Lance Armstrong: The All-American Fraud?

Lance Armstrong at the team presentation of the 2010 Tour de France in Rotterdam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Up to now, Lance Armstrong's career has consisted of seven Tour de France cycling titles, dating singer Sheryl Crow and actress Kate Hudson, and setting up an organization dedicated to his fight against testicular cancer.  Armstrong's spent almost as much time fending off allegations that he took illegal substances to enhance his cycling performance.

That all came to an end Thursday when Armstrong he would no longer fight charges made by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency about his alleged use of those substances, while once again declaring his innocence.  In turn, the USADA took away 14 years of Armstrong's accomplishments, including those Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2005 and the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

This continues sports' new policy of "you didn't really see that", video evidence to the contrary.  As in, because of recruiting violations and sex and drug scandals, Marion Jones and Ben Johnson didn't really win all those Olympic medals.  Joe Paterno is no longer the winningest coach in college football history.  Reggie Bush didn't really win the Heisman Trophy.  And Hank Aaron, not Barry Bonds, is Major League Baseball's all-time home run king.

While Armstrong was being set up as this hero who beat the odds in a sport few Americans cared about, there have always been hints and allegations (as Paul Simon once put it) in the drug-riddled cycling community about his supposed blood doping activities.  And always, Armstrong would come back with his claims that he's been tested and re-tested, and came up clean every time.  Until his former competitors and teammates started ratting him out, most people took Armstrong at his word.

Because of Armstrong's now-tainted accomplishments with a bicycle and the well-known fact that he's a cancer "survivor", he was also able to sell millions of those "Livestrong" wrist bracelets as a way to raise "awareness" for research.  According to the Associated Press, the Lance Armstrong Foundation has raked in half a billion dollars since it started.

With the prospect of future sanctions to come from various governing bodies, Lance Armstrong's legacy is now that of a man who manipulated his way into the record books with a little help from performance enhancing drugs.  Just like all those other athletes who thought the same thing, and tried to get away with it..  To paraphrase the title of a book Armstrong wrote, it never was about the bike.

UPDATE:  It gets worse for Lance Armstrong.  Days after the USADA reported evidence that he had been at the center of a conspiracy to use PED's and come out with negative drug tests, as well as to intimidate anyone who got in his way, seven of Armstrong's sponsors--including Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Radio Shack--have dropped him.

Armstrong has chosen to resign from his position as chairman of the Livestrong Foundation, but will remain on its board.  Maybe Livestrong needs to go away because, whether Armstrong is still involved with the organization or not, he's casting a huge shadow over it.

This may not be the end of the investigation.  We have yet to hear from the international bodies that govern cycling and drug testing about Armstrong's fate.  Most of all, Armstrong has yet to admit to any wrongdoing..

The Twins on KTWN: Keeping It In The Family

Gulf Coast League Twins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To absolutely no one's surprise, KTWN-FM (96.3) will become the new radio home of the Minnesota Twins starting in 2013.  They join the Vikings, Gopher football and the Wild in moving from the AM dial to FM (on KFXN 100.3).  Which leaves the Timberwolves stuck on WCCO-AM.

The Pohlad family, which owns both the Twins and K-TWIN, have long wanted to get their games on static-free FM as well as to keep whatever revenues there are to themselves.  KSTP-AM (also known as 1500 ESPN), which has been running Twins games for six seasons, has long been ripped by critics and fans alike for its static and for its lack of signal strength, despite having 50,000 watts of power.

Yes, FM will do wonders for the sound quality of Twins games.  But K-TWIN's signal isn't as powerful as 100.3 The Fan, which has the maximum-allowed 100,000-watts.  Maybe the Twins need to add more stations to its radio network, just to cover the Twin Cites metro area.

What's surprising about the switch is that K-TWIN is keeping its low-rated (and critically-reviled) adult contemporary music format, instead of changing it to talk or sports.  Since the Pohlads' Northern Lights Broadcasting bought the station, they've gone from hip hop (as B96) to contemporary hits (as 96.3 Now) to today.  They're also looking for a new morning host, having let go of Tony Fly.  And there have also been questions as to whether the Pohlads really want to be in the radio business, surrounded by giant chains such as Clear Channel, Cumulus and CBS who own stations in this market.

