League Notes

SI's King Compliments New NFLPA Exec Dir Smith

SI.com's Peter King last week in DC met with NFLPA Exec Dir DeMaurice Smith, and wrote Smith is "personable, he listens, he makes good arguments ... and, more importantly, he's a huge football fan." Smith said of NFL owners' desire for "more manageable" rookie salaries, "I haven't seen a rookie check that isn't signed by an owner. We don't write the checks, and we don't sign them." Meanwhile, Smith said of an expansion of the NFL regular season to 17 or 18 games, "I'd like to know exactly what the statistical probability is for increased injuries by players. I'd like to know the econometrics of the issue, and I'd like to make sure the cost and compensation of the extra games would be fair to the players." Smith said of a potential work stoppage if a new CBA cannot be reached, "I have to believe the owners want to play the games without interruption. I know our players do" (SI.com, 4/14).

BOTTOMING OUT: In Daytona Beach, Godwin Kelly wrote of the economy's effect on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, "This is the worst it will get. From this point, the sport will either ride along a flat-line a while or begin to rally off its many low points." The days of sellouts are "over for now." In seven Sprint Cup races this season, there have been only "two full house events." Meanwhile, NASCAR has seen "almost a double-digit decline in viewership from last year." Kelly: "I can't imagine television ratings getting much worse than right now" (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 4/12).

AU REVOIR? HBO's Bryant Gumbel noted cyclist Lance Armstrong is "saying that he may not be allowed to compete for an eighth (Tour de France) title this July," as French anti-doping officials allege Armstrong broke testing rules by showering prior to submitting to a drug test last month. Gumbel: "That shower may or may not have helped Lance pass the test, but it did nothing to cleanse Armstrong of the scent that has defined him for a decade. In a sport notorious for the pervasiveness of doping, Armstrong, throughout a series of accusations and denials, has always claimed that he was what the French would call drogue librement, or drug free. ... Those who buy his act and think Lance is being victimized by foreigners who can't stomach an American's superiority, will no doubt see his exclusion from this year's Tour de France as patently unfair. Others will surely see karma at work and feel that his banishment has been a long time coming. Either way, it seems that Lance Armstrong may have finally given French officials good reason to tell him not just au revoir, but also bon debarras. That's French for good riddance" ("Real Sports," HBO, 4/14)