Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield is going for his fifth heavyweight title this Saturday, fighting against Nicolai Valuev in Zurich. If he wins this Saturday, Holyfield would be the eldest fighter to reclaim a championship at the ripe old age of 46. He claims in a recent NY Times article, that he is not fighting for this title, but rather for his kids. Many are questioning his motivation however as in the recent years, Holyfield has been having some serious money troubles, almost filing for bankruptcy at one point. He will make about $700,000 this Saturday for the fight which would be a lot for a normal person. Yet Holyfield is apparently spending over $500,000 a year for child support alone. Others also wonder if he just wants to overshadow low points in his career, as well as his stint on “Dancing with the Stars.” Those closest to him claim he is ready for this fight and will prove this on Saturday- should be an interesting fight to see I guess, especially since the guy he is fighting is over 7 feet tall.

The Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys are trying to get their act together before facing the Baltimore Ravens this upcoming Saturday. Sports broadcasters everywhere have been reporting a fued between wide receiver Terrell Owens and tight end Jason Witten. For once in his career, Owens is shrugging off these reports, making it seem like everyone has moved ahead already from the incident. Reports leading up to his response were claiming that the reason behind the alleged fued was that Owens was jealous of Jason Witten's relationship with Tony Romo. Last week Witten and Owens appeared to have had a heated exchange of words on the practice field. Later, after defeating the Giants however, they were seen joking around together. Who knows the truth to any of these reports, but I think something definitely had to have gone down for all the buzz going on about it. I also wonder what will happen if the Cowboys lose to the Ravens this weekend. Maybe Owens will speak up a little more about what happened and start blaming people for things, like he usually does.

Beijing Gymnasts Cleared

Chinese gymnasts have been okayed by the Olympic Committee, after an investigation went underway to double-check their ages. All the members of the 2008 team provided enough documentation to show that they were at least 16 years of age during the year of the Beijing games. China is not completely cleared however as two members of the 2000 Sydney games have continuing investigations. Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao, who helped their team win bronze at the Sydney games, both have evidence going against them claiming that they were both 14 years old during the games. Yun actually said in an interview in China that she was 14 when she competed. Fangxiao handed in documentation to the Olympics Committee when she went to become a national technical official that if correct, shows the gymnast to have also been 14 during the games.
With all this evidence going against China, it doesn’t seem that unreasonable anymore for the Olympics Committee to question their team.

Olympics Committee Tests For New Drug

The Olympics Committee is taking its next step in its plan to end doping, by retesting the 2008 Beijing athletes for CERA. CERA, Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator, is a new version of a drug that has been banned by the committee for a number of years now. CERA is used to stimulate bone marrow to create more blood cells, allowing athletes to recover quicker from workouts as well as see results much quicker. CERA, unlike other drugs, requires fewer dosages and lasts much longer. The main reason behind this sudden testing is because three of the stage winners in this year’s Tour de France tested positive for the drug. Since CERA helps with stamina, the Olympics Committee is honing in specifically on long-distance runners and other long-winded sports, rather than sprinters. It’s going to be really interesting to see if anyone tests positive for this drug, and the affect this will have on the Beijing games results.

Ryne Dougherty

A Montclair High School linebacker has died due to brain hemorrhaging during a game against Don Bosco, totaling the number of high school football-related deaths in North Jersey to three students in a mere two months. Does anybody else think that’s scary? Junior linebacker Ryne Dougherty died on the field after getting sandwiched during a tackle. A month before, Dougherty received a concussion during practice, but was given the okay by his doctor to play, after getting a CT scan. It’s hard to say who’s at fault, but this definitely draws attention to the fact that there needs to be more medical testing for these high school students, especially if there has been other previous injuries. The other two deaths involved an undetected heart condition and a rough tackle at practice.

Chatham Baseball

Cape Cod Chatham Baseball is very well known within the area, but gets little press elsewhere. Its claim to fame as of right now is its need to change its name to the Anglers due to copyright laws. This just came out in a New York Times article, which sucks because that shouldn’t be the reason for it getting attention. Thankfully in the article the writer does give credit to the league as statistically one out of every six players on the team end up going to the major leagues. I’ve been to a few games and I can definitely see that being true, but I guess that doesn’t say a whole lot, as the only other minor league team I really know of is the Trenton Thunder. Anyway I think they need to be given more credit, especially since the games are free and you can tell all of the players really love the game. Here’s their site: www.chathamas.com

Ken Harvey Is Weird

Ken Harvey, retired player from the Washington Redskins has definitely lost his mind. He just recently gave a presentation in front of a group of NASA scientists explaining his idea for what he calls “Space Sportilization.” Apparently this is for generations ahead, but it’s basically ways to play sports on Mars. He came up with a sport he named “Float Ball,” which involves aspects of basketball and football and, well floating. Please tell me someone else thinks this is super weird.
I doubt anyone’s going to waste his or her money into funding this project, but it’s funny to read about it in the New York Times. Definitely check out this article-
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/sports/othersports/31space.html

"The Million Dollar Arm"

An Indian Reality television show called “The Million Dollar Arm,” has resulted in allowing two young contestants pitch in front of some 30 or so major league scouts. Both Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel threw their best at a sports clinic in Tempe, Arizona, easily throwing 90mph pitches. These two guys were flown in from India, and set up to have the scouts watch them. To top that all off, they also now have a legit agent and are said to be training at this point. I just thought this was cool because one of the guys had allegedly never picked up a baseball before. Maybe America will jump on the bandwagon and get a similar show. I don’t know how long it would last, but it’s definitely cool for those competing. Only time will tell if this is actually going to lead to a future in baseball for either one of these guys- it will be interesting to see.

