You're gonna love this

Outstanding article, very insightfully and very well thought out.

I love sports writers that talk and CAN NOT DO...

His words not mine.

AHHH as Paul Senior form American Chopper would say I AM GETTING AGRAVADED...



Roy

Obviously the man is a total MORON! What an idiot. Yeah, Ricky Williams is a good athlete, so was Walter Payton and any of the others he mentioned. However, none of them has even a fraction of the determination, stamina, or plain old fashioned guts that Lance has. It's not even close. I played football, sprinted in track in college, and now play hockey, and none of those sports even comes close to challenging me physically or mentally like endurance sports do. I'd rather take a dozen hits from an NFL lineman than try to time trial up L'ALp du Huez ANY day!
Ok...I'll stop and take a breath now!!

That article is hardly surprising. Every year around this time, some brain dead sports "writer" takes it upon himself to compare his sport of choice with cycling. The comparison is always skewed because the so-called writer knows absolutely nothing about cycling. There is a feedback button on the newspaper's site where we can send Mr Imren our opinions on his article.

I swear they just recycle this crap every July.  Just change a few names and pertinent facts to update the article, and it's off to the presses.  Whether you agree or disagree with him, it's sensationalism and that's what sells papers. 

Just the fact that he's comparing Lance Armstrong to a football player shows this mans lack of intelligence...talk about comparing apples to oranges! Football takes completely different skills, training, genetics, etc than cycling.

That fact does not diminish either athlete's accomplishment in his chosen sport.

Someone actually paid that guy MONEY to write that article....? And we're calling the writer a moron...

maybe he got dropped on his head when he was a child....

I used to live in Chicago and Imrem's articles are always ridiculous. I think he just likes to get a rise, but like I did before when I lived there I always drop him an email just to give my opinion of his. Here's part of what I wrote...

"If we were to take your article at face value, we would consider all of the competitor’s in the Olympics to be non-athletes because they can’t break a tackle in the NFL or hit Kerry Wood’s curveball. Mark Spitz, Edwin Moses, Carl Lewis, and Lance Armstrong are just men who didn’t have enough athletic ability to succeed in football or baseball so they chose the easier way out by competing with the world for measly gold medals and Tour de France trophies."

Matt

Wow, what a waste of an article. I like how he thinks it's important for a bicyclist to be able to take a hit from a 300-pounder. Oh yeah, I'm sure that will help him a lot. Silly bikers...you've been training the wrong way all these years.

If he wants to brag about Williams, he can; but trying to put down other athletes to build up Williams just weakens his entire case.

-dave

The only thing this "writer" has proved is his total ignorance about the sport of cycling. Oh, and his dubious grasp of the English language. Maybe if he tried writing in French it would come out better?

If I lived any nearer Chicago I'd make it a point to ride my bike past this guy's house early every morning and blow my air horn.

Edited by CLLinIA 2004-07-28 11:49 AM

I also wrote to him. This isn't an exact quote but is close to what I stated. While I realize that hitting a hundred mile an hour fastball is extremely difficult, I believe going down a 20k descent at 60+ miles an hour is even more difficult. In baseball an athlete is considered great for getting a hit in 3 out of every 10 at bats, if a bicyclist was succesful in only 3 out of every 10 descents he would be dead.

Dear Mr. Imrem:

Yer an idiot.

Sincerely,

Kevin

NOW I"M PISSED!
Imrem is a big fatheaded idiot! This moron thinks Willimams, Rodman, or Payton could ride a couple of hours in the TdF (Payton, maybe). Not at a race pace they would be left behind in the first few minutes! If the NFL ceased to exist today, I wouldn't miss it.

If you enjoy watching football that is your right, your privelage and I will defend your right's and privelages. (sorry I don't have spellcheck, a dictionary handy or an editor looking over my shoulder)

However, do you know how much time is truly spent playing a regulation game?

It takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours to play a 60 minute regulation game. The average game has 80 plays, the average play lasts 3 seconds. Where I went to school that's 240 seconds divide by 60 that's 4 minutes Yes folks, in a regulation NFL game the ball is in play only 4 minutes! Mulitply that by 16 regular season games, and you have a total of 1 hour and 4 minutes. Divide that equally between the offense and defense and each squad works about 30 minutes a year.

Lets see these guys ride for 30 minutes in any pro bike race

I hate it when uninformed idiots start comparing different sports, the old apples and oranges comparison. Lance isn't the greatest athlete of all time, Paul Sherwin (sorry I don't have time to look up the correct spelling) put it best, in my opinion, Eddie M. is the greatest cyclist based on his overall accomplisments Lance is the greatest TdF rider in our lifetime.

I'm done now.

Kevin, I love that comparison!

What he has also failed to grasp is the fact that none of the other people he mentioned came back from a near death experience and has also built his life around helping others with similar misfortunes.  In an age where professional athletes take a day off for a torn hangnail, you gotta admire the fortitude of guys like Armstrong, Hamilton, and countless others who don't wish to be in the spotlight.

Hopefully this Imrem guy won't ever be lying in a cancer ward someday...eating his own words...

FWIW...I sent him an email too...basically repeating my previous line.

Max

Edited by max 2004-07-28 12:55 PM

I've always wondered why that sport is called "football." Fool's Ball would be a more appropriate name.

Mike Imrem is an idiot. That's all I have to say about him.

this "sports writer" obviously got the debates he was looking for. As for tri-athletes, we don't have to take hits from 300 lb. guys, we can side-step them!

Now I'm about to be petty--but doesn't he look like a goofball??? He reminds me of a greying Mr. Bean, without his sex appeal (which ain't saying much!)

(o:

On the other hand, all the radio sports talk has been yammering about this same thing. It's tiresome. The thing that is so funny is this all spawns (or so I understand) from something that ESPN.com did--which was to have an internet face off of the greatest athlete ever. (Yes, Peter Reid and Tim DeBoom where in the intial contestants). Ultimately, Lance Armstrong came out the winner--so now every sports host/writer/soap boxer has this inherant need to tell us why ESPN was wrong. So 'they' started, and apparently 'they' need to finish it to. Just filling airtime I guess!!

Dana

Here's the link, if you're interested. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=degree/male/athlete...

Let's talk about the comparison he made...training for a pro football game by running Arlington Hill and biking in the Pyerenes mountains....anyone else see the slight difference. I'm from the Chicago area, and I have to say that there is no "hill" that could even come close to requiring the strength, stamina, and mental toughness that it would take to run in the mountains. If Lance saw this Arlington Hill, I think that he would just start chuckling to himself--"What a joke!".. This guy should just give it a try and then compare! And let's not mention the fact, that cycling is definately less financially rewarding than pro sports in the US. So, one would have to assume that Lance does this as a constant challenge to himself and true love of the sport. There is something very "pure" about that. Can any of our professional athletes say that they would continue his/her sport if there were not as many financial insentives??

and they do this every July.  It's old.  It's tired.  Time for some new shtick.

Rock on!!!!

Agree!!! Well put!!!

In his defense he is a Sports Writer....he cant help but be an idiot.

i've never understood people like imrem...why do we have to lessen the accomplishments of lance to make things like ricky williams' career seem so wonderful...sure ricky williams is a great football player just as lance is great cyclist - there's no disputing those facts...to make such ridiculous comparisons just makes imrem look like a complete ass...