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Author says 'roids could bankrupt HS football

Author Matt Chaney says steroids are poison for high school and small-college football programs - and he's not talking about the drugs' impact on young livers and joints. Chaney, the author of the recently published "Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football," says steroid use has made student-athletes bigger and stronger, which has led to a disturbing jump in injuries - and a dramatic increase in insurance costs. Chaney predicts school districts and small colleges will eventually drop football. The game will become a club sport, with parents and players assuming responsibility for the costs and liability. "People are deluded if they think this can continue," says Chaney, who is in New York this week to promote the book. "There is a day of reckoning ahead." Drug testing, he says, is not the answer. There are 1.5 million students playing football at middle schools and high schools. "We do not have the resources for this," Chaney says. Apparently, some school officials in Texas agree. The state, which spent $6 million last year for random drug testing, is reconsidering the program because of the costs. Florida discontinued a $100,000 pilot program last year after only one in 600 students test came up positive. New Jersey began random testing in 2006 for kids who qualify for team or individual state championships. Chaney says his research indicates that the image of the evil coach who pushes kids to take drugs for sports glory is not accurate. Now it is the evil father, uncle or big brother. "Parents are more willing today than the coaches," Chaney says. Chaney used anabolic steroids as a college football player for Southeast Missouri State in the 1980s and served as a coach at the school. "I was a perpetrator on two levels. On an indirect level, because I never told anybody to use steroids, but when a kid asked me how to get more playing time, I would say 'You need to get bigger and stronger.' We knew what that meant. The kid had plateaued with nutrition and resistance training. We knew what the alternative was." Chaney says his direct role in the steroid trade continues to haunt him. "A kid came to me and said, 'Coach, I need a cycle.' I wasn't much older than the kid at that point, maybe four years older. He had been with the team for a while and he was going nowhere. So I told him to come back if he couldn't get it anywhere else. So I went to the old school dude and I got him testosterone. "I knew then that I was done with coaching." Chaney's book can be ordered through his Web site.
NY Daily News - The Sports ITeam Blog Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:36:13 -0500

Kyle Whittingham wins the Paul ''Bear'' Bryant College Coach of the Year Award

Kyle Whittingham led Utah to its first AP #2 finish in the programs 100+ year history. He led his team to its second undefeated season in 5 years, with a regular season schedule including 3 teams ending in the top 25. He capped of the season with Sugar Bowl win that might have challenged the national perception of the college football landscape more than any game since the 1926 Rose Bowl. He certainly put together an impressive performance and resume in 2008. The only thing missing is the national title. The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association awarded Utah's head coach Kyle Whittingham their coach of the year trophy, named after the legendary coach mostly known for his years with the program that announced to the world football is indeed played in the southeast nearly a century ago. The same program Kyle Whittingham defeated in the Sugar Bowl, possibly making a new statement for a new century. Only time will tell. © fanblogs.comView the original post or comment on Kyle Whittingham wins the Paul "Bear" Bryant College Coach of the Year Award...
Fanblogs Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:47:26 -0500

Conference debated: Bowl Challenge Cup

These are easy to calculate, and have been available since, well as soon as the clock at the National Championship Game went to 0:00. Pac-10 -- 5-0 -- 1.000 SEC -- 6-2 -- 0.750 Big East -- 4-2 -- 0.667 Conference USA -- 4-2 -- 0.667 Mountain West -- 3-2 -- 0.600 Big 12 -- 4-3 -- 0.571 *Independents -- 1-1 -- 0.5000 *Sun Belt -- 1-1 -- 0.500 ACC -- 4-6 -- 0.400 WAC -- 1-4 -- 0.200 Big Ten -- 1-6 -- 0.143 MAC -- 0-5 -- 0.000 * Not included in the official Challenge Cup Standings due to the requirement that a conference play 3 games. Since the BCS's conference comparison does not include the bowls, the challenge cup could be added to them as a final exam of sorts. Counting the Bowl Challenge Cup standings 25% (equal weight to the three criteria the BCS uses, and a common value for final exams) we get the following results: Final grades: Big 12: 0.879 SEC: 0.779 ACC: 0.659 Big East: 0.561 PAC 10: 0.555 MWC: 0.551 Big 10: 0.537 WAC: 0.274 C-USA: 0.168 Sun Belt: 0.125 MAC: 0.086 What does this all mean? I am not really sure. © fanblogs.comView the original post or comment on Conference debated: Bowl Challenge Cup...
Fanblogs Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:43:20 -0500

