Wouldn’t you know it…
The entire country is caught up in a mild case of soccer fever via the World Cup like never before. And better yet, a pair of Sporting Kansas City stars – Matt Besler of Overland Park and Graham Zusi – are smack in the thick of things as the teams appear poised to overcome an unfortunate pairing in the so-called Group of Death with Germany, Portugal and Ghana.
And of course then, almost out of nowhere comes word that Sporting’s old nemesis Lance Armstrong is about to take it up the you-know-what from – shudder – the United States Postal Service.
That’s right, the champions of Snail Mail are super pissed at Big Tex – to the tune of an $120 million triple-the-damages lawsuit for soaking the P.O. for mega sponsorship bucks based upon his assertions that he did not sleep with that woman – I mean, inhale – errr, take performance enhancing drugs when he won all those Golden Globes or whatever they were.
On top of that a recent ruling by a federal judge cleared the way for the $120 million whistle-blower lawsuit against Armstrong to proceed.
Which makes the management and ownership of the Sporting Knasas City soccer club look like geniuses for dumping Sir Lance-lies-alot and stripping his charity Livestrong’s name from the team stadium.
Pure genius, right?
That is if you ignore the fact that Sporting were complete idiots to have put it up there in the first place, given the growing mountain of evidence against the disgraced cyclist.
So hey, let’s all let bygones be bygones and root for the other team USA, the USPS in its legal World Cup battle to part Armstrong from his ill gotten gain.
And in the soon-to-be-published paperback edition of the book Wheelmen, we learn that Armstrong is still pretty much delusional about the heinousness of his cheating and doping to win all those Tour de France‘s and has been sending “cryptic” text messages to U.S. Anti Doping officials in hopes of negotiating his way back into being allowed to compete in cycling.
Face it, this dude is Generation X’s answer to Baby Boomer anti-Christ O.J. Simpson.
Which reminds me, what’s with the foot dragging over either selling or making another charitable contribution of the naming rights for Sporting Park?
It’s been like a year and a half since the team exorcised Livestrong and still no deal.
If charitable contributions are the name of the game, surely there must be another institution worthy of bestowing the naming rights and cash that Armstrong’s group got upon.
Unless of course, the real reason Sporting selected Livestrong was so they could schmooze market Armstrong to the sundry organizations that attend functions hosted here by a local company you may have heard of that goes by the name Cerner.
Anyway, good riddance, at least Sporting knew when to cut its losses.
OK, I’m with you until you compare him to OJ. Dude didn’t cut off his ex-wife’s head (allegedly).
Yeah, comparing doping to first degree homicide is a bit of a stretch hearne.
Ah, ya got me on that one, rkcal.
I was referring to him being in denial. Although, come to think of it, is OJ still in denial?
I think he was still looking for the killer on the prison golf course.
I think he is in dejail.
What’s with all of the sports? Didn’t you decide last year that sports don’t REALLY matter on Planet Hearne?
And how dare you interrupt my world cup coverage!!!!
For all he did we (as your and wisluns god says} we must some day forgive.
But when his time runs out and he gets to meet his creator…what
will they ask him.
How many tour de france’s did you win?
Why did you take those drugs that gave you an unfair advantage?
OR….
How many lives did you save? How many millions of people did you
help discover they had cancer? How many millions ofdollars did you raise
to help those stricken with this disease? How many people did you give
hope and encouragement to when their lives were in danger?
How many kids were saved by the funds you raised for research?
How manymillions of people got solid information from your organization
about cancer when they called your charity’s phone number.
Hearne: get over it dumb ****,,,,yes the guy may have done some things
wrong…but what a great story about overcoming his disease and the
work he did with his charity.Only a guy like you would still bitch about
this. This is worthless. We all make mistakes in life but lance ‘s heart may
have been that he needed those wins to get the megaphone to do what he
did to help others. We’ll probably never know.
What have youdone lately to help others. Nothing I’m sure.
Only a guy like me, huh?
Guess that’s why the Post Office is all over his ass and nobody – none of his former, fair weather friends – will give him the time of day.
Most successful athletes – even lowly Chiefs players who never achieve start status – affiliate with some sort of charity. It’s an image play and maybe in part a tax write off.
However when you’re cheating, being a mean spirited jerk and threatening your former friends while ripping off the government and gosh knows who else, setting up a charity with money that you stole doesn’t quite seem so high-minded.
His heart?
Did you even follow some of the things he said and did to his friends and others?
