TightyRighty.net

A lot of folks are asking me if I have given up hope on Rich Rodriguez, the spread offense and Michigan in general.

Oh Contraire, mon ami!

To be honest, the loss to Utah was only somewhat dissapointing. Utah is a good team and has a good program (undefeated a couple of years ago – when did we last do that?). We have a new coach and a new system. Most importantly, we do not have the same key skill guys we have had for the last 3-4 years to anchor the offense. We will miss Henne, Hart, Manningham and Jake Long a lot this year and this game was our first view of that happening. Even if Lloyd was still here, our traditional offense would have struggled due to graduation (did those guys graduate?) losses.

These factors combine to lower my expectations for M football a few notches for this year. I would hope we are more competitive (as we were on Saturday) the further we get into the season. We need the defense to keep us in games until the “O” comes around. That the “D” didn’t get it done in the first half against the Utes was probably the biggest dissapointment of the game. Hopefully, we will show good improvement this week against Miami and be ready to spank the Domers the following week!

That was my thoughts after watching our next Vice President deliver her coming out speech tonight. I thought she did a fine job introducing her family, extolling the virtues of John McCain, discussing her accomplishments as mayor and governor, and tweaking her opponents on many fronts, all with a smile.

This is clearly a woman of substance. Is she the most qualified person in the Republican party for the position? Most likely not. However, I do not believe we have the most qualified person in the country running on either ticket, particularly the top slot on the Democratic ticket.

I think Sarah Palin nailed it on the head when she commented that Barack Obama had time to pen two memoirs, but no meaningful legislation or reform. What has this guy done? For all of his elequence, he is an empty suit. I just don’t get what people see in him. If I’m hiring someone for the most powerful job in the world, I want to know they are up to the task bacause they have a history of achievement – not a grand vision and fancy words with nothing to back it up.

I am sure that after this triumphant entry into the spotlight, the lefties and their useful idots in the MSM will double their efforts to crush her. May God be with her and her family throughout this campaign.

Floyd Landis has lost his arbitration hearing and been found guilty of doping. I would, in particular, direct you to the very interesting analysis done at Trust but Verify. Check out the “Our Appeal Brief” and Hue’s Review. Excellent reading!!

A read of the arbitrators opinion and dissenting opinion is very instructive. Significant mental and chemical gymnastics were exercised to find for the prosecution. In particular, the comment that “in the future an error like this could result in the dismissal of an AAF finding by the Lab” is unbelieveable. If this is so, why not in the Floyd Landis case NOW??

Therein lies the rub.

This case is no longer about Floyd Landis, but rather the future of anti-doping (in cycling in particular) in sport. If you can’t trust the labs, who can you trust? If there is no standard (and LNDD apparently can’t meet the standard because they don’t have the manual), how do you know if a positive is a positive? Ask Iban Mayo. (On a side note, who compensates him for the 62 days he was on unpaid absence after the LNDD screwed up his A sample??)

I am glad that Floyd is appealing. I think I will make another contribution to the Floyd Fairness Fund. Floyd’s effort is what is required to clean up the anti-dopers tactics.

Please don’t misread my point here. I am very firmly against doping in sports. If I caught my kids doping, they would be out of sports for a very long time. However, the “catch the dopers at all costs, and if we have a few false positives, that is the price of cleaning up the sport” mentality is just wrong – particularly if you are one of the false positives. The anti-doping agencies must be held to the same standard as the athletes themselves. Only then can the sport truly be cleaned up.

Bonnie D at ESPN is reporting the the Floyd Landis affair arbitration panel will meet this month with their WADA approved technical expert, and will then close the hearing. The rules provide for 10 days to issue their ruling after the hearing is closed.

Is this really going to happen? Who knows?

This whole affair has been a colossul mess and I think it could shake the foundations of athletic drug testing. If the arbs make the correct decision and rule the evidence was either tainted or did not prove Floyd’s guilt, where does that leave the drug testing process going forward? If we can’t trust the drug testing labs to do their work correctly, how do we know who is really juicing and who is not?

What a mess!

CyclingNews.com (a daily must read site) is reporting that the USADA will report its verdict on the Floyd Landis matter tomorrow, the eve of the start of the 2007 Tour de France. After following the hearing very closely on Trust but Verify (another daily must read site), and having read Floyd’s book, I am inclined to believe he is not guilty. I am certain that the evidence presented against him was so flawed and rife with errors, both procedural and mechanical, that no jury would have found him guilty under the US standard of law.

