Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
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Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
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The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
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CASTELSARRASIN, France - One French newspaper ran a mock obituary for the scandal-tainted Tour de France. Another said the race had become a joke and should be canceled.
France reeled Thursday from the news that race leader Michael Rasmussen had been ousted by his team for lying about his whereabouts during pre-race training, the third blow this week to the venerable 104-year-old Tour. In recent days, two riders - including star Alexandre Vinokourov - were thrown out because of positive drug tests.
France Soir newspaper ran a mock death notice for the Tour de France on its cover. It said the Tour died Thursday "at age 104, after a long illness.''
Liberation newspaper's editorial read: "The Tour must be stopped.''
"This procession of cyclists has been transformed into a caravan of ridicule,'' Liberation wrote. "If the organizers really want to save cycling, they should stop the competition and declare a pause of a few years, enough time to treat these athletes-turned-druggies.''
L'Equipe sports daily, by contrast, was more positive, saying the blow was an opportunity for organizers to clean up the Tour de France - "but the Tour must seize it quickly.''
And fans were still turning out at the start and along the roads for Thursday's 17th stage from Pau to Castelsarrasin.
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"But yeah, we have our doubts about the person who is first, and whether he is really the best or not,'' he added.
Harold Hawson, a 57-year-old fire service manager from Melbourne, Australia, said he had hoped the race would have been clean from the start - and mocked riders who try to get away with cheating.
"The text message from my wife this morning was, 'How's the Tour de Drugs'?'' Hawson said with a laugh. He has been following the event with his daughter since it began in London on July 7. "It's sad. But the main thing, I think, is how stupid are they? They know they'll get tested.''
Rasmussen was sent home Wednesday by his team, Rabobank, which also suspended him. The expulsion, ordered by the Dutch team's sponsor, was linked to "incorrect'' information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director about his whereabouts last month.
The Danish cyclist missed random drug tests on May 8 and June 28, saying he was in Mexico. But a former rider, Davide Cassani, told Denmark's Danmarks Radio on Wednesday that he had seen Rasmussen in Italy in mid-June.
On Tuesday, Vinokourov and his team withdrew when the Kazakh cyclist tested positive for a banned blood transfusion. On Wednesday, the Cofidis squad confirmed its Italian rider Cristian Moreni failed a doping test, prompting the withdrawal of the entire squad.
With France reeling from the multiple scandals, even the French prime minister weighed in.
"Obviously this gives a disastrous image of the Tour de France, but at the same time, if we encourage the organizers, we can clean up French sports and in particular cycling,'' Francois Fillon told RTL radio.
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Jean-Francois Lamour, vice president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, suggested on Wednesday that the sport should be withdrawn from the Olympics. German public broadcasters have stopped airing the race, and one of Switzerland's biggest newspapers stopped writing about it. The daily Tages Anzeiger said on its Web site on Wednesday it will limit its coverage to results and doping stories.
2010 Tour de France |
July 3-25 |
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
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