. That can't possibly be right. Can it?] in “group play.”
Now we enter the elimination round, something that should be much more familiar to U.S. sports fans. Sixteen teams compete in a single elimination tournament for the cup. Think of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, starting in the Sweet Sixteen round. Or the way the NCAA Division I football championship should be decided in a perfect world.
Only there’s one catch: from here on out, games can no longer end in a tie. (more…)
1. Curling. If that’s a sport then so is shuffleboard.
2. Short Track Speedskating. WTF? That’s like the summer olympics having the same track events on two separate size tracks! What is short track for, munchkins? We have a different track for short people? I say get rid of short bus speedskating and make everyone skate on the big track, like grown-ups.
3. Luge. Come on, man, those lugers aren’t doing anything except laying on a cafeteria tray like meatloaf. They can’t even see where they’re going! And that goes double for doubles luge. Any event you can do laying on top of someone else in your sock feet must go.
4. Biathlon. Since when do guns have anything to do with winter sports? You can shoot guns at targets any time of the year, in combination with any aerobic activity. So why is cross country skiing so special? Get rid of the shooting and just ski.
Sorry to tear you hopeless geeks away from Lost, but it’s time for something manly! No not the Oscars. It’s Superbowl time! Time to answer those age-old questions that speak to the essence of manhood: Which team has better uniforms? Whose tight end is better looking? Which ETrade baby is more articulate? What scandal will occur during the half-time show? And of course, most importantly: Which commercial has the hottest babes?
Feel free to comment here before, during and after the big game on all things related to the cultural phenomenon that is The Superbowl.
Sports autobiographies generally occupy a rather sad, narcissistic, ghost-written corner of the literary bookshelf. It’s the obligatory thing to do after you hang it up; write a tell-all memoir (with a proven co-author) that is part reminder to your fans of how great you were and part pot shot at all those a-holes who gave you insufficient adoration during your halcyon playing days. (more…)
For those of you who don’t follow this kind of stuff, a few weeks back there was a controversy about some confiscated video coverage from a pickup game at Lebron James’ basketball camp. Some college kid reportedly dunked on Lebron. That is pretty cool and all but no biggie. But what made the story big is that the Nike folks (who sponsored the camp) went around and confiscated the video of the dunk. So rather than giving a few people a chuckle the dunk took on epic and scandalous proportions with the conspiracy theorists whispering that Lebron had told his cronies to destroy the evidence.
I mean it was clearly no Vince Carter hurdling a seven foot French guy in international play. Now that was a dunk for the ages. Check it out below — for some reason it is all the more awesome with the French announcers reacting to it:
Anyhow, the moral of the story is release the tapes early before the event takes on mythic proportions.
Will Fitz prove his superiority? Will Hines’ injury be a factor? Which Superbowl-ring-wearing QB will prove mightier? Or will they cancel each other out? Will the Boss rule? Or have a wardrobe malfunction? Will the commercials be worth watching? Or will the response to them be a flush heard round the world? These and other fascinating questions will be answered today! Comment here during the action.
When time is running out and you’re in range for a game-tying field goal you have two objectives: 1) score a touchdown, or at least a field goal; 2) run time off the clock so that your opponent doesn’t have a lot of time left to mount a game-winning drive. (more…)
1) NCAA Basketball tournament and the Final Four
2) The World Cup
3) Major League Baseball playoffs and the World Series
4) NFL Football playoffs and the Super Bowl
5) NBA Basketball playoffs and championship series
Should never even be considered a “playoff” nor a “system”: The BCS for College Football
After the Super Bowl I was furious. Now I’m just sad. We (the Seahawks) were given a freebee with Romo’s bobble and played a solid game against a team that was supposed to blow us out. The game could have gone either way hinging on any play (for both teams). If it were a blowout it would have been much easier to watch, this was just too intense for us to lose. But, it was a well-earned win by Chicago. Congrats to those guys.
But the truth is that these playoffs are turning out to be pretty dang good. And it’s all NFC for me at this point. Go Saints or Bears!
