Blah…Blah…Shut this guy up!

It seems to be a common theme throughout his quotes and the mantra for the Floyd Fairness Fund is that the sytem he is going through is patently unfair.  Once again, I will state that I think Floyd is going to come out of this okay, but this role of playing the victim is just absolute nonsense.  The system seems to actually protect athletes.

The system goes like this.  You test positive on your A sample and you are informed of the positive test.  So is your national federation and the athlete has the right to have a representative at the second test.  If the B sample is positive, it is referred back to your national federation for review.  The USADA has an independent review board that analyzes these results.  It is impossible to determine how many athletes have positive A and B tests as the USADA doesn’t release those results.  Why? Who knows, but my guess is to protect the sports and athletes.

 Looking at some stats from WADA, in 2005, the UCLA lab had 538 athletes had tests that produced A and B positives.   World Wide there were 3909.  Assuming just as many US athletes test positive overseas as foreign athletes test positive in the US, we can estimate about 538 US athletes has Adverse Analytical Findings (A and B positives).  Assuming that number is somewhere in the ballpark for US athletes, over 500 of them are dismissed at the independent review board for one reason or another.  Only 32 of them in 2005, made it to the prosecutorial stage we find Landis at now.  According the to the USADA 6 were referred back to the international governing bodies for disposal.  Leaving 26, reaching the USADA prosecutors.  Twenty-six out of over 500.  We are talking about less than five percent.

So, where is the unfairness in the system?  When 95 percent of all cases are dismissed where the A and B sample test positive at the independent review board, how is that unfair to the athletes?  At that point, almost all didn’t even have to hire a defense team (which Floyd has already done before that point).

Plus, why the heck if Floyd’s defense costing over $500,000?  I mean even if the Landis defense team has three attorneys on the case at $500 and hour, assuming they each bill 2000 hours, that is only $300,000.  Throw in some expenses and you are at $400,000.  Remember though, that is assuming there are 3 attorneys working full-time on one case for an entire year.  That is crazy.  No drug case could take that much time.  This isn’t the OJ Simpson murder trial.  Am I doubting Floyd is spending that much?  No.  After all, OJ spent more than the average murder suspect spends on their defense.

What it comes down to is that the average athlete that reaches the Floyd Landis stage isn’t spending $500,000 on the defense.  Most probably don’t spend more than $10,000-$20,000.  The truth is that of the 26 that made it to the Floyd Landis stage of arbitration, about 50 percent were found not guilt and 50 percent guilty.  So, maybe 13 athletes out of over 500 that tested postive in both A and B samples did get screwed and have to spend $10,000.  That doesn’t mean those 13 were innocent, there just wasn’t enough to convict. 

Also, anyone who has been in a prosecutorial office knows the resources aren’t vast.  It isn’t like you are fighting the Pentagon or the NSA.  They have some attorneys, they may have a slim budget to hire an expert and to fly some of the testers in for the arbitration hearings, but they don’t have hundreds of thousands to spend on prosecuting a case.

It isn’t as if Floyd is up against some agency that has unlimited resources.  In fact, he probably has more resources than the agency he is fighting.  So, please Floyd, stop portraying the system as being unfair.

If there is something inherently wrong with the system, and this is not a USADA problem, but a WADA problem, it is that the A and B samples are tested at the same lab.  That needs to be changed.  Other than that, we know 95 percent of US athletes have their cases dismissed by the independent review board.  Seems pretty fair to me.

Name three players on the University of Wisconsin Basketball team.  Time is up.  Yesterday, the No. 2 Badgers lost a heartbreaker to the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes.  Tenacious defense is what UW is all about and it was evidenced by the low scoring game that ended 49-48.  Bo Ryan doesn’t even have a player that people think is an All-American, yet his team is No. 2 in the Country.

 When I was a rabid NCAA fan, despite going to Illinois, you couldn’t help but admire Bobby Knight’s accomplishments as a coach.  Now, I sit and watch the Badgers with the same admiration I had for the Hoosiers in the 80’s and early 90’s.  They play tough defense.  They take smart shots.  They play hard and they give it their all each game.

So, now that Illinois has abandoned the Chief, I need to find a team to root for in rebellion.  Madison is closer than Champaign.  The city is nicer.  It is a better academic university (see latest US News and World Report rankings).  So, all I can say is, “Go Badgers!”

