Weekly (Non-NFL) Sporties

-I've figured out what I don't like about the Tour De France: that last ceremonial leg bothers the hell out of me. The leader was only ahead by 5 seconds going into the final day. You mean to tell me no one could overtake that if they were really racing? Of course they could, but thanks to "tradition" the riders spend the last day going at half-speed, drinking champagne and not trying to win. Shouldn't the victory lap wait until the race is over?

-I loved the show "The West Wing", especially the first couple of seasons. One of my favorite lines of the entire run came in one of the first couple of episodes when the staff is sitting around, discussing the President's dropping approval ratings, when one of them looks up and says, "How could we go down since last week? We didn't do anything last week." I was thinking about this when word came down on Thursday that US Men's National Soccer coach Bob Bradley was being relieved of his duties. How can you get fired for doing a poor job when you haven't even coached in months? Didn't we play well last game? And, honestly, what are the people in charge expecting? The US isn't a men's soccer powerhouse, did they honestly expect Bradley to win the World Cup or something?

-Another firing that appeared to be strangely-timed was UNC getting rid of football coach Butch Davis. Last season UNC was subjected to a major NCAA investigation into academic cheating (such as having tutors write papers) and players having illegal contact with agents. The program lost several scholarships and 14 players were suspended for either part or the entire season, but Davis kept his job. I'm not saying that Davis was running a tight ship or didn't deserve to be let go, by why not do it last year instead of now, right before the season started and with no time to find a full-time replacement? I'm sure the Athletic Director (who is also now going to be fired) was busy, but you think he could have found time to do this over the winter.

-As NBA star after NBA star threatened to play overseas during the lockout, I could come up with a reason that each one ultimately wouldn't: Kobe (needs the rest), Amare(ditto), Williams (too risky approaching free-agency), Howard (won't get enough attention). But Kevin Durant recently said he was about 50-50 about playing overseas. Now, he's the one guy it makes sense for: he's young, doesn't have the creaky knees that someone who has played 10 NBA seasons would, it'll give him more exposure, making him a bigger world-wide star and he's locked up long-term which means he doesn't have to worry about getting paid once the lockout ends even if he gets hurt. In fact, given that Durant is such a talent and also a really good kid he would probably be the best brand ambassador the NBA could send. He might be the only player that would help both sides by playing abroad.

-The Major League Baseball trading deadline is tomorrow and many names are being throw around. For some reason it feels as though more prospects are being brought up in trade discussions than usual. This means guys who aren't quite ready for the big-leagues are having their games broken down more than ever before because teams want to be sure that if they are trading away a big star they are at least getting a major league-level player in return. The problem is all these guys have issues with their games, otherwise they would already be in the majors. The other night I was listening to a couple of analysts break-down a catching prospect's game and the scout said, "He's a catcher who can't catch." Um, that seems like a fairly large problem to me. It would be like a pitcher who can't get it to home plate. My guess is no one will be trading for that guy this year.

-After he fired Stevie Williams last week, every golf pundit in the world had the same advice for Tiger Woods: make sure your next guy is an experienced caddy. They thought the worst thing for Tiger would be to hire one of his buddies who would just be a 'yes-man' out on the course. Their next piece of advice was that Tiger should just forget about playing any more this year. Forget about the PGA Championship, chalk 2011 up as a lost year, take the rest of this year to work on your swing and then come back next season completely healthy. So, of course, on Thursday Tiger announced he would be returning next week at an event to warm up for the PGA and that his caddy for the event was Bryon Bell, his high school teammate and long-time friend, who has worked for Woods for years but doesn't have much in the way of caddy experience. Seriously, sometimes I feel like Woods just waits to see what people are saying about him so he can go and do the opposite.