Bush pardon less and less likely for Rocket

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino not-so-deftly avoided the topic of presidential pardons on Thursday and it is becoming increasingly less likely that President Bush will pardon Roger Clemens before he leaves office next week. Clemens may be a family friend, but Washington insiders say the president is still smarting from his Dec. 23 pardon of Isaac Toussie, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to lying to the feds to obtain mortgages for unqualified homebuyers. Bush later revoked the pardon after the Daily News reported that Toussie’s father had donated $28,500 to the Republican National Committee. Bush, of course, never seemed to value anybody’s opinion but Dick Cheney’s, he’ll never run for public office again, and some believe the public embarrassment of the Toussie debacle doesn’t matter. But the president is reportedly not a big fan of pardons - he’s issued far fewer than his father or President Clinton - and he made a point of addressing steroids and sports in his 2004 State of the Union address. Also, Clemens’ lawyer Rusty Hardin has said for months that he will not request a pardon - that’s not what innocent people do, he says. A grand jury is examining the evidence in the Clemens’ perjury case, but there’s no sign that Hardin has changed his opinion.
NY Daily News - The Sports ITeam Blog Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:19:07 -0500

Sports & politics hit fever pitch in Turkey

Americans like to think of sports as a refuge from real-world problems, but people in other parts of the world have a harder time keeping politics and sports separate. Bnei Hasharon, an Israeli basketball team that was scheduled to play a Jan. 6 Eurocup game in Ankara, fled just before tip-off after 3,000 fist-pumping Turkish fans stormed the court to protest Israel’s military actions in Gaza. Bnei Hasharon was supposed to play a Turkish team called Turk Telekom but the players were trapped in their locker room for more than two hours. Fans threw shoes at the players - as President Bush recently learned, the ultimate sign of disrespect in the Muslim world - and shouted “Israeli killers” and “Allah Akbar” (God is great) during the outburst. “I’ve been through a lot in my career, but never anything like this,” Bnei Hasharon captain Meir Tapiro said. Here’s a report on the incident from a Turkish television outlet. You don’t need to speak Turkish to understand that this turned ugly.
NY Daily News - The Sports ITeam Blog Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:55:43 -0500