There's a reason why most flagship stations of pro sports teams (AM or FM) tend to be either news/talk or sports.  Its typical audience is usually older, male and politically conservative.  Music stations generally have audiences that are more younger and female.  Do you really expect them to sit through a baseball game when they could be listening to Adele?  On the other hand, guys would rather listen to post-mortems of the game they just heard (or watched) instead of another rendition of "Call Me Maybe".

KSTP, which won't have games to carry next season, gets to keep such lovely parting gifts from the Twins as "The Ron Gardenhire Show" on Sunday mornings.  And they'll still have Gophers men's hockey and basketball, along with national coverage of the NBA Finals and the World Series.  But what is 1500 ESPN's future?  People there say the format is going to continue, but how?  Their ratings have taken a hit since The Fan moved to FM.  Why is Joe Soucheray still allowed to do a political talk show in afternoon drive?  Is it time to go back to news/talk, or should the Hubbards sell AM 1500 to some religious or Spanish outfit?

So the Pohlad family has two struggling properties under one roof:  KTWN, a radio station trying to get its act together, and the Minnesota Twins, a baseball team trying to stay out of last place.  Whatever happens next season, at least baseball will sound better.

The 2012 Games: Women Rule

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 11: Sanya Richards-Ross of the United States celebrates as she crosses the finish line to win gold in the Women's 4 x 400m Relay Final on Day 15 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 11, 2012 in London, England. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

As the 2012 Summer Olympics draw to a close in London, more women athletes have competed here than at any other time in history.  They even came from countries that have previously banned women from participating.

Forty years after Title IX was passed into law, creating gender equity in sports, American women have dominated the podium at the Olympics.  They have helped win the medal count for the United States with a total of 104, 46 of them gold.

NBC must love this because it plays right into their demographic wheelhouse for the Olympics (and for network TV in general), which happen to be women.  That's why they can charge top dollar to advertisers for tape-delaying footage in prime time of marquee sports that women just happen to compete in.

Everywhere you looked, there were American women winning medals:  Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross on the track, Misti May-Treanor and Kerri Ross in beach volleyball, Missy Franklin in the pool, Alexander Raisman and Gabby Douglas in gymnastics, the water polo team and the women's basketball team were just some of those who took home the gold.

This isn't to say American women were perfect in London.  Some examples:

• After Lolo Jones finished fourth in the women's 100-meter hurdles, she appeared on that national soft shoulder called the "Today" show and tearfully blamed the media for slamming her for her looks instead of her performance.  Excuse moi?  Posing nude in magazines?  Bragging about being a 30-year old virgin?  Wow, talk about style over substance, woman.
• Morgan Uceny stumbled and fell on the track during the finals of the women's 1500-meters, resulting in a DNF (did not finish).
• McKayla Maroney put on quite a display during the gymnastics competition, revealing to the world that she has but one facial expression.  Or did NBC edit her that way?
• The women's soccer team won the gold medal once again, but only after benefitting from a couple of questionable calls in the semifinal against Canada.  Then after defeating Japan in the finals, the team appeared at the medal ceremony in "Find Your Greatness" T-shirts.  We thought we were watching Team USA, but what we really got was Team Nike.
• The heavily-favored volleyball team ended up with silver, losing to Brazil in the finals.

We should mention that the men won a few medals of their own.

• Usian Bolt strutted and preened his way to world records for Jamaica in the men's 200-meter and the 4x100-meter team relay.  Bolt may be the greatest active sprinter there is, but his attitute is more reminiscent of Terrell Owens than Jesse Owens.
• The U.S. men's basketball team won its 14th gold medal in a (relatively) close 107-100 win over Spain.  With all that NBA talent at the Americans' disposal and a competition that hardly challenged them, commissioner David Stern is lobbying for an age limit in future Olympics.