Unfortunatly, the USADA and its international parent, WADA, operate under a different set of rules where successful prosecutions are all that matter. False positives are not an issue, if you bring down a big enough fish.

As a result, I think that Floyd will probably be found to have doped. I hope he is not. If he is not, I fear that the WADA, in its endless search for scalps, will appeal to the CAS, and prolong this debacle further, and totally drain whatever cash Floyd may have left.

What a mess!!

Tonight, the BCS announced that the National Championship game woud pit #1 ranked Ohio State against #2 ranked Florida. What a colossol disappointment!!

I thought the BCS was supposed to be the two best teams playing for the championship.  The fact the Florida has jumped Michigan in the polls demonstrates to me that the voters were more concerned about engineering the outcome of the BCS championship game than properly ranking the teams.  I challenge anyone who saw the Gators barely beat a crappy Florida State team last week, then saw last nights game against Arkansas, to justify how this is the 2nd best team in the country – it ain’t happening!!  If Arkansas doesn’t make a bone headed fumble on a punt which should never have been fielded, the Hogs probably win by 11 or more going away.

It’s clear that Harris and the Coaches have prostituted themselves in order to determine the BCS game they want, and not the game pitting the two BEST teams.  And don’t give me that “most deserving” line either.  If the criteria is most deserving, then Boise State should be playing in Glendale a week later than they are currently schduled.

By either criteria – the two best teams, or the two most deserving teams, Florida is not invited to the game.

One thing I found particularly galling (other than Urban Meyer’s continual whining for the vote the last couple of weeks) was the way that CBS announcers Gary Danielson and Verne Lundquist were actively pleading Florida’s case last night during the game.  I understand that CBS carries the SEC and so it is expected there will be some bias.  But the unbridled campaigning that these announcers did last night was over the top.  Comparing schedules is one thing, and Fla probably did play a tougher schedule.  But to declare “style points” irrelevant, as if beating Vandy by 20 (Michigan) is the same as beating Vandy by 6 (Florida) is disingenuous.

Now it is up to Michigan to take care of business and beat SC.  If we do that, then we will end the season # 2.  If we don’t, then this argument is all for naught and we will have validated this snub.

That’s how Floyd Landis signed an open letter to Phonak on his blog at his website.  A very classy letter which can be found here.  I hope he is being truthful and is eventually exonerated and declared the true champion.

In the interim, we have name calling, conviction in the press, uncertainty, etc.  Overall it is a very bad situation.  Does it have to be like this?  Why do the UCI, WADA an the Tour itself feel the need to be so outfront in convicting Floyd before he has been tried by USADA?  For Dick Pound to state that Floyd should come clean and give up the “enablers” certainly presumes guilt doesn’t it?  I think I can see why Lance has issues with Dick Pound.

What I find so unfortunate is the desire of the UCI and WADA to prove they are cleaning up cycling by so much bluster and bravado, that they are bringing unneccessary negativity to the sport. I would guess there is no other sport which tests as much and has such harsh penalties as cycling.  However, with all the hoopla whenever there is the slightest whiff of doping, it makes the sport appear to be comprised of all dopers.  I don’t know how Operacion Puerto is going to end, but are you aware that all the Comunidad Valenciana and Worth Astana (now Astana) riders originally implicated have now been cleared by the Spanish authorities? 

These two teams were barred from the Tour because of Operacion Puerto.  Comunidad Valenciana and Worth have since backed out of sponsorship, and the Phonak team is disbanding after this year.  Can this be good for cycling?  I think not!

I do think what is needed is a little more rational action and due process, rather than running around like Chicken Little screaming “The sky is falling.”  There may be a meteor or a piece of Skylab falling, but certainly not the whole sky.  It is time the leaders of these organizations take some responsiblity and lead with credibility and not bluster.

Those are my thoughts – where do you stand on this issue?

In the movie Black Hawk Down, there was a scene where a captured American GI was talking to his captor, Abdullah Hassan, who made the statement “Without victory, there will be no peace.”  I am fully on board with this and think this is why the US lost in Vietnam and is struggling in Iraq.

