Lance, Notre Dame, and Hockey

            So let’s talk sports. With all the sports in the world there are only a handful that matter here in the USA, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, NASCAR, and golf, which I don’t know why. But every where else in the world a couple other sports rein supreme. Soccer, for instance, is huge in every single country in Europe, Africa, South America, and even Asia. We have our fill here though with the Major League Soccer and as you know now, if you are a frequent reader, college soccer. The MLS had its super draft this past week and it didn’t go exactly as I thought. My home team, Columbus crew, however, did pick up the second leading scorer from the NCAA, Ryan Finley from Notre Dame. Hopefully that will help the Crew to another MLS championship this upcoming season.

            Another huge sport in Europe is cycling, and its popularity has been spilling over into the U.S. In the past 15 years it has been growing since the cycling spot light has made its way over to Lance Armstrong. In the past few days his light has grown in intensity since his interview with Oprah where he finally openly admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. And this shocked people? Come on? He won the Tour de France seven times after beating cancer. Seven times! No other rider has ever done that. There are only four riders that won it five times and they very well may have doped also. I still support Lance even though he lied about never doping. If he never would have doped, and never won seven, do you think his Livestrong foundation, which has raised millions of dollars for cancer research, would have been such a big success? Aside from that, an athlete that did something remarkable, who turned out to have doped, is that really surprising? Can you say Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, and Roger Clemens just to name a few of the hundreds who have doped in just baseball. The list is HUGE of players who have been caught using performance enhancing drugs. And the sports that test are out there as well. Like snooker for instance. What the hell is snooker? Wiki, can you help me out? Snooker is a billiard sport played on a table covered with green felt blah, blah, blah. Ok, it’s like pool that is played in Europe. There were two people tested in the UK and were found guilty for using cannabis or pot. Also on the list for using cannabis are some snowboarders. Really? That’s no shocker. That would be like testing a pro-bowler (a guy who bowls professionally, not a football player who makes it to the Super Bowl) for alcohol. Anyway, back the main subject, Lance, I’m disappointed you used but I’m still a supporter and like to see you get back on a bike and kick some French ass, with or without drugs. Just because it’s funny to see the French get mad at you, they hate you.

            Another huge story in sports is Manti Te’o, the linebacker from Notre Dame. Poor kid lost his girlfriend to leukemia or she just deleted her Facebook profile. Either way it was a tragic loss for him and was the victim of a badly played hoax. Whether he knew anything of the hoax I don’t know he hasn’t said. If not, I do feel bad for him, more for developing an emotional relationship with someone he never actually met in person. If he did know, well then he is just an asshole. A piece of advice for all you single folk out there, if you meet someone online whether it’s a dating site, Facebook, or whatever, don’t consider them your significant other until you have actually met them. I’m amazed that people are just now finding that this sort of thing goes on. I mean, if you can’t trust the internet then who can you trust.                   

Well that’s all I got for this weeks rant, as for my challenges… I have none. I’m all out. I’ve done all types of challenges and now I’m out of them. I need some suggestions, so let me know what you got. You can leave a comment, email me (email address in the "abou me" section), call me, write me a letter, or just tell me next time you see me. So until next time, welcome back hockey.

“If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on.”      

-Lance Armstrong