Money talks in the London 2012 script

In sport, as in politics, the modern buzz word is the 'narrative'. Chelsea have been struggling with theirs, while Manchester City look like they are ready to change the script. London 2012 has always been keen to get its narrative right. In the week leading up to that magical moment in Singapore in July 2005 Sebastian Coe and his team hid themselves away from the bright lights of the Orient preparing the presentation. It worked so well that after London surprised Paris, one International Olympic Committee member put it to me: "I never thought I would see this - the French behaving like the tight-lipped English while the English, in very Gallic style, showed flair, passion and vision." As Friday marks the halfway point between winning the bid and the start of the Games themselves, this is a good time to take stock of what the organisers have achieved so far and how much work still remains to be done.In winning the bid Britain finally laid to rest the tag of loser that had haunted it for years. Manchester twice and Birmingham failed with Olympic bids; the country was almost reduced to third-world status when London - having got the right to stage to the World Athletic Championships - said it couldn't manage it; and all this while the new Wembley was built horrendously over budget and horribly late. Yet in a way that winning narrative has also burdened 2012 and how the Games is perceived. So in the run up to Singapore every time Paris stressed it already had a stadium and London's bid was a virtual bid, 2012 made much of how many of the facilities were ready. The fact is that the Olympic Park was a computer design. The story so far is the success of the Olympic Development Authority in turning those computer graphics into hard reality on the ground. Here, in contrast to the Wembley mess, London 2012 is ahead of target and nobody who has visited the site at Stratford in east London can be anything but impressed by how much has been achieved. Every visit seems to open a window on what the park will look like in 2012. And recall that this was a site that required extensive decontamination and where a park had to be constructed from a diverse area spread over five boroughs, diverting rivers and burying pylons in the process. But the narrative, meant to be the most beguiling and strongest part of the project, has proved the most problematic. So the bid book had said the cost would be £2.4bn. This cost was arrived at after the government had looked at the figures estimates by Arup, the consulting firm used by the British Olympic Association to argue the case for the bid. The government increased its estimates of £1.8bn to arrive at the bid book figure. The final budget figure of £9.3bn was not arrived at until March 2007, after 18 months and much government wrangling. Now as Ken Livingstone, the then London mayor whose insistence made Stratford the venue, admits when the bid book figures were prepared in 2004, nobody expected London to win. Treasury insiders have told me that the government department did not give it much attention as they did not think London would win. In Ken's colourful phrase it was seen as Ken and Tessa's (Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister) little toy and in any case all bid books try to play down the costs. It was only after the victory in Singapore that the Treasury had a hard look at the figures and insisted on having a big figure for contingency, other costs were added and we arrived at the final figure. However all this hassle about costs could have been avoided had on the return from Singapore had the party-line been: "We did not expect to win but what a victory. But this victory comes at a price. There are also enormous regeneration costs and that means the Olympic budget is not what the bid book says but much more." Yet for months afterwards even as the Olympic Bill was being piloted through parliament briefings given to MPs talked of the Olympic budget being £2.4bn. The government insist the final budget is robust. However the £9.3bn assumed that there would be private sector funding of the Olympic village and other parts of the Olympic park, to the tune of £1bn. With this money not available the contingency, set aside for cost overruns, is being used to make up the lack of this private money. Before the downturn there was much confidence that the entire contingency of £2.7bn would not be used up, now it would be a surprise if it is not. Of course this fits in with the new Olympic narrative. That in a time of bust the Olympics is the only good news story; the one place where Britain is booming and new houses are going up not being repossessed. The irony here is the narrative is now being written by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who as chancellor was most sceptical of the Olympics and required a lot of persuasion from Tessa Jowell to come on board. What is more doubtful is whether the centre-piece of the Singapore narrative can be met - that London deserved to make history as the first city to stage the games for the third time because Britain would show how sports can be used to help the youth of the world. All Olympic Games promise legacy and do not deliver. London's legacy promises took it to a higher level but the jury is very much out as to whether they can be delivered. Add to this the still open question of a security plan promised at the end of the year but still not forthcoming and this means that while the halfway house has success on the ground to celebrate there are still issues that need to be dealt with. And no certainty as to whether they can be dealt with successfully.
BBC - Mihir Bose Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:23:43 +0000

BCS Complaint Department

Although many of you may argue that the BCS and a FBS playoff are inexorably intertwined, they are in fact two separate issues, which get co-mingled more than Bernie Madoff's checkbook. As many complaints against the BCS were bleeding through in our playoffs thread, I thought it might be a good idea to try and re-separate the two concepts, knowing that it might be harder than spreading conjoined twins connected at the butt cheek. The BCS may be our de facto one game playoff, but most people forget the word 'one' in that sentence. The chief complaint is that it fails to organize any quality matchups below the NC game. Many wondered why we couldn't see an Alabama/Texas matchup, as the #3 and #4 teams. That, along with attempting to arrange other intriguing matchups, is a real easy question to answer: as Mr. College Football, Tony Barnhart, said last month, IT'S NOT THEIR JOB! The BCS was designed to do one thing and one thing only--get the #1 and #2 teams to play. Period. Ask anything else of them and they'll look at you like a NY City School Janitor would if you asked him to give up his union-mandated coffee breaks. Most people forget that after the NCG takes priority with their picks, the Big Four Bowls will default back to their historic affiliations, if possible. Sometimes there are gaps, but usually not. And the Big Four only had agreements with the major conferences, not the little ones. If you're a lucky non-automatic qualifier who gets in, it's going to be pot luck, like with Utah to the Sugar this year. Sure, the Fiesta might have been more up their alley, but Glendale got to select before New Orleans. 'Tis the way it goes, as do the spoils. The selection procedure is a little more complicated than what you see on American Idol, so you can research that on your own ... The next biggest gripe with the BCS is why the champs of the Big 6 conferences get an automatic berth into the party. Oh come on. A four year old knows the answer to that. It's the Golden Rule at work right before your very eyes. In order to get the original BCS format hammered out, this was the carrot and stick necessary for the major conferences to grant their approval. Anything less and they would have all been obstructionists, kinda like the PAC and BIG 10s are with a playoff right now... Other little sticklers about the BCS, that can all be researched further: Extreme difficulty of more than one non-BCS conference team to make the cutoff, as seen with Boise State's plight this year The strict limit of 2 teams per BCS conference, barring some major planet realignment, as evidenced by Texas Tech this year Notre Dame automatically qualifying if they're ranked in the top 8 of the poll The criteria of the BCS poll itself, which is enough to have it's own separate thread discussion.(Read: this thread isn't the place to debate who got left out in a given year) Alas, help is on the way. Discussions will be held this spring on ways to further improve the BCS process. I'm sure we can forward to the committee the 200 comments that I expect to follow on this thread. We might also take some of our criticisms and see if the Utah Attorney General might want to amend the civil anti-trust complaint he's contemplating... © fanblogs.comView the original post or comment on BCS Complaint Department...
Fanblogs Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:38:12 -0500