The next Summer Games are in Rio de Janiero in 2016.  By that time, it should become clear that women have earned their place at the athletic table, if they haven't already.  But we shouldn't forget that women compete in almost every sport imaginable year-round, not just every four years.  It shouldn't take an Olympic gold medal to acknowledge that.

The Games 2012: Week One

London Olympics 2012 (Photo credit: Andrea Vascellari)

It's been a quiet week at the London Olympic Games.  No mass shootings.  No drug doping scandal.  The only reported security breach was when some guy threw a bottle onto the track just before the start of the men's 100-meter finals.

The complaints about NBC's tape-delayed coverage have slowed down, which might mean American viewers have been worn down enough to stop bellyaching and start watching.

What they're seeing is that the United States and China have been racking up most of the medals so far.  True, it's not nearly as important as it was during the Cold War days, but it is indicative of how each nation prepares its athletes.  Among the highlights and lowlights:

• After a slow start, Michael Phelps ended his Olympic swimming career with more medals than anyone else in the span of eight years and three Games.  New stars like Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin and Rebecca Sari won their own medals as the Americans again dominated the pool.
• Gabby Douglas may have won the gold for all-around gymnast, and for helping the United States win the team competition.  But all anyone wants to talk about is the way she wears her hair.  Are we missing something here?
• The U.S. women's soccer team, having come from behind to defeat Canada in the final seconds of extra time, is in the gold medal finals against Japan.  Christine Sinclair's hat trick for the Canadians was wasted because they got hosed by the officials twice with questionable calls, which the U.S. took advantage of as part of their comeback.  Soccer's ruling body FIFA is looking into it.
• Serena Williams and Andy Murray easily defeated their opponents to win gold at the tennis competition, which was held at Wimbledon.  It was strange to see the drab green of Centre Court decked out in colors, and the players weren't wearing various shades of white.  Since the players who competed were the same ones we usually see on the pro tour year-round, it's fair to ask if winning the gold medal at Wimbledon has the same meaning as winning a Grand Slam title there.
• Jamaica still claims the fastest humans in the world.  Usian Bolt repeated his triumph at the 2008 Beijing Games, bolting (if you will) to a new world record in the men's 100-meters in London.  Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won her gold in the women's 100-meters for the second time as well.
• Host country Great Britain currently ranks third in the medal count.  Its best known athlete, Jessica Ennis, won gold in the women's heptathlon.
• Oscar Pistorius of South Africa finished eighth in the men's 400-meter semifinals.  The only reason anyone cares about this result is that he ran the race with two blades substituting for feet, as if he's some cyber athlete from the future.  As it was, Pistorius is a feel-good novelty act who should never have been allowed to race in the first place, much less make a name for himself.
• Five Asian teams have been removed from the Olympic badminton tournament for allegedly tanking their matches.  That's right, folks.  We said badminton.
• Lolo Jones, an American hurdler who has yet to win a medal, is being accused by--of all people--the New York Times of getting by on her looks instead of her talent.  It doesn't help that Jones has been bragging about being a virgin and saving herself for marriage, which is fine as long as she kept it to herself.  Well, she still hasn't won a medal.  Jones placed fourth in the women's 100-meter hurdles behind winner Sally Pearson of Australia, with fellow Americans Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells getting silver and bronze, respectively.
• In this age of economic insecurity, it's best to be careful what you wish for when it comes to winning an Olympic medal--particularly if you are an American athlete.  According to reports, a gold medal can be worth at least $25,000, and the IRS wants its share of the profits.  It has also been noted that Gabby Douglass' mother filed for bankruptcy a few months ago.  Oh, the sacrifices we make so that your kid could have his/her moment of Olympic glory.

And that's how it is in Londontown as the second week of the Olympics commences.  We'll let you know what happens as soon as NBC does.