This is the first time in several years that I haven’t participated in fantasy football. I hadn’t planned to skip out this year but as it turns out, I’ve been grateful that I did because I have enjoyed this NFL season more than any season in recent memory, despite Denver’s collapse. (more…)
I know we just had a sports post but after watching last night’s Bears/Cardinals game, one of the most entertaining football games I’ve ever seen, I figured this would be a good place to discuss sports comebacks. Last night is truly what sports are all about (even though I was cheering for the Cards). (more…)
The AFC is very strong and very competitive. Here are seven solid AFC teams that I can see making the Superbowl: Baltimore, Cincinnati, Denver, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, New England, and San Diego. And I wouldn’t count Pittsburgh out. Baltimore (my local team) and Denver (my favorite team) both have a lot of room for improvement on the offensive side of the ball. I have more hope for Denver because they’ve shown that they can run the ball and Plummer will certainly get better (he’s had slumps before), while Baltimore hasn’t been able to run for two-and-a-half years now and McNair still doesn’t look like he ‘gets’ the new (to him) offense. Neither New England nor Indianapolis are playing as well as they did last year and they are 4-1 and 5-0, respectively, so watch out if they hit their stride. (more…)
As I’m sure you all know the Seahawks played the Bears last night in what was anticipated to be one of the biggest games of the early season. Considered the best team of the NFC I was happy to be talking some trash on behalf of my Seahawks. It was especially sweet because my good friend is a huge Bears fan (his brother-in-law is John Tate who plays left tackle for them) and we had been planning on watching it together. In addition, the only guy in my office that follows football is a Bears fan so I had this other outlet to express how much better of a person I was because I liked the Seahawks and he had to suffer being a lowly Bears fan. I kinda felt sorry for them that my Hawks were going to do such a number on their beloved team. (more…)
As a child growing up in the 80′s I loved both football (Seahawks) and baseball (New York Mets, because my neighbor liked them, because they won the Series in ’86). I consider that decade to be when football and baseball uniforms had it right, unlike today where they all look virtually the same. Sports are entertainment and part of that entertainment is the costume. Stir-ups should be part of the baseball costume (not anymore). Real color (something other than dark blue) and juxtaposition of color should be part of the costume (not anymore). New uniforms just don’t have the soul that the old ones did.
The following is a number of comparisons of current uniforms to their former counterparts: (more…)
Watching game 5 of the NBA Finals tonight, I realized that in my mind, veteran NBA coach Pat Riley and Michael Douglas occupy the same territory. I’m not sure when or how this happened, but I know that if The Pat Riley Story were ever made into a feature motion picture, I just can’t see anyone other than Douglas playing the title role. From there, it was a short skip and a jump to this post.
One of my first memories of belonging to a “nation” was in 1982. We were on holiday in France. Every night we would sit around the radio to listen to the BBC World Service to hear the latest news from the Falkland Islands. At 6, I knew that there was a nation that was “good” — Britain — and I belonged to it. There was also a nation that was “bad”: Argentina. (more…)
Kulturblog fave Zhang Yimou has been tapped to oversee the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2008 Olympics. He has committed to the project full-time, saying that he will not direct any new films until after the Olympics are over. He will finish his current project, “The City of Golden Armor.”
Steven Spielberg has also signed on as a creative consultant.
All I can say is that taking two years out of a directing career to produce an overblown production that would be more suitable for the Vegas strip seems like a baaaaad idea from my perspective. Who cares about national pride? I want my movies!
I’m only listing movies I’ve seen (Bull Durham ranked #1 best sports movie all-time on ESPN.com, but I haven’t seen it (I know) so I can’t put it on this list.) In addition, I’m only putting up movies I consider excellent films. Here are mine: (more…)
Twelve hours from now, 20,000 runners will be lining up to run the 110th Boston Marathon. These runners will have spent countless hours nursing blisters and black toenails and obstinate IT bands through daily and long weekend runs, looking forward to this day with quiet trepidation. (more…)
Loading ...