Every once in a while I run into a story about which I want to write, but I can’t decide if it’s Bad Sports or Good Sports. The current Lance Armstrong saga is one of those stories. There are a lot of different facets to this tale, and they are fairly well distributed on both sides of the ledger. Armstrong is arguably the greatest cyclist of all time, having won the prestigious Tour de France a record seven times. Even more remarkably, all seven came after he was diagnosed with cancer in 1996. For a number of years, though, he has been dogged by allegations of doping, a problem that is absolutely rampant in the sport. This week, he announced that he was giving up the fight against the charges, saying that the process has been unfair and continuing to fight was a waste of time and effort. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency immediately banned him from the sport for life and stripped him of his titles. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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There’s nothing that gets me riled up quite like a frivolous lawsuit. People who sue other people, businesses, and organizations for minor injuries nauseate me, especially when those injuries were really their own fault. The lawyers that take these cases are just as much at fault, and should be held accountable as well. That is not to say that there is never a valid reason to sue someone for injuries or negligence. I am sure there are plenty of those. When someone sues for something idiotic, however, I really believe that person should be subject to fines, jail time, or at least a requirement that he pay all court costs for the defendant. This week, a woman in Texas sued the Dallas Cowboys because she allegedly burned her backside on a bench outside of the team’s stadium back in 2010. Really. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Hey NASCAR, I hope you were paying attention today. There is so much that was right with today’s race at Watkins Glen in New York, that it makes me wonder why more of the races can’t be like this. NASCAR makes a huge deal every year out of its worst races, and I am ever at a loss to figure out why. I need to make myself the emperor like Chris Matarazzo so that I can make some sort of decree that promotes road course races over restrictor-plate races. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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As I sit here on Sunday night looking over my list of stories from the week, it is hard to miss that most of them involve the Olympics. I have never been a big fan of the Olympics, and I will admit that I have not watched a great deal of it this time around either. I have enjoyed what I have watched, though, and some of it has been really exciting. Perhaps I should watch more of it the next time around. I especially liked watching the running, which is likely due to my own interest in the sport, which I did not have during the last Summer Games. Rather than write a long piece on one of these stories, I am going to try to give some time to a bunch of the great performances, along with the usual list of some unfortunate ones.

Good sports, continued:

1) Michael Phelps proved that he is simply the greatest Olympian of all time. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Hi all. Sunday night finds me in Southern California with my family. We spent a few days in Los Angeles and are now at Disneyland. Unfortunately, the wifi at our hotel is not working this evening, so I find myself unable to deliver my usual keen insight and wit this week. You’ll have to get your sports news from a more traditional source for now. Try CBS (cbssports.com)…I’m not so fond of the folks at ESPN at the moment after they expended so much effort to sensationalize all the Penn State stuff this past year.

One quick sports note: we were at Huntington Beach today, spending a great day with our friends. We thought that beach would be a bit less crowded than the ones closer to L.A. proper, but we did not account for the fact that the U.S. Open of Surfing would be happening there today. Interesting sport, although it technically doesn’t count as a sport in my book because winners are determined by judges. I am not sure I could spend any real length of time watching it, but the athletes do some pretty impressive things on those boards.

Anyway, have a good week, and I hope to see you back here next Monday.

Bad sports, good sports appears every Monday.