I went to University of Illinois when the Chief controvery started.  I was naive back then and had an unreasonable stand to blindly support the Chief.  Working at the Daily Illini, and being pro-Chief, put you in the minority back then, and now I am sure.  In fact, there was a time when they wanted to change the name of the newspaper to be more PC.

As I moved away from college, I felt that I grew.  I felt that I matured in a way where I didn’t live and die with an Illinois loss.  I always thought I would be fine when the Chief finally left the university as I knew it was just a matter of time.  I should have gotten a hint that I had not come as far as I thought when Luther Head back-rimmed the open three pointer that most likely would have been enough to win the national championship and I was depressed.  I was happily surprised though that I felt good about a season that didn’t end in a win.  So, I must have grown some.

With growing up and being more mature, other things happen and the most significant of those was having children.  Your entire paradigm of life changes at that moment.  You realize the idealistic fights give way to the pragmatism of providing and protecting the little eyes that trust you for everything.

Somewhere in there, my oldest son, who is only 2 years 8 months at the time I am writing this, has been telling me for about 8 months that he wants to go to Illinois.  He wants to see the Alma Mater.  He can sing the Alma Mater and he wants to see the Chief.  If you ask him if he wants to go to Harvard, he will tell you, “No! I am going to Illinois.”  This “brainwashing” wasn’t purposeful on my part, in fact I would rather have him, and my younger son, aspire to Harvard.  The problem has always been that I would like for both to go to Illinois.  I wanted them to walk on the quad.  I wanted them to sit in Follinger and listen to a boring lecture that has way to many people and not enough learning. 

Even before that though, with his excitement for the University of Illinois, we intended on going down to show both the campus, the Alma Mater, and most of all show them the greatest halftime show in sports.  That included the Chief and the singing of the Alma Mater.

I cannot help the fact that in some way I feel that has been ripped away from me by the Politcal Correctness Police and the power-abusing NCAA.  I want the people that were so anti-Chief, saying it was offensive, to produce one member of the Illini Tribe that finds the Chief and his halftime dance offensive.  Oh, they cannot.  Why?  The Illini were slaughtered and forced off their land, not by the white man, but by other Native-American Tribes.  This didn’t happen only once, but many times until the Illini were eventually disbanned and the remaining forced out to Arizona where they absorbed into another tribe.  So, although there may be a bloodline link somewhere to the Illini Tribe, nobody will ever be able to establish it.  Why?  The Illini were slaughtered by the same people that now claim the Chief is offensive.  I guess a guy dancing around in a head dress, bringing thousands of people together in unity is offensive, but genicide is not.

 I hope I can convince my sons in the next 16 years to be Badger fans or hopefully a Crimson fans. 

The big news was announced recently that the USADA hearing with Floyd Landis will not be held until May.  Thus, it appears he will not race the Tour de France as by the time the hearing takes place, the decision comes down, the appeals are finished, the Tour will be over. 

 There is so much out there it is hard to know what is accurate.  Is Floyd still the Tour de France Champion?  Is the USADA causing delays?  Is Landis’ side causing delays?

There is something that the public just doesn’t seem to get about this whole thing.  The USADA is an enforcement agency.  It is not the job of the USADA to determine the guilt or innocence of an athlete.  It is the job of the USADA to prosecute all viable cases.  Do they have a viable case in the Landis’ case?  Who knows?  Landis’ side will obviously tell you no; however, there are two sides to  every story and we only know one side.  We don’t know the USADA’s side because they will not tell us their side.  Why?  They have ethics.  They are following their own rules not to comment on pending cases.  This just gives Landis’ camp, and his supporters, fuel for the fire.  While PowerPoint presentations are being made, revised, and sent all around the world via the internet, the USADA must patiently wait for a hearing date.  These same people supporting Landis will be the first to fire off on Dick Pound when he violates his own rules and runs at the mouth.

Do I think Landis is guilty?  No.  I do know this though, I have only heard one side of the story.  I also know that the USADA would not be pursuing this case if they did not thing their case was viable.  The power to prosecute is almost as important as the power not to prosecute.  All prosecuting agencies know this and don’t take their jobs lightly.  So, unless the USADA is a bunch of unethical cheats, which I would say they are not, they must believe their case is enough to prove Landis guilty.  If anyone thinks they are prosecuting Landis for any other reason than this, they have never worked in a prosecutors office.

I am sure people work at the USADA because they are sports fans.  They don’t want a national hero like Landis to be guilty.  However, they have been charged with the unenviable task of not being judge and jury, but a prosecutor.