The Games 2012: NBC-U-Later

Olympics on NBC (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The biggest story of the London Olympic Games thus far hasn't been the United States women's gymnastics team winning a gold medal, Michael Phelps setting a record for most individual medals, Hope Solo's tweets criticizing Brandi Chastain's criticism, soldiers and schoolchildren filling empty seats at the venues, or even the emergence of Queen Elizabeth, Action Hero at the opening ceremonies.

No, it's the unofficial Olympic sport of NBC-bashing that's taking center stage.  In spite of all the technological advances and the addition of cable networks through mergers and acquisitions, it's still all about money and the highest ratings possible for the Peacock Network when it comes to Olympics coverage.

The howling from social media began Friday when NBC decided to tape-delay the opening ceremonies, which the rest of the world had already watched live.  Apparently, advertisers don't pay top dollar for a glorified prime time highlights show (especially if the Olympics are held outside North America) unless there's exclusive content that hasn't previously been shown.

When NBC did roll the tape, it was like an extended version of the "Today" show in prime time.  Following a brief discussion between Bob Costas and Tom Brokaw about security preparedness to open the broadcast (an important topic, to be sure.  But it could have been handled better.), the parade of athletes and nations  was punctuated by snarky comments from Costas, Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera, plus commercials every couple of minutes--which made the ceremonies seem longer than they really were.

But what really set people off was when NBC chose to substitute a musical tribute to the victims of the terrorist bombings in London on July 7, 2005.  Instead, we got Ryan Seacrest interviewing Phelps (which begs the question:  What's Seacrest doing here?).  NBC's explanation was that they were trying to "Americanize" the coverage, so they didn't think anyone would be interested in the tribute.  Care to explain that one to the victims' families?

It gets worse.  You can watch soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball and water polo live on the channels NBC is employing for the Games.  You can't watch track, swimming, gymnastics and the closing ceremonies live, not even on your computer or mobile device.  That's what the prime time show is for, even though the results have been known for hours.

Ratingswise, NBC couldn't be happier with the results.  Its coverage of the opening ceremonies was the top-rated show of the summer, and the subsequent prime time shows racked up good numbers.

Viewers complaining that any other network could have done a better job on the Olympics is like complaining about negative political advertising.  It has been 14 years since anyone other than NBC has covered the Games, and it'll be eight more (at least) before anyone else will.  NBC has the American TV rights through 2020.

It's not as if any other network would have deviated from NBC's tape-delayed, hearts-and-flowers approach.  Les Moonves, the head of CBS, has said as much.  Since American TV coverage of the Olympics began in 1960, viewers usually saw an hour or two of highlights in prime time, and more extensively on weekend afternoons.   The Games didn't start commanding massive amounts of network time until the 1980s.

So keep those e-mails and tweets coming, folks.  NBC doesn't seem to care what people think of how they're covering the Olympics, so long as the ratings and the money roll in.  Is this a great country, or what?

The Games 2012: This . . . Is London

Cropped transparent version of Image:Olympic flag.svg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The British are used to celebrations by now.  First there was the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, followed by the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.  You might have heard about those.

Now London is hosting the Summer Olympics for the first time since 1948, with all the pomposity and circumstance and track and field they can handle.

Security has been Topic A in the run-up to the Games.  It's been that way since June 2005, when three subway trains and a bus exploded during rush hour, killing 56 people.  That was one day after London was awarded the 2012 Summer Games.

So the British go overboard in protecting the people from terrorists, using missiles on rooftops and a huge military presence compensating for the security company they hired that came up short.  You'd think this was London during World War II, and the enemy was Nazi Germany and not al-Qaeda..

Where's Edward R. Murrow when you really need him?  Unfortunately for American TV viewers, we're stuck with Bob Costas.  NBC is showing at least 5000 hours of Olympics coverage across several of the networks parent company Comcast owns.  As usual, they'll save the best events for its prime time coverage, hours after everybody's heard the results.  After the hearts-and-flowers profiles, commercials for official Olympic sponsors and plugs for NBC's stellar fall line-up, maybe then you'll see some actual competition.