NJ Nets Seek To Help Out Fans

The New Jersey Nets have just created the Net Employment Program, which was set up to benefit the fans. This program will provide unemployed fans that sign up online, with 1,500 free tickets over a time span of five home games. To go along with this, fans can submit resumes, which will be passed along to prospective employers, including corporate partners with the Nets. Even though it seems a little random, I definitely think this is a nice idea. This program has already received over 1,000 applications and is also holding a job fair at the Izod Center after their game on November 22nd. For more information check out their website: njnets.com

Gymnast Speaks Out Against Karolyis

Martha and Bela Karolyi have been accused by Romanian gymnast Trudi Ebene Kollar of abusing her, back when they used to coach the Romanian women’s gymnastic team. The two-time silver medalist has come out and said that both coaches used to hit her when she would mess up during practice. The weirdest part of this entire situation, aside from the fact that these actions happened over 15 years ago, is that Bela and Martha are not denying these allegations. All Bela has said in response to this is that her memory could be a little off on the intensity of these actions. I don’t know this is definitely really weird and random. If they did really hit her as a means of coaching, I wonder if there are other gymnasts who will speak out about it as well. Every time the Karolyi’s are showed are on television they appear to be nice. Who knows, maybe it’s just for show.

Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile

I had no idea this even existed until the New York Times posted an article on Sunday about its results. The Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile is pretty self-explanatory as it is a race that is a mile long going south on Fifth Avenue from 80th street to 60th street. Two Olympians fresh from competition in Beijing took part in the race -Bernard Lagat and Shannon Lowbury- both finished in second place. While the participation of these two athletes is what prompted the New York Times to feature the article, I didn't really care too much about them.
What caught my attention about this race other than the fact that it was in New York City, was the result times. They were ridiculously fast. The winner of the men's mile race timed in 3 minutes 50.5 seconds, and the winner of the women's race timed in 4 minutes 18.6 seconds. New York Times writer Frank Litsy explained the course as "it runs slightly downhill for the first quarter-mile, significantly uphill for the next quarter-mile and slightly downhill again for the last half-mile." With so much downhill running, the speed is obviously faster, but I was shocked still. Could you even imagine running that fast?
What also seemed really cool about the race was that it was open to anyone who wanted to run the mile. It was reported that people of all ages came and did the mile, including a 98-year-old man who walked it, taking 22 minutes 10 seconds to complete it.

Big Changes Ahead for the Minnesota Vikings

Big changes are being made for the Minnesota Vikings, in preparation for this Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers.  Coach Brad Childress has decided to bench his 25-year-old quarterback  Tarvaris Jackson, for Gus Frerotte, who according to the Associated Press has played with seven teams in his 15 years in the NFL.  

I'm sure there are many out there who really could care less about such a switch, with the Vikings being such a hopeless team for quite sometime, not winning a single superbowl and not even having played a superbowl game since 1977.  Yet for as long as I can remember, I have been a Vikings fan.  I have Jerry Ball and Randy Moss jerseys hidden in the back of my closet and have been to a number of Vikings games- not one of them resulted in a victory.   So needless to say thanks to my dad's random love for the team, I too have grown to care.  

I'm not going to lie and say I read stats and study the team, but I check out what's going on with the Vikings at the beginning of each season and watch them when I can.  Before this season started, it seemed to me that they were looking pretty good, and I was excited to see how they would turn out during the first couple of games.

 Now facing an 0-2 record, I agree that the Vikings need to make this change.  With Jackson having accuracy issues and only completing 51 percent of his passes, Coach Childress pinpointed what needed to be done.  In a recent interview with the New York Times, Childress comments on the switch he decided to make.  "'I'm just not seeing right now the aggressiveness from Tarvaris that I saw throughout the off-season, training camp, the two preseason games that he played in,' Childress said.  'And part of it may be experience. I know Gus will give us that.  And I know his approach will also lend itself to that.'"

It's hard to say whether or not this is a good decision, but it definitely is a ballsy one, especially since Childress seems pretty set with it.  This could be a smart move just for that fact that the Panthers are 2-0 and I mean what's the worst that could happen?  They've already lost two games, might as well test out new waters.  All I know for sure is that this Sunday's game will definitely be very interesting (at least for me) and the pressure is on for the Vikings to prove that they have something to show for the rest of this season.  

Lance Armstrong Is Going For Eight: Can He Do It?

How would Lance Armstrong handle defeat? He was victorious in his fight against a violent strain of testicular cancer when the odds were against him. He was victorious seven consecutive times at the Tour de France against countless competitors. He was also victorious in creating LiveStrong and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. So why now at the age of 37, after already having announced his retirement from professional cycling, is Armstrong coming back into the game? The answer is easy, because he was defeated. Armstrong finished 2nd in the Leadville 100 “Race Across the Sky” back in August. In an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, (to whom he announced his comeback), Armstrong comments about his finishing second. “This kind of obscure race totally kick-started my engine,” he told writer Douglas Brinkley, “I’m going to try and win an eighth Tour de France.” Later on in that article Armstrong also admitted his disdain for failure. “I fear failure,” he said, “I have a huge phobia around failure. And that’s probably a good thing.”
It seems with Armstrong’s attitude that the question of how he would handle defeat seems trivial; he will not be defeated. While many wonder if he has enough time to train for the 2009 race, (he has already begun training), the real issue appears to be in the fact that Armstrong is not the young cyclist he once was. Yet the 2008 Beijing Olympics helps conquer that worry as a number of athletes over the age of 35 medaled, some earning the gold medal. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the next year with Armstrong, but I for one believe that if he could defeat cancer and then go on to win the Tour de France seven times-in-a-row, I’m sure one more is very possible.

For more information on the Lance Armstrong Vanity Fair article, check out vanityfair.com or click this link- Lance Armstrong Rides Again