Apparently not.
just like you…cast dispersions on
innocent persons….write innuendo…so don’t throw
stones hearne.
but when all is said and done…he saved thousands of lives.
you can’t excuse his behavior when he rode his bike…but
you can praise the man for all the great tnings he did
for cancer victims and their families.
I say go ask the people who were helped by livestrong…
get their opinions….of course they were disappointed
and dismayed…but when he gets to the golden gates
the good lord won’t care about his sins….they will only
care that he did godly things for millions of people.
I don’t condone his behavior…but you can forgive
what he did in a stupid sporting event but those he
helped will never forget his actions to save lives.
again hearne…what have you done lately to save someone..
any charity donations…volunteer???????
it’s easy to sit drinking lattes when the others are
doing the work of god.
good day.
as far as tax status….only you would think that people do that.
that’s all you think about. I’ll volunteer hundreds of hours
without a “tax break”….where were you at bbbs/or the
race for the cure…where were you raising funds for the
zoo when there was no tax break…where were you with
the spca fund raising…where were you at the run for light…
or the walk for cancer…where were you during the many many
fundraising events we’ve attended.
No hearne…sometimes people like us do it because it s
from the heart. We get no tax breaks or monetary gain.
It’s from the heart….maybe you need to follow that
yellow brick road and see if they can get you one.
Harley
Easy, wild man…
I casually mentioned that MAYBE in part selecting a charity for the naming rights was a tax consideration. Obviously, that had nothing to do with Armstrong since he was not a party to Sporting’s decision to go that route versus merely selling the rights.
BTW, when they announced Livestrong was out, Sporting said they might go for the money and just sell the rights.
You should maybe consider taking something to help keep yourself calmed down a little, H.
Then again, thanks for the update on how to get into heaven. You must have some really kickass sources to land that one.
You forgot to explain what the verdict might be though on Armstrong’s incredibly heavy handed, mean spirited threats to his friends and teammates.
Guess playing the charity card makes that all good.
“Sporting Knasas City ”
Lance is a dipshit. I hadn’t really thought of why Cerner didn’t rename the stadium.
Well, they talked quite a bit about doing a naming rights deal early on and then surprised everybody by taking the unusual course of giving it away for free (and tax write-offs) along with other monies to a charitable concern.
They also made a big deal out of putting a special seat in the stadium for Lance and planned to do promotions in conjunction with Cerner’s medical conferences in which Lance would have made glad handing appearances. That is until he was disgraced and now they wouldn’t touch him with Paul Wilson’s 10 foot pole.
However, if the aim was to use the stadium for a good cause – a charity – how long does it take to give away however many million dollars?
Hey, it’s not like the Crawl for Cancer. Going to an MLS soccer match is a far cry from seeing how drunk you can get a bunch of local vols. How hard can it be to identify a worthy cause? Or just sell the rights and pick up a couple million.
These Cerner guys are not the sort to fall asleep at the switch, so one has to wonder what’s going on after all this time.
Then again, whoever made that last deal with Lance is undoubtedly not about to make another hasty decision and suffer the wrath of the ownership group.
for those who never met the cerner group…neal especially..
you know one thing. They don’t do things for the write offs.
Probably now the greatest civic minded organization we
have. They’ll probably be the last ones standing once
sprint leaves.
Dudes…there are people out there who do things from the
heart with no idea about whether they get a tax break or not.
It’s being godly…its being generous…
sure these people look for the breaks…but maybe its because
they are god’s children that they do things that help others.
maybe wislun and hearne and glaza and the rest of gthe
people on here could join in.
It will make you feel great. Try it. Not for the money…but
for your heart!
I don’t doubt that good intentions were at the heart of the matter, but businessmen don’t leave things like tax considerations out when making major financial decisions.
And frankly, I think they were clearly a little star struck to hop in the sack with Lance. They down played that after Armstrong got fully outed, but prior to they played that card to the hilt. Never underestimate the attraction for celebrities by big shots.
Hang Lance but let baseball get a pass and god knows there is no abuse in the NFL — RIGHT!! dream on..
you said it better than I could baseball gets a pass…
so true..so true…and yet wheres all the baseball/football guys
raising milliions/billions to save peoples lives.
sure there are a few …but lance..with all his faults and misgivings
did a lot to save millions of lives.
the sins …we will forgive…
the sinner…we will forgive for god looks a lot more at his actions
iin life than in sport..
god forgives lance….we all make mistakes.
right on baseball gets a pass…you understand the deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11