Now to the reader/viewer/listener participation portion of the segment.
This is the debut of Lance Rants....hitting all topics in sports HARD...I'll have strong takes, you tell me if you agree or disagree and we'll debate them a few days later.
Plenty that happened from Beijing to Green Bay, so let's get to it:
First up, the Chinese women's gymnastics team and the IOC. Let me get this straight. The birth certificates say 14, the passports say 14 for 3 gymnasts. Hey, I can go down to the local Walgreen's and get passports that make me 27 or 47...and I'm 37.
And let me ask you this. If you were stopped at a traffic light, looked over to the car next to you saw this:
What would you say or do? You'd say man, she's 14...I'm calling the cops.
Case closed. And how about IOC Chairman Jacques Rogge and his henchmen sweeping this under the rug, just like the cop on South Park...nothing to see here, move along...while chaos reigns in the street. Then Rogge blast Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt for poor sportsmanship. What a hypocrite. Bolt just revived the steroid riddled sport of Track and Field, yet use choose to blast him and ignore this. Shame on you, Jacques...sweeping this problem under the rug when it involves the host country.
By the way, did you catch Usain Bolt, lighting up Michael Phelps? When the 100 and 200 meter gold medalist was asked about Phelps, he called him "Michael Phillips," and when asked to compare himself to him, he said "he's a swimmer, I'm an athlete." Man, I didn't have as big of a problem with him showboating while cruising to a world record in the 100 as I dissing Phelps. I'm not a great swimmer, and believe me...it's grueling. Plus check the scoreboard Bolt...Phelps 8 golds, Bolt 3. Ya mon, game over.
And did you catch the act of Angel Matos, going upside the ref's head when he was DQ'ed for taking too much injury time? Boy, that's the Olympic spirit if I've ever seen it.
It's official....Justin Harrell is a bust. Normally I'd give a player more than 1 year, but come on. The Packers first round pick was injury prone in college (which I ask Ted Thompson at the time, so no revisionist history here), and he's injury prone in the pros, and he's soft. And DeShawn Wynn, you needed to be available and accountable. You were neither...so you're gone too.
The knee injuries of James Jones and Josh Sitton appear serious, the knee sprain for Jones worse than first thought. Both might miss the season opener against the Vikes.
Can someone tell me how the leader of a nationally televised PGA tour event can have his approach shot on live TV, have the shot path followed into the weeds...yet no one can find his ball, so he has to take a triple bogey? It happened to Madison's Steve Stricker...he faded after that, and finished 4 shots off the lead.
Why does Chargers blitz machine Shawne Merriman want to play so bad with torn knee ligaments? One, he remembers how RB LaDainian Tomlinson was ripped last year for only playing a couple plays with an injury, while QB Philip Rivers played with torn ligaments and was praised? Two, he realizes this might be the best shot for the Chargers to make the Super Bowl. Shawne, it's admirable you want to play...but get the surgery. With torn ligaments, you need it.
And finally, from the I told you so department, I remember doing the first story with then 17-year-old Joey Logano in his first NASCAR Sprint Cup test at the Milwaukee Mile. I said he'd be a future star in the same breathe as Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr. and Tony Stewart. Since it rained that day, he gave Photojournalist Jim Angeli and me the ride of our lives, going around the track backwards in a rented minivan! Now at the ripe old age of 18, he's named as Stewart's replacement. At 18, I couldn't even replace the coffee at the gas station I worked at...let alone drive 200 mph around Daytona!
Agree, disagree, or have a rant of your own? Email your thoughts at lallan@todays4.com and we'll take them up the next time!
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