Australian Open all hours

It's that time of year again when Britain wonders if it can produce a male Grand Slam champion for the first time in 73 years. The Australian Open starts in the early hours of Monday morning and Andy Murray is favourite to win according to many bookiesafter a fantastic finish to the end of last season and claiming the first ATP title of the year in Doha. In doing so he beat former World number one and three-time Australian Open Champion, Roger Federer, for the fourth time in their last five matches. Perhaps crucially, Murray`s last defeat to Roger came in his first Grand Slam Final - the US Open 6-2, 7-5, 6-2. Murray is in great form - as he was at this stage last year - but it is hoped he learned a lot from last year's surprise first round defeat to Tsonga, who then made it all the way to the final. He should be prepared for an "in form" outsider this year, but I am confident he should do better than his performance in 2007 too - an epic, marathon defeat in the fourth round to Rafael Nadal. The great news is that BBC One and BBC Two have bought in to the great buzz and the real possibility that Andy Murray could go all the way in 2009, by announcing that all of his matches will be shown live on terrestrial TV. The time and channel for these programmes is dependent on the order of play which is drawn up at the end of each day's play in Australia. This will then be publicised through all BBC outlets - online/radio/television - as soon as the information is available, so we will do our best to make sure you know when he is playing. There will be live simultaneous streaming of the Murray matches on the red button and web or you can listen to the action via Radio Five Live or Radio 5 Live Sports Xtra. Beyond the Murray factor, there will be extensive coverage of the rest of the championship across the BBC. TV coverage will be available every morning from 0830 on the red button as well as online. Radio 5 Live Sports Xtra will also carry live coverage from 0830, and both Radio 5 Live and the web will keep you informed of all the stories. Chris Bailey, John Lloyd and Sam Smith will lead the TV team with Jonathan Overend, Alastair Eykyn and David Law delivering radio commentary live from Australia. The men's final will be shown live on Sunday 1 February from 0830 on BBC Two, and will be live on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. Andy Murray will be the sole British representative in the men's draw after Alex Bogdanovic's defeat in his second round qualifying match but two British women have gained direct entry - Anne Keothavong and Melanie South - so good luck to them. Qualification for the women is still in progress so at the time of writing it is hoped Elena Baltacha, Katie O`Brien and Georgie Stoop might make it to the main draw too. The women's final will be live on the red button, and on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, from 0830 on Saturday 31 January, and highlights will also be shown from 1300-1400 on BBC One. I hope you enjoy the tournament, and our coverage, and of course do tell us what you think about both!
BBC Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:02:16 +0000

