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You’ll be pleased to learn that cycling isn’t the only sport plagued by lying, cheating sacks of runny owlshit. From The New York Times comes word that McLaren Mercedes, the leading team in the Formula One championship, has been fined $100 million and excluded from the constructors’ title as part of an ongoing spying scandal:
The International Automobile Federation, the sport’s governing body, found the McLaren team guilty of cheating by using data obtained from Ferrari, its main rival, to improve its own car, the federation said in a statement issued following a hearing in Paris.
The team may continue to race, however, and its two drivers — Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, the top two in the points standings — will be allowed to keep their points and will be eligible for the driver’s title.
It was the harshest punishment given to a team in the 57-year history of the sport.
And over at the NFL, the league has fined New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and ruled that the team will forfeit its first-round draft pick in 2008 if it makes the playoffs for violating league rules after a Patriots staff member was discovered videotaping signals by Jets coaches during Sunday’s season opener at the Meadowlands:
“This episode represents a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid longstanding rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition on the playing field,” Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to the Patriots.
Well, at least they weren’t on dope.
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It’s funny… especially for a ‘cycling’ site, not one thing has been said about the Vuelta. (We’re in stage 13 today i believe…)
Maybe it’s roadie-doper burnout? I personally am too engrossed in trying to find out where the hell my On-One Carbon 29’er fork is (damn Royal Mail…) and getting in one last nice summer-ish day-long trek in before it starts typically pouring rain like it always does in fall, than in following a tour full of dopers-to-be-yet-caught, etc…
And Fuck F1 bullshit.
Speaking of the NFL have you seen the new Nike commercial featuring Shawn Merriman? The same Shawn Merriman who missed four games last year because of a doping offense? Where is the uproar about a player who failed a drug test? The experts come out of the woodwork when a cyclist they’d never heard of is suspected of doping yet are noticeably silent when a ball and stick guy who was suspended continues to shill for some MNC.
No NFL guys on dope? Yeah, I guess you get to be 6’6″ and 320 pounds with a 4.6 40 through genetics…
Football cracks me up. I love it, but it cracks me up. Take everything (except pictures; pictures are bad), Leave Nothing.
…bikepunk…yer point on the ‘vuelta’ is well taken & timely…
…last night i realized i wasn’t even aware if it was the first, second or the last week…hadda see what stage they were on…the usual info-rags, vn & cn don’t stir up my interest but good ol’ PEZ cycling news outa canada usually offers a little different slant…more like a cool travelogue in the middle of a bike race…
…ya, doping & cycle politics burnout it is…i still think it’s a beautiful sport but even my interest has wained…maybe the one-day throwdown of road worlds will charge me up for mr. page’s up coming euro cross escapades…
Let’s also remind outselves of Rick Ankiel of the St. Lousi Cardinels who just answered MLB’s questions about getting some prescribes HGH in 2004. The sporting world keeps getting more and more fucked up.
Show me a pro sport where there’s no cheating…and I’ll show you a pro sport nobody cares about (monetarily). I also love people who are big college sport fans because they believe sanctity remains at that level. As a former Div. 1 athlete, I say HA! Do you have any idea how much $$ there is in college athletics? Holy crap! Can you say “booster?”
The question is…when will the other shoe drop? It has in cycling and nearly ruined the sport (on the professional level…I still love it and always will). Anybody think it will ever happen in baseball, football, basketball, hockey…?
They are still racing on the road?
Cross season has started…
nothing else matters…
nothing…
Patriots get punished for spying (against the rules) Bush and Cheney are still getting away with it. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/09/14/362426.aspx
Cheating must be OK our leaders do it on a regualr basis.
Football is such bullshit, but I watch it anyway. I’m a bit bored with cycling anyway; the racing end of it I mean. Riding bikes is cool.
…that’s gospel, from a man who just pilgrimaged to the holy ‘springs’…
i enjoyed this post a lot, but however, on counter point, “lying, cheating sacks of runny owlshit.” OWL shit is not runny at all, it is infact a compressed pellet of fur and bone.
And another thing… WTF happened to the site?
Perhaps the Dark Lord missed a rental payment whilst on said “pilgramage? No more pretty pictures….?
Oh good. The site is messed up for everyone.
I was starting to think that last drinking binge had whacked up my head permanent.