Weekly Sporties

-Wednesday was not a very good day for Lance Armstrong. First it was announced that he would step down as the head of his LiveStrong charity. Then later that afternoon Nike announced they would no longer sponsor him and apparently they were the only company keeping people in line, because as the day went on dozens of sponsors made similar announcements. A lot of people are questioning why Nike was so willing to drop Armstrong when they stuck by Tiger Woods when he had his off-course issues. To me the two things aren't even comparable. First of all Woods' troubles never affected his previous on-course accomplishments. (If anything you have to be impressed he could concentrate on golf while juggling a baseball team of mistresses.) Conversely, now everything Lance has done has to be looked at with a more skeptical eye. But, let's not fool ourselves, the main reason Woods still wears the swoosh and Armstrong doesn't is that Woods is still playing and Lance had been retired for years. Not only does Tiger endorse Nike golf, he essentially is Nike golf because all the other players in their stable have had much more precipitous on-course falls than Woods. Every time Woods wins a tournament the Nike executives see nothing but dollar signs. Outside of the "LiveStrong" bracelet I'm not sure how much product Lance has been moving for the last couple of years, so the USADA report was able to be the last straw. It was a business decision and that's fine. I just can't stand the fact Nike released a self-serving press-release about how they can no longer ignore the evidence about Armstrong's cheating and that is why they are ending their relationship. This from the same company that stood behind Ben Roethlisberger, Kobe Bryant and re-hired Mike Vick. If Armstrong was still able to ride they would be buying off USADA officials to bury this report and we both know it.

-Speaking of guys who didn't have good Wednesdays, that was also the day the NFL unanimous approved the sale of the Cleveland Browns to Jimmy Haslam. The new Browns haven't exactly been the model franchise, but he's not the guy who was having the bad week. That distinction is reserved for Browns President Mike Holmgren, who announced his 'retirement' the very same day. Clearly, this is just the case of a new owner wanting to bring in his own people (which is totally within his rights) and Holmgren was really fired. That also means the Browns will likely be hiring a new head coach at the end of the year. One of the most interesting names which has come up is that of Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Now, Saban was an unmitigated disaster when he coached the Miami Dolphins a few years ago and quickly retreated back to the safety of the college ranks. On top of that he makes really good money at Alabama, has gotten the program to a position where they will be in the National Title conversation every year so he's a god in that state and will tell everyone who will listen he never wants to leave. When you add it all up you wouldn't expect him to think about leaving. However, I don't think people should ever forget 2 things: 1. Nick Saban lies about his job status all the time and 2. these college coaches are just as competitive as their players. Publicly he may say he is happy at Alabama, but you have to wonder if part of Saban doesn't want to give the NFL another shot, just to prove he can win at every level. Of course, none of this means I think the Browns should hire him - I actually think Saban's dictator mentality would fail again at the NFL level and both sides would regret the decision, but I don't get a vote. I'm just saying I understand why they might go after him and I won't be shocked if he coached in the NFL again.

-After being benched for the last game of the Yankees divisional series against the Orioles, Alex Rodriguez returned to the line-up for the start of ALCS. However, the day off didn't appear to do him him good and after two more poor games he was benched for the rest of the series, except for one meaningless pinch-hit at-bat in Game 4 as the Yankees were swept by the Tigers. It is starting to look more and more likely that will be A-Rod's last appearance in a Yankee uniform. A week ago people were saying there was no way the Yankees would be able to move his contract, but a lot can change in seven days and now it sounds like the team would be willing to pay upwards of $80 of the $114 million he is still due, which will definitely improve the number of teams willing to take him out of New York. The most logical place for him to land is Miami. First off, he lives in the area during the offseason. Secondly, the way Miami fans filled up the stands this year Alex wouldn't have to worry about hearing too many boos, which I think he would appreciate. Finally, the franchise doesn't appear to be on the way up, so he won't have to worry about failing in the postseason, because he will never see it. The only question is whether or not the Marlins want to risk it. They tried to go the big-spender route last year and it landed them with the same lousy record. Plus, they are in the National League, which means they won't be able to hide Rodriguez at DH during the last couple of years of that deal (if he ever makes it that far). The Miami option does sound pretty intriguing but in the end, unless the Yankees pick up almost all of his contract, I think the negatives still outweigh the positives. My money is still on A-Rod playing for the Yankees next season.