Fortunately, Israel understands this concept also and is procecuting its battle with Hezbollah with extreme prejudice.  After today’s attacks in Haifa, I hope they bomb Lebanon back to the stone age.

A lot of namby pambies are whining about Israel’s response being non-proportional.  How much proportion do you need to take out terrorist command and control centers, resupply routes and terrorist personnel after the indiscriminate targeting of civilians by Hezbollah?  Let’s be serious here.  If Hezbollah lobs a few rockets into Israeli civilian areas, it is well within proportion to take out every military target Israel can identify – even targets next to places where Lebanese civilians may be sleeping, as in Qana.

I say “may” be sleeping, because the information that I have seen supports the theory that this was a staged event for the press, which fell for it hook, line and camera.

By the way, Hassan completed his statement by saying “there will always be killing.”  That being said, the only way to stop the killing is to eliminate all the killers.  I hope Israel follows through in this vein.

Those are my thoughts – where do you stand on this issue?

With yesterday’s confirmation of the adverse finding in Floyd Landis’ B sample, Floyd was fired by Phonak and the matter truned over to USA Cycling for disciplinary actions.

Floyd continues to protest his innocence and will appeal, which will leave the winner of the 2006 Tour in limbo for likely 4-6 months.

So what are you and I, Joe cycling fan, to think?  I would like to believe Floyd is innocent and that he is the true champion of the Tour.  In an article about Lance in today’s DMN, it was said that Floyd was livid in the 2004 Tour because some riders were doping.  This would be consistent with Floyd’s claim of innocence.  However, at the time he was not a team captain, and was not under the pressure that GC men in the Tour are under.

That same article mentioned steps Lance and Greg LeMond took to protect themselves from being sabotaged with tainted food or waterbottles.  Perhaps someone snuck in a tainted roll or waterbottle in order to cause Floyd to fail the drug test.  Given that exogenous testosterone was reportedly found, this could be possible.

On the flip side, “me thinks thou dost protest too much”.  I think that Floyd has been fairly straight forward with his comments, but his legal team and spokespeople have thrown out every excuse, challenged the accuracy of every test, etc.  Sounds a little like Jan Ullrich, although, again, it is Floyd’s representatives and not Floyd making the comments.

So where do we go from here.  I think the Floyd has a long uphill battle to “prove a negative”.  If he is clean, I hope he is successful.  If he is guilty, I hope he comes clean.  Only time will tell.

Those are my thoughts – where do you stand on this issue?

The latest news from France is that recently crowned TdF champ Floyd Landis’ blood tests after last Thursday’s Stage 17 reflected an adverse finding related to testosterone.  His B sample will be tested within the next week or so to confirm this finding.  Floyd has denied taking testosterone and asked his B sample be tested.

From what I can gather, there is a high degree of variability in naturally occuring testosterone levels, and a number of riders who failed their drug test because of elevated testerone levels have proven it is a naturally occuring phenomena, and had these failed test results thrown out.  Floyd has apparently retained the services of a Spanish doctor (NOT Dr. Fuentes of Operacion Puerto fame) to assist with his case. 

I hope he is cleared in this matter.  It would be highly disturbing (and very dumb) for a contender in the Tour to risk being caught taking banned substances – all stage winners are tested and Floyd planned to win the stage.  Particularly after we all marvelled at the effort Floyd made in Stage 17 on that epic day.  It would be a real bummer to know that this never say die, come from behind effort was chemically aided.

Unfortunately, this is potentially another black eye on our sport.  If he is determined to have doped, he should be stripped of his title and banned from the sport for a couple of years.  Fortunately, this will happen if he can’t clear himself since cycling takes a very hard line on doping, which is more than can be said about most other sports.

But whether he is cleared or not, cycling needs to take a hard look at its testing procedures.  As noted above, a number of cyclists have proven false positives with respect to testosterone testing.  This test needs to be fixed or discarded.

We’ll all be watching very closely, and my guess is that the B sample will return positive, then Floyd will then undergo some endocrinological testing which shows his adverse testosterone levels were naturally occuring and he did not dope.  He will then retain the title of TdF champion.  However, there will probably be some lengthy amount of time to do this add’l testing which will leave Oscar Pereiro and the TdF champion in limbo, which is a bad thing and is bad for cycling.

Those are my thoughts – where do you stand on this issue?