Earlier in this strange college basketball season, we discussed how some Duke Blue Devils fans allegedly made fun of a NC State player’s personal life by chanting, “How’s your grandma?” after she had recently passed away. And by allegedly I mean that some Duke fans definitely chanted that. But other Duke fans came to their school’s defense and said that I was being a big, ol’ meanie head for picking on Duke, as fans from every school are total dicks, and I definitely don’t disagree with that sentiment. It’s just fun to pick on Duke, that’s all.

In the name of fairness, we’ll pick on another school today, as fans of the University of Wyoming crossed a line, according to some, when they chanted “Alcoholic!” during last Wednesday’s game between the Cowboys and Colorado State. CSU coach Larry Eustachy, of course, has a well-documented history of alcohol abuse, something that previously cost him his coaching gig at Iowa State.

Unfortunately, Wyoming athletics marketing interns saw that decade-old story as rivalry fodder, and distributed a special flyer to catch students and fans up on the story of one man’s battle with addiction.

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At this point, even Lance Armstrong thinks he did drugs. It’s like the cop who scared Chris Rock into thinking he’d stolen his own car. Lance just sort of sits there in his tightest yellow shirt, sipping a cup of hot water, wondering whether or not that cough drop he sucked on back in 1995 was a performance enhancing drug (by definition, yes, it was).

Armstrong’s lawyers are still pretty mad about the whole thing, and sent a letter of protest to CBS News Chairman and 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager in regard to the latest 60 Minutes investigation. This is following last week’s quotes from the head of Switzerland’s anti-doping laboratory, who denied that Armstrong had failed a doping test (as opposed to a “dope” test, which would be open-book) during the 2001 Tour de Suisse.

“In the cold light of morning your story was either extraordinarily shoddy, to the point of being reckless and unprofessional, or a vicious hit-and-run job,” lawyer Elliot Peters wrote. “In either case, a categorical on-air apology is required.”

Peters added that the show ignored evidence from Armstrong’s camp prior to the broadcast that the Swiss-related claims were false.

“What is particularly disturbing is that ’60 Minutes’ had access to the true facts, could easily have verified them, and apparently chose instead to broadcast untruths and then layer innuendo on top of the falsehoods,” Peters said.

CBS News spokesman Kevin Tedesco said Wednesday he was unable comment on the letter, but added about the “60 Minutes” report: “We consider this the most thorough investigation into doping in the sport of cycling ever done.”

Demanding an apology from CBS? Good luck. I’ve been waiting like 17 years for an apology for “The Golden Palace”.

I hate the word “doping.” It makes it sound like they rounded up a bunch of bean bag chairs and listened to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers while they got lit with my uncle. But yeah, Lance is getting dangerously close to Roger Clemens territory, where he’s either going to stand on top of the Empire State Building and make shame fingers at us for the rest of our lives or jump his bike off the side of a cliff. There needs to be a definitive conclusion to this. A big “yes” box and a big “no” box, and if “no” is checked, every cyclist worse than Armstrong should legally have to shut the f**k up for eternity.

And if they check yes, we should get a new famous cyclist.

[via LA Times]

Reactions to the “remarks” made by Tiger Woods from Friday were both passionate and varied. One notable fellow chimed in with two cents of his own. Personally, I couldn’t get over the way that the room was set up. It was put together with such drab hues of blue that I was waiting for Hilary Clinton to walk out and declare war against Alabama. But nobody garnered as much attention for their reaction as former PGA touring pro Charlie Rymer, an analyst for The Golf Channel who actually teared up after watching Woods’ public display. Read the rest of this entry »

The Boston Herald massively fucked up a report that claimed former Patriots Director of Espionage (*may not have been actual title) Matt Walsh had filmed the Rams' final walk-through prior to Super Bowl XXXVI.  Turns out no such tape ever existed, and now there's talk that the Pats may file suit.  The Herald, meanwhile, has thrown the vehicle into reverse and floored the gas, running a front-page apology in today's paper.

While the Boston Herald based its Feb. 2, 2008, report on sources that it believed to be credible, we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walkthrough ever existed.

Prior to the publication of its Feb. 2, 2008, article, the Boston Herald neither possessed nor viewed a tape of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI, nor did we speak to anyone who had. We should not have published the allegation in the absence of firmer verification.

Ooh, that's gotta sting.  As Shanoff noted, though, everyone who accepted the Herald story as fact and ran with it should probably apologize as well.  So I went through the With Leather archives.  I searched "SpyGate" and found nothing.  I searched "Matt Walsh" and found nothing.  Then I realized, Oh yeah, that story was dull as shit, so I never bothered to waste time writing about it (the most news it made at WL was this joke-y weekend post by KD).  No apologies from me.  Hey Pats, please note that the standing "fuck you" is still in order.