As for the athletes, well, whoever makes the biggest splash in the next couple of weeks will get their share of glory.  Then there is the unwanted glory.  Take Usian Bolt, reputed to be the fastest human in the world.  So why is actor Mickey Rourke claiming he beat Bolt in a middle-of-the-night race?  And then there's the Greek female track star who was booted from the Games because of a racist tweet she made.

The biggest controversy the United States team has had, besides Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney slamming London's preparation for the Games, has to do with the wardrobe for the Opening Ceremonies.  It seems that those Ralph Lauren-branded clothes were actually made in China, and members of both political parties--in a rare show of bipartisanship-- hollered that it was just plain unpatriotic.  Since so many of our products are now made in China, it's not as big a deal as it used to be.

Here's what we think will happen during the Olympics:

• Somebody other than the U.S. will win the gold medal in men's basketball.  After a compressed NBA schedule caused by last year's lockout, the current squad has too many injuries to key players, and too much competitive balance among the rest of the field to make them a favorite.
• The U.S. women's soccer and basketball teams will cruise to gold medals.  Unless they don't.
• Michael Phelps will put down his Subway sandwiches long enough to win a few medals in swimming.  Just not as many as there were in 2008.
• At least one athlete will lose his/her medal because that person didn't do a good job of hiding the illegal substance they used to win that event.

One more thing:  The 40th anniversary of the night in Munich when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were massacred by Arab terrorists is coming up.  Like they did in 1972, the International Olympic Committee has decided to bury its head in the sand by not acknowledging the tragedy at these Games.  They'd better hope nothing goes wrong here, or it really will be like London during wartime.  Didn't Winston Churchill say something once about blood, sweat and tears?

Penn State Gets Life Sentence

The Lion Shrine at Penn State. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We didn't think the National Collegiate Athletic Association had it in them, but they did.  As judge, jury and executioner of college sports in America, the NCAA handed down what amounted to a life sentence for the Penn State University football program in the wake of the child sex scandal there.

The NCAA showed a little mercy in not shutting down football for a year or two, as some observers wanted them to do.  Instead, they said they based their sanctions on the information contained in the recently-released Freeh Report.  In it, the report said that then-football coach Joe Paterno and other Penn State officials had conspired for over a decade to hide allegations of child sexual abuse against then-assistant coach Jerry Sandusky for fear of negative publicity.  Because they are Penn State.

Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse last month, and is awaiting sentencing.  Paterno died last January.

Here are the highlights of the Penn State sanctions:

• A $60 million fine, which would go into (as the NCAA puts it) "external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university".  We'll believe it when we see it.
• No bowl games for four years.  No conference championship games either, as the Big Ten conference has tacked on its own penalties.
• Athletic department gets five-year probation.  Apparently, the other sports at PSU need to share the pain too.
• Scholarship reductions over four years.  Not to state the obvious, but that will definitely affect recruiting.
• Player transfers.  Those with the remotest NFL aspirations would be wise to take their talents somewhere else ASAP.
• Victories from 1998-2011 erased.  That's 112 wins, including conference championships and bowl appearances.  It also means that Paterno is no longer the winningest coach in major college football, with his record being cut from 409 wins to 298.  Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden now leads with 377.  (It should be noted that Eddie Robinson of Grambling State, now deceased, holds the overall NCAA Division I record with 408.)

With Paterno's reputation all but destroyed, PSU officials decided to remove his statue to parts unknown.  Maybe they'll just become parts.  But there's still the issue of what to do with a library named for the former coach.

So to sum up:  More than a decade of Penn State football and the work that the coaches and what the NCAA likes to call "student-athletes" have put in have gone up in smoke, because a legendary head coach and his university higher-ups chose to enable an assistant coach who couldn't keep it in his pants around young boys.

The NCAA has made sure that Penn State will not have a competitive football program for at least a decade.  (Even in its diminished state, they would still be more competitive than the University of Minnesota.)  This is an extraordinary situation, to be sure.  But one has to wonder what the NCAA would do about other holier-than-thou athletic programs accused of wrongdoing.  Let's see how serious they really are about putting sports in the proper perspective.