Archive | 11:41 am

No One is Taking Phelps’ Medals

17 Aug

The somewhat disturbing sexy photos of Michael Phelps posing for his Louis Vuitton ad campaign might get him in trouble with the International Olympic Committee. Apparently they have some rule which prohibits athletes from participating in advertising(unless it’s an Olympic sponsor) from July 18 to August 15. The Annie Leibovitz photos were leaked to the Daily Mail on August 13th. If you violate the rule the IOC can charge you financial penalties and disqualify you from participating in the games. The disqualification can come after you have already won and would take away your winnings.

If I were an Olympic athlete I would be pissed about this rule. Especially if you are in a sport like gymnastics which only gets attention every four years. It is crucial for these athletes to line-up deals and promote themselves while they are still relevant. The IOC forbidding them for making gains after the Olympics is completely absurd. And to even go as far as removing someone’s medal for participating in an AD campaign is ludicrous.

Regardless I am sure that not even the IOC wants to touch golden boy Phelps. He is practically the Olympic mascot. Not only that but he had nothing to do with the leaking of the photos.

-M

So Everyone is On Drugs

17 Aug

I’m always amazing that out of all the sports, baseball is the one in the spotlight for steroid use. I understand it takes a lot of power to hit the ball and you need to be able to run fast but I also remember pictures of a chubby Babe Ruth . . . so you can see my confusion. But yet again another player has been suspended. San Francisco Giants’ outfielder, Melky Cabrera, received a 50 game suspension for having high levels of testosterone. Cabrera is an MVP who leads the league in hits with 159 and is second in batting average at .346. The record for highest batting average held by Ty Cobb is .366. (The batting average is number of hits divided by times the player is at the plate batting). So you can imagine losing him will really hurt the Giants.

In reaction to the suspension Giants general manager Brian Sabean was only slightly surprised shocked. Sabean said, “I was actually in the meeting with Bruce when he talked to the players and I kind of got emotional because I didn’t see something like this coming.” Who did see this coming? None other than steroid developer and pusher Victor Conte. You may remember Conte from his involvement in the Barry Bonds case. Conte served time in prison for his distribution of steroids and money laundering through his company, Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative(BALCO).

When asked about the current drug use in the MLB Conte said, “I would say maybe as much as half of baseball. I’m not going to name names but I’ve talked to a lot of top players in Major League Baseball, and they tell me this is what they’re doing. There is rampant use of synthetic testosterone in Major League Baseball.”

Not only that but Conte went on to claim that it is pretty easy to get away with it despite the more strict drug test that have been implemented by the MLB. Players can get rid of steroids in their system in as little as 8 hours.

So what does the MLB have to say about all of these allegations. MLB vice president Rob Manfred said, “There is no way that Victor Conte would have information that would allow him to have any basis on that.” Good job MLB baseball denial is the best way to deal with this issue. Let’s all just keep pretending that this is not happening and it will just continue go away.

As I have said before I think we should all just get real. There is no way to stop players from using steroids . . .  obviously. So instead let’s just make everyone use them. It is the only way to level the playing field. Legalize steroids and pass them out to players. I mean we have no moral problem pumping farms animals full of them so why can’t we just legalize them in purer form? We are all already eating them anyways.

-M

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demps Running for a Reason

17 Aug

Track runner Jeff Demps will finally have a reason to run.  . . being chased by football players. The Olympic athlete helped Team USA take home silver in the 400-meter relay. Now rumor has it he will sign with the New England Patriots. There was a lot of interest in Demps who was previously undrafted while training for the Olympics. But instead of entering Tebowmania, Demps has opted to settle with the Patriots.

Demps is no stranger to football he a running back(the dude who takes the ball from the quarterback and runs with it) for the University of Florida for 12 games where he rushed for 569 yards and had 6 touchdowns. This is a really great addition to the Patriots’ line-up. Tim Tebow tried to get Demps, his former teammate, to consider the New York Jets but I guess he decided he would rather play for a better team. Now Demps will face Tebow on the field.

I always wondered why more Olympic athletes don’t put their skills to use in sports that actually make money. Usain Bolt is also rumored to be trying out for Manchester United but I don’t really see that going anywhere.

-M