Why do fringe sports need to be told to stay in their place? During the World Cup there are all sorts of "11 sissy primadonnas chasing a little ball and hitting with their toes" anti-soccer articles. During the tour there are anti-spandex clad cyclist articles, many of them in fact nerely going so far as advocate running cyclists over.
Really what it is is a type of athleti-phobia. These people are threatened by what they don't understand. Why would anyone want to watch skinny black people all named Kipketer run 25 laps around a track, what fun would that be.
Well in fact for a large segment of the worlds population there is a difference between Wilson Kipketer, Wilson Boit Kipketer, and Sammy Kipketer, a BIG difference. Same as there is a difference between Ronaldo, Ronaldhino, and Romario.
If you ask me baseball (I watch it, used to play it, and do like it) is the most f'ed up sport out there. No one can understand that shit!
Here's an article that will piss you off:
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Just another example of an idiot with a pen.
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The most insulting part is that he says that Barry Bonds is an athlete any "sport" that a man almost 300 lbs (Cecil Fielder) can excel at can not be considered athletic. I have yet to ever see a baseball player sweat except for when they realized they ran out of chewing tobacca or steroids.
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borges obviously wrote this piece somewhat tongue in cheek. i am sure that he'd be the last one to call it journalism. the guy is a good nfl reporter and used to cover pats on weei in boston.
Northstar wrote:
The most insulting part is that he says that Barry Bonds is an athlete any "sport" that a man almost 300 lbs (Cecil Fielder) can excel at can not be considered athletic. I have yet to ever see a baseball player sweat except for when they realized they ran out of chewing tobacca or steroids. -
This is the guy that shouts "RUN FORREST RUN!" whenever you are out for a run. And then proceeds to think that he is the first one to ever yell the phrase.
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No way that was tongue in cheek. He is simply a dumbass.
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I actually challenged the ass to come run a half marathon in my town, and try to call everyone unathletic. i would love to see him get his lazy butt out there and try to run. what a jerk. there has to be something more to it, either that or it is a classic example of how people who have to opportunity to reach the public through media can take advantage of it, and write about something they know nothing about (another example would be some fat sow on a talk show discussing her views on terrorism while she should be talking about her upcoming lyposuction surgery)
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Here was my reply:
Ron,
To say the four-time winner of the Tour de France is not athletic is to say that you know what you're talking about. -
I'm also in the sports journalism profession and find a majority of the people I work with have no idea and no respect for what running is. I ran for four years at a Division 1 college and trying to explain to the guys I work with how tough a sport running is, is just about impossible. They actually try to tell me that hockey,football and golf are the toughest sports out there. They also tried comparing cross country to playing soccer and running around a soccer field. Right there I knew I'd be wasting my breathe trying to explain running, not jogging, running. So to hear Mr. Ron come up with such a stupid column still pissed me off, but it is not all that surprising.
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Geez, ok it is so obvious the dude is a moron, but you know what? He is enjoying that he made you all red and mad while reading his article. Its an opinion of a dumbass, let is go. Opinions of dumbasses shouldn't make any of us flinch.
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IF I see him out on the roads trying to make it through his 1mile morning crawl I will f#ck him up
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Ron Borges\' thoughts on Lance Armstrong are so idiotic and ignorant that it astounds me that NBC would employ such an inept individual to write regular columns. Clearly he is trying to get a rise out of people, but he does so at the expense of his (and NBC\'s) credibility.
Borges asserts that Armstrong is not an athlete. He then defines an athlete as involving \"strength, speed, agility, hand-eye coordination, mental toughness and the ability to make your body do things that defy description.\" If any sport on this earth displays those characteristics, it\'s cycling.
Strength: Propelling your body up a mountain. Think that takes strength?
Speed: Sprint finishes for every race that doesn\'t finish on the top of a mountain.
Agility: Trying to get a bike into position in a sprint out of a large peleton is one of the trickiest tests of agility that exists.
Hand-eye coordination: Has Ron even seen how Lance descends a twisty mountain road at 60mph? Not only is hand-eye coordination crucial for victory, it is essential to not literally riding off the a cliff.
Mental toughness: Please.
The ability to make your body do things that defy description: Is he joking?
To further address some of Borges\' moronic comments: \"But could he do it if someone was playing defense?\" Uhh...Ron, have you even watched a single stage of the Tour, and noticed the way the ONCE team was trying to \"defend the Yellow Jersey\" (which is an oft-used expression) when they had it. There is constant defense, but Ron is clearly too obtuse to see it.
\"Whatever Armstrong is doing, most of the sporting world could?t care less.\" What Ron fails to recognize is that the sports that the sporting world \"couldn\'t care less about\" are boxing and football, which he apparently covers for the Globe. All of Europe is crazy about cycling...in fact it\'s the 2nd most popular sport after soccer. It\'s wildly popular in South America as well. Football has no following outside the US, and boxing gets the mainstream population\'s attention because of theatrics, not feats of athleticism. So, if we\'re truly talking about the world, boxing and football are the real fringe sports.
On Borges\' insinuations that Armstrong is doped: The guy is tested more than any athlete on this planet, and has turned out clean every time. Sammy Sosa, on the other hand, is lauded by the public, but refuses to take even one test.
Anyways, it\'s good to see that NBCsports is doing its part to help out the welfare system by employing otherwise unemployable jackasses like Borges.
Sincerely,
Kohlberg