-While we're on the of former steroid users, this week it was revealed that Colorado Rockies' slugger Jason Giambi will be interviewing for the Rockies open managerial job. I have to say, this one was kind of a stunner to me. Now, throughout his career Giambi was praised for being a good teammate and he already has a relationship with the players in the Rockies locker room so I guess you could justify talking the job over with him. However, he has no managerial experience at any level and still isn't technically retired, saying he would only formally call it quits if the Rockies hire him, which means he might still have an itch to play. I'm not sure having a manager who wants to put himself in the line-up would work. It is true that having no experience hasn't been much of a problem in recent years for guys like Robin Ventura and Mike Matheny, both of whom did very good jobs this year. But while you heard what a good teammate Giambi was, you never heard anyone say, "Oh, that guy is gonna manage someday." Stories about Giambi were more of the 'you wouldn't believe how crazy he parties' variety. Also, his previous involvement in steroids could make him a tough sell to fans. And even if those fans didn't care about Giambi's appearance in the Mitchell report, it still wouldn't exactly be the kind of hire that would lead you to believe there will be a quick turnaround in Colorado. Part of me can't help but wonder if the Rockies know they are going to level off for a couple of years and are looking for someone to take the proverbial bullet while they do so. But even then you would think since there are only 30 managerial jobs in the world that someone more qualified would be begging for the job. I mean, I know Bobby Valentine isn't doing anything next year.

-As people's attention spans continue to shrink and the experience of watching games at home improves, professional sports leagues are looking for ways to speed up their games, worried fans are going to be unwilling to spend 3+ hours in an arena. With that in mind, this week the NBA announce that starting immediately they will implement a rule limiting pre-game rituals to 90 seconds. As soon as the starting line-ups have been introduced teams will be on the clock and if they aren't ready to go when the buzzer sounds they could get a delay of game warning. Essentially, this mean the days of the LeBron 'chalk toss' may be coming to an end. Now, I don't particularly mind this idea because I don't know if we really need to sit around while the 15th man on the roster works on his personalized handshakes with all the starters because he knows it will be the only time he is on the court all night. However, I do think that if the NBA wants to speed up the games they need to start looking at the other end of the game, because that is much slower to me. Seriously, between time-outs and teams intentionally fouling to stop the clock it takes 20 minutes to play the last 40 second of a basketball game. Rather than cut down on pre-game routines, why not cut down on the number of TV timeouts during the game, make any timeout in the last two minutes automatically of the :20 second variety or cut down on the number of times teams are allowed to intentionally foul before a technical is called? I bet those would shorten the game by a lot more than 90 seconds. I just know that I've never been in the stands wondering how many more handshakes the opposing coach is going to call for, but I'm genuinely excited when they are finally out of timeouts.

-Over the last couple of years the idea of sleep science has really become the in vogue thing to talk about in sports, as if it just dawned on coaches that their players might play better if they are well-rested before a game. The NBA has really gone all-in with it, as several teams will cancel game-day shoot-arounds so their players can take a pre-game nap. As a man who values his sleep I'm not denying the science, just wondering why no one thought it was a good idea before now. Anyway, following a lackluster effort during a win over Minnesota, several Northwestern players complained to coach Pat Fitzgerald about being thrown off because they didn't have enough rest. So, with a big game against Nebraska on tap for this week, coach Fitzgerald is requiring his players to take a nap before the game. Alright, it is kind of silly to think about these massive guys being treated like pre-schoolers, but normally that wouldn't be enough to warrant a mention. However, the Wildcats are playing against Nebraska in the middle of the afternoon (2:30 local time), which means they will be required to be at the stadium around 11 and so to make naps fit into the schedule Fitzgerald is requiring his players to go back to bed at 9:30 in the morning. Now, I understand that these guys probably have a team breakfast first thing and since they are college kids going back to be won't be a problem but I couldn't help but wonder why Fitzgerald wouldn't just let them sleep later in the first place? I know that once I'm up I am up for the day and I certainly can't go back to sleep just because I was ordered to do so. If anything I would be worried about not waking up with the alarm. Let's see how into sleep science everyone is the first time a hotel loses power and everyone sleeps through a game.

-When the economy is this tough for this long, even big companies need to start cutting out frivolous spending. One of the first things these companies tend to cut are any endorsement deals they have because when you are laying off people, simultaneously spending millions to advertise on the front of a sports jersey doesn't seem like the best use of your money. It has been tough finding sponsors for the even the best of teams, so as you can imagine the lower-level teams have started to resort to desperate measures. After losing their sponsors and facing the possibility they would have to cancel their season an amateur Greek soccer team was getting desperate to pay their bills. Well, the good news for them is that they were able to find some new sponsors - a couple of local brothels. Now, the league they play in doesn't have any kind of rules regarding what kind of businesses are allowed to sponsor teams (however, they do have rules about jersey color and are unhappy the team wants to wear pink jerseys because, yeah, that's the issue here). Prostitution is legal in Greece but that hasn't stopped the affiliation from causing a few of the more conservative fans to voice their displeasure. Still, money is money and prostitution is one of the few recession-proof industries, so the players will be taking the field wearing jerseys with "Villa Erotica" on their backs. Because sex sells this story has obviously gotten more attention than this level of soccer would normally get around these parts, so I guess you could say the sponsors are getting their money's worth. Besides, given a few of the companies which are allowed to sponsor stadiums in this country I'm not sure we should be the ones to judge.