The latest performance-enhancing drug scandal involves a star so big, so golden that to utter his name in the same breath as performance enhancement is to breathe sacrilege.
And yet here we are: The NFL and Major League Baseball are investigating an Al Jazeera report that implicates several of their players in the illegal use of human growth hormone, according to secretly taped – and couldn’t-be-more-appropriately-named-if-he-were-christened-by-Central Casting – pharmacy student Charlie Sly, who promptly recanted his claims.
There is really only one name anyone is interested in here – Peyton Manning, as in the superstar quarterback of the Denver Broncos, formerly of the Indianapolis Colts; Sports Illustrated’s 2013 Sportsman of the Year; scion of the Mannings of New Orleans, “football royalty,” as the press is want to note; and pitchman par excellence. ...
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Read MoreAll hail the Pharoah.
American Pharoah has been named Sports Illustrated readers’ “Sportsman of the Year.” The SI staff’s choice will be announced tomorrow on SI.com and NBC’s “Today” show.
AP received 47 percent of the vote. The World Series’ winning Kansas City Royals garnered 29 percent, while soccer star Lionel Messi earned 6 percent. Tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic finished ninth. ...
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Read MoreThe racing world is a-flutter – and so am I: American Pharoah is up for Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year. As is Novak Djokovic once again.
OK, Nole – who hasn’t lost a tournament since the Ice Age – is never going to win. I’m assuming that when posters say they haven’t heard of some of the nominees, they mean him. And when they point out the year fellow nominee Serena Williams had, I know they don’t know what they’re talking about. No disrespect to Serena, but she won three Slams, lost in the semifinals of the fourth and then basically retired for the rest of the season. ...
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Read MoreWell, I guess everything really is up-to-date in Kansas City.
The Kansas City Royals thrashed the New York Mets four games to one in the World Series. Really, the games were never as close as they sometimes seemed. The Royals, who were on a quest for Series glory ever since losing to the San Francisco Giants in a heartbreaker last year, reminded me a lot of the late-1990s New York Yankees – down by five runs in the seventh, up by six in the eighth. Not to mix sports metaphors here, but it’s like playing Novak Djokovic: When your opponent does everything solidly, you have no margin for error. And the Mets made plenty of errors, mentally and physically. The Royals had their oopses, but they were able to transcend in a way the Mets couldn’t. ...
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Read MoreAs a longtime New York Yankees’ fan, I must admit to a certain pang when the Yanks aren’t in the World Series and the Mets are. (The last time the Mets won the pennant was in 2000, the year the Yanks beat them in the Series. Ouch.)
But as a fan of the Bronx Bombers, I must also admit that there is a part of me that’s just delighted to see the Amazins in it. For one thing, I’m a New Yorker. I always want to see every New York area team do well. (I’ve also probably seen the Mets more than the Yankees as I don’t have cable, and the Mets tend to have more games on regular TV.) ...
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Read More“Happiness,” New York Yankees’ owner Col. Jacob Ruppert said in the 1920s, “was watching the Yankees score eight runs in the first inning and then slowly pull away.”
Oh, for those days, right, fellow Yankee fans?
But Green Bay Packers’ fans and those of tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic understand the sentiment. Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Nole are quite simply on a roll in their respective sports. Yes, the San Diego Chargers could route the Packers Sunday, Oct. 18 while half a world away Jo-Wilfried Tsonga could defeat Nole in the finals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters. ...
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Read MoreNumber 10: No fizzing out in the French Open finals. (Sorry, Novak Djokovic.)
Number 9: No flaming out in the quarterfinals. (Sorry, Rafael Nadal.)
Number 8: No meltdown over blisters, stray feathers, etc. (Sorry, Andy Murray.)
Number 7: No loud plaid shorts. (Sorry, Stan Wawrinka.)
Number 6: No left-handed compliments to rivals. (Sorry, Roger Federer.)
Number 5: No steroids. (Sorry, Major League Baseball.) ...
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