"The Art of Fighting Without Fighting?"

     "The art of fighting without fighting," not just a line and skill uttered and mastered by the late great Bruce Lee in one of my personal favorite movies Enter the Dragon, but now seems to be a pretty good strategy in the battle between newly and regretfully stripped and banned seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. Like Sifu Lee, Lance has long been a hero of mine so the news of him choosing not to fight the United States Anti-Doping Agency anymore didn't make me a very happy person at all.  However after re-examining his decision I had made my peace with it and once again admired his courage in making the choice to not allow anything to distract him from the fight against cancer.  Having lost my younger brother and best friend Andy last year to leukemia, I'm glad that Lance has made this battle his number one priority.
    The decision to not do something however, might prove to be the best strategy in getting the USDA off of his back.  The International Cycling Union apparently has not received the file of evidence showing  why the USADA was prompted to stripping Armstrong of his seven Tour de France victories and banning cycling biggest star from the sport for life.
     International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid said the USADA has not provided the UCI with any kind of timeline as to when to expect the file.
     "UCI assumes that USADA have the file, the full file, as they've already made a decision based on it and therefore it's difficult to understand why it hasn't arrived yet," McQuaid said.
     So with such continued delays, if the USADA is unable to produce the evidence used to ban and strip Lance of his victories, I would not be surprised if all seven tour wins were restored and the ban lifted by the UCI.
      "It's obvious any anti-doping case, whether it's a big case or a small case, is not good for cycling," McQuaid said. "The UCI has nothing to be apologetic about. UCI has always been the international federation that does the most in the fight against doping."
      So by choosing not to fight may prove to be the best form of fighting back. Let's hope that "the art of fighting without fighting" works just as well for Lance as it did for Bruce.

                                                                                   

Enough With the Eye Black

     Eye black is supposed to help athletes minimize the the glare of stadium lights or the sun helping vision on the field right? Well in the past few years it seems it has only become another accessory to an athlete's uniform. From Tim Tebow's bible verses to the most recent homosexual slur used by the Blue Jays' Yunel Escobar, more on that in a bit, athletes are beginning to concern themselves more and more about what they can get away with wearing next then they're performance on the field. Now before I receive any kind of nasty comments, I actually liked the Tebow bible verses on the eye black, I'm a life long Roman Catholic, but I also knew it would open the door to other things such as the situation Escobar has found himself in now.  I'm all for an athlete writing a little something, wearing, or carrying something on the field that's meaningful to them, a subtle detail is nice a flamboyancy is something different. I do it myself when competing or coaching, but writing your area code under your eye seems to be a bit over the top. Why do we need to know your area code? Do we need to know where we should call if you fumble or drop a key pass that would have kept us in the game? All it does is open the door for things to eventually get out of hand.
    So enough of my rant and to the story at hand. Toronto Blue Jays' Yunel Escobar was suspended three games without pay for displaying a homesexual slur on his eye black. See what I mean about getting out of hand.  A photo that was confirmed to ESPN as being authentic showed Escobar wearing the eye black with the slur written in Spanish during a game Saturday versus the Red Sox.
     "I'm sorry for the actions of the other day," Escobar said during a press conference at Yankee Stadium.
     "I don't have anything against homosexuals. I have friends who are gay. In reality I'd like to ask for the apologies of all those who have been offended by this."
     Escobar is going to loose quite a few dollars due to this suspension and not to mention a black spot on his reputation and unfortunately for sports fans and non sports fans alike that have not heard of him before this will not know anything else, but that he's a ball player who did what he did.
     "It's just something that's been said around amongst Latinos. It's not something that's meant to be offensive. For us, it didn't have the significance to the way it's being interpreted right now. It's a word used often within teams. ... I agree with the suspension and don't have any problem with it."
     Being Latino myself I know what he's talking about, I get it, but not everyone knows what how that works. I'm sure Yunel is a good guy and meant no harm and honestly if the eye black messages had been eliminated in Major League Baseball, like in college football and the NFL, this problem would have been avoided as well as plenty of bad publicity. The NFL and college football have the right idea. Eye black should be used for what it was meant to be used for, not send messages or ill advised jokes. I'm all for looking good, but not when it becomes a distraction or a problem. Let's get back to basics people and PLAY BALL!