Steroid supplier Radomski pens book on scandal

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training camps in about a month, which means the annual flurry of baseball books is about to begin. One book we're eager to read is Kirk Radomski's "Bases Loaded: The Inside Story of the Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the Mitchell Report". Radomski, the former Mets clubhouse attendant who supplied steroids, human growth hormone and other illicit drugs to ballplayers, isn't just a central figure in the Mitchell Report. He's expected to testify in Washington this week before the federal grand jury examining evidence in the Roger Clemens perjury case. As the Daily News reported today, Radomski could also be questioned about Houston Astros' star Miguel Tejada, who the Mitchell Report says purchased drugs from Radomski through his then-Oakland A's teammate Adam Piatt. Here's a description of the book from Penguin.com: "On a quiet street on Long Island early on a December morning in 2005, more than fifty federal agents stood outside a lovely new home waiting for the front door to be opened. When it did, there stood the central figure in one of the biggest scandals in sports history: Kirk Radomski. "Radomski was a regular New York kid who, from the age of fifteen had the amazing fortune of working in the Mets clubhouse. The focus of his job was to give the players whatever they wanted or needed - he got their uniforms ready, packed up their homes at the end of the season, cashed their checks, and helped them beat the drug tests that would have led to suspension. And at the end of the 1986 season he even led the World Champions down Broadway during their victory parade. Eventually, he graduated to helping in other ways: providing them with steroids and human growth hormones. By the time the Feds knocked on his door, he was the main clubhouse supplier of performance-enhancing drugs to almost three hundred baseball players. "Under threat of a long prison sentence - and after being identified by players he'd helped - he cooperated with Senator George Mitchell to produce the Mitchell Report, providing names and dates. Now he's ready to tell the whole story to the world. Radomski made little money from these transactions, and in this stunning book he will recount what baseball knew about the problem, his life since the report came out, and who took what. This is the tale of a young man seeing his heroes turn into clay, and the degradation of a once great sport into the drug-addicted spectacle it has become."
NY Daily News - The Sports ITeam Blog Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:40:05 -0500

A new Scolari emerges

Signs of the new Luiz Felipe Scolari emerged at his news conference ahead of Wednesday's FA Cup replay with Southend. Observe the tenor of his answers and you see a Scolari that takes no prisoners, and is willing to read the riot act to his players. This is the message that Stamford Bridge is very keen to give.Scolari's position, the Chelsea hierarchy insists, is not in jeopardy following the club's abysmal 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday. Nor has Scolari been summoned to appear in front of an emergency board meeting to explain his plight, let alone be given a stay of execution. Indeed there is no emergency board meeting being held. There is a routine monthly one but that is not due until February, shortly before Chelsea announce their financial results. Stamford Bridge dismisses any talk of getting rid of Scolari. Indeed there is much affection for the manager and praise for the change in outlook he has brought to the club. Jose Mourinho may have been very successful but he was difficult to deal with and made Chelsea hard to like for many neutrals. Scolari has been the exact opposite. Chelsea wanted a makeover in this regard and Scolari has achieved that. The club also recognises that it cannot just keep on changing managers. Getting rid of Scolari would mean three managers going in the space of about 18 months. He has not matched Mourinho's success on the field, not as yet anyway. But the talk at the Bridge is the club needs to be in contention for major honours at the end of the season. If that happens that would be acceptable, even if Scolari does not land an honour by the season's end. But it is recognised that Scolari cannot carry on as he has so far. What Scolari needs to do, say insiders, is be tough with the players. Show them who is boss. One well-placed source told me: "He has allowed his players to get on top of him. He needs to show he runs the team not the players, however well paid they may be or however high profile." And Tuesday's news conference was meant to be the first sign of this. Indeed Stamford Bridge insiders even picture the bust-up with Anelka over which position the striker should play in, very differently to the way some in the media have described it. Yes, there was an argument. But instead of Anelka dictating terms, this was the manager laying down the law. It was never remotely a question of the argument imperilling Scolari's position as manager. Scolari is well aware that there is no more money available in this transfer window. There is one player Scolari would have loved in his team, Robinho. Chelsea bid £28m for him in the summer but were famously outbid by Manchester City. The chance to buy him may yet come but not until the summer. For the moment Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is not spending any more money on players. But this does not mean he has lost interest in the club. Chelsea are keen to emphasise that the Russian is not walking away from the club, despite all the talk of the impact the credit crunch has had on Russia and its billionaires. The Chelsea accounts will show that the Russian owner has made a pledge that will keep him at the west London club. And it also seems that Scolari's current status is not in doubt.
BBC - Mihir Bose Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:06:59 +0000

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