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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The Olympic torch began its week-long journey around London on Saturday. Fauja Singh was one of the people chosen to carry the flame, which is certainly an honor for anyone. Singh has one of the most amazing stories I have ever heard, and I wanted to share it here. I hope you appreciate this amazing man the way I do. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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What a miserable week, in the midst of a miserable year, it has been to be a Penn Stater. I am going to start by stating that no one I am writing about here has or will suffer in a way that compares to the actual victims of Jerry Sandusky’s evil. That is clear. That said, there are legions of Penn Staters out there who are having a very hard time dealing with every aspect of this situation, and I am one of them. As much as I despise what went on there, I find myself being very defensive as I read more and more of the drivel that has been written about the release of the Freeh Report and what it contained. I nearly left this story off of my list for the week for a couple of major reasons. First, it hurts to write about it, and I am hardly in the mood to put myself through that after the events of the week. Second, it is simply not a sports issue. It does not really belong in a sports column, just as it does not belong under the jurisdiction of the NCAA. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Although I am not a big fan of watching the Olympics, I greatly admire the athletes that compete in the games. Most of them are competing in sports that have no shot of making them rich, and real fame is pretty unlikely as well, especially when you compare it to that of someone who plays one of the major professional sports. It is clear that these people are competing for the love of their sport and the love of competition. To spend years working, focusing, and doing little else other than preparing for the Olympics takes an extraordinary person. That is why I find the actions of runner Jeneba Tarmoh so shocking. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Has Hell frozen over? Are pigs flying? After years of officials stating that a playoff would never happen in major college football, a playoff is going to happen in major college football. The commissioners of the Division 1-A (I still refuse to call it FBS) football conferences gathered recently and approved a plan to recommend a move to a four-team playoff to the university presidents. This week, those presidents said yes to the plan. The BCS as we knew it is no more, or will be no more as of the 2014 season. Is this a good thing? Absolutely. It’s not really good enough, in my opinion, but it’s a start. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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I hate people. I may have said this before, but it still rings true. Not all people, of course. Just some. The people who tell you that you should not hate anyone and that all people are worthy of respect must not have ever known or read about anyone like Elizabeth Lloyd. A couple of years ago, Lloyd was at a Little League baseball game, sitting near the bullpen where a pitcher was warming up. An errant throw by eleven-year-old Matthew Magliaccio, the catcher, struck Lloyd in the face. She suffered injuries as a result. That’s certainly a shame, but what has followed is what has Ms. Lloyd on my list of revolting people. She is suing this kid. That’s right, she filed a lawsuit against Magliaccio, now thirteen, asking for $153,000 in damages to pay for her supposed medical costs, and is also asking for additional money for her pain and suffering. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Just like the average population, professional athletes seem to have their fair share of bad guys. There are good people that mess up and do bad things, and there are bad people that manage to occasionally pull off a nice act. After those folks, we find the bad guys who are just simply bad guys, people who consistently prove that they would certainly not be in any position to receive anyone’s adulation or admiration were it not for their athletic skill. Kellen Winslow II, who was recently traded from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Seattle Seahawks, is one of those guys. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Wade Davis, a marginal NFL player in the early part of the aughts (or whatever we call the last decade….I don’t like “2000s”), has come out as gay in recent days. Davis was never on an active, regular-season NFL roster, but he played for the Tennessee Titans for a couple of preseasons after a successful college career at Weber State. Of the many places in society that have continued to harbor bigotry and prejudice against homosexuals, professional sports is one that has been, and I expect will continue to be, one of the final holdouts. Athletes, and sports fans right along with them, often count machismo among their most respected traits. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Paul Williams, a boxer who has been a champion at the welterweight level, was scheduled to fight for the middleweight belt currently held by Canelo Alvarez in September. That bout will no longer be occurring. Last weekend, Williams crashed his motorcycle while on his way to a wedding, and he is now paralyzed from the waist down. This is a tragedy in a number of ways, the main one being that it so clearly could have been easily avoided. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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The high school years are a time of promise, a time for dreams, and a time for exploring potential. Most of us get through it having experienced some degree of success, and we move on to our lives, whether that be college or the working world, with only our own personal limitations to hold us back.  Some people, though, have those opportunities snatched away for no reason, and all we can do is lament their misfortune. Brian Banks, a big-time football prospect from California a few years back, spent five years in prison after being falsely accused of kidnapping and rape by a girl from his high school. He was released last year, and this week, his conviction was overturned after his accuser recanted her story. Where he goes from this point will be fascinating to watch. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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The NBA playoffs started a few weeks ago, and the second round is more than half over. There has been plenty of drama, and much of it has recently been focused on the Miami Heat, as expected. Once the Heat assembled its current roster before the 2010-2011 season, adding LeBron James and Chris Bosh to a team that already had Dwyane Wade, the expectations for this bunch went through the roof. They are currently being severely tested by the Indiana Pacers, a team that was given little chance coming into the series. The drama of the games themselves is great, but most of the theatrics have been off the court.  I have little patience for any of it, honestly. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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I guess I am naive. I tend to believe that adults, by their very nature, should be reasonable people. I manage to be regularly amazed by how often that belief is proven wrong. The world of sports is as susceptible to this as anything else, of course, and this column is usually dedicated to illustrating all kinds of foolish behavior. This week is no exception. On Wednesday night, two high school baseball teams from Arizona were scheduled to play each other in the state championship game for their classification. Instead of playing, however, one of the schools, Our Lady of Sorrows Academy, forfeited the game. Why would they do this, you ask? Because Mesa Preparatory Academy, the other school, has a girl on its team. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Greetings from Las Vegas. I used to come out here every year for the opening weekend of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. In fact, that was the subject of my very first Bad Sports, Good Sports column back in early 2009. I had not been out here since we stopped going for basketball, though, until today, when I arrived for a work conference. Although this city gave me fodder for that initial weekly missive, today it is likely to only keep this column short, as a long travel day has left me pretty beat, and the clock is simply mocking me with its bogus three-hours-earlier-than-it-feels-like reading glowing in green letters next to the bed.

The big news of the week was the untimely death of former NFL great Junior Seau. The long-time San Diego Charger was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest on Wednesday in his home in Oceanside, California. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Have you ever watched an all-star game and thought it had been time well spent? At least in the major sports, those games are usually pretty awful, if not completely unwatchable. Baseball probably has the best one, as the game usually involves pretty full effort on the part of the participants. Sure, catchers are unlikely to block the plate and risk injury, especially after the Pete Rose-Ray Fosse incident in the 1970 MLB All-Star game, but the hitters try, the pitchers try, and the fielders try. The worst thing about baseball’s game is that the commissioner decided to make the game count for something a few years back, and now the league that wins gets home field advantage in the World Series. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Every once in a while, an athlete or coach transcends sports. The group of these individuals is small and obviously quite distinguished. Those of you who read my column regularly know that Joe Paterno was one of these in my eyes. Whatever you feel about the Jerry Sandusky situation and Joe’s role in it, it is hard to dispute his place in the pantheon of college football figures. This week, another towering figure has exited the sports scene, and her sport will be much the worse for it. Pat Summitt, the head coach of the University of Tennessee women’s basketball program, has retired. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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Earlier this week, a Dallas television station reported on a story about a local coach/teacher who had been fired from her job for having a child despite being unmarried. Cathy Samford, who had coached volleyball at the Heritage Christian Academy for the last three years, and who had also recently started teaching science, was let go by the school in the fall. She has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and is considering a lawsuit. I am quite surprised by this, but I find myself siding with the school. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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