Contador wins Tour de France

Alberto Contador of Spain captured the 2007 Tour de France, possibly the most scandalized sporting event ever. Contador is the youngest champion at age 24 since Jan Ullrich won in 1997. He is also the first Spaniard to win since the last of Miguel Indurain’s five titles in 1995.

Contador who rode with American Discovery Channel Team won the race by a mere 23 seconds. The second-narrowest margin in the history of the race. At the ceremony, he kissed his yellow jersey and pumped his arms in the air. He had hoped only to pick up the white jersey for best young rider and wound up taking both.

In other Tour de France news Chris Horner, an American cyclist, feels that the scandal and drama that encompassed the race helped add entertainment for the viewers.

“It has been a crazy Tour de France, but it has been an exciting one, too, for us as riders and I’m sure for the fans,” Horner, who finished 15th, said Sunday. “It’s been exciting, the racing and, of course, the drama outside.”

I’d have to agree with him. I’m not a big fan of watching the Tour de France. I watched when Lance Armstrong won his last two titles and I watched the end of the race last year when Floyd Landis won. For me, watching a bunch of men on bikes just doesn’t provide the entertainment that one can get from baseball, football, or basketball.

But throw in a little scandal and you’ve got folks tuned in every day. Scandal of course isn’t good for the sport itself but it sure will help increase the amount of people paying attention.

For more information on the 2007 Tour de France: Yahoo Sports Tour Summary, Yahoo Sports Tour Scandal

Pacman will never learn

Once bitten twice shy?  Not in this case.  Once again, Pacman Jones has caused a scene at a strip club in Atlanta.  Showering the runway with dollar bills and causing another shooting, why can’t he just have the strippers come to his house?  Bring your buddies over and have an entire entourage of strippers and coke heads get naked for you, and if you get into a brawl at least you’ll bust up your own place.

The following article points out why he should be banned from the NFL, in case you haven’t been following the story.  This is one ‘player’ that needs to be removed from the lineup.

Yahoo Sports Article

Kobe vs. The Lakers

Where to begin? It seems to me these days that 95 percent of the time athletes are on the news it’s because of what they’re doing off the court/field/rink/what have you. Now maybe that’s due to the trashy magazine approach that ESPN and others are taking when it comes to athletes but sometimes the athletes do go out of their way to get noticed.

Take Kobe Bryant for example. Recently he’s become very vocal about wanting to be traded from the Lakers. Over the Memorial Day weekend he was interviewed over the radio stating that he wanted to be trading and then later stating that he wanted to bring another championship to Los Angeles. Add to that his open letter on his website and his crazy rant in a parking lot, you’ve got someone who’s going to be all the talk of sports radio and ESPN.

Is Kobe wrong to want to be traded? Absolutely not. Could he find a better, less crazy way to express that desire? Absolutely. I liken his behavior to a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum. I of course don’t know all the details as I really don’t follow the NBA too much, but whoever Kobe’s agent is, he’s certainly not doing the best job. Working in college sports one of the things I’ve learned is you don’t want your athlete’s shooting their mouths off because it does nothing but make your university look bad. In Kobe’s case he’s only making himself look bad because he’s distancing himself from his team.

Will Kobe be in L.A. next season? Only time will tell but as for now Phil Jackson seems to think so.