Lane Kiffin Deflates Air Out of USC

If the late Al Davis were alive today, he’d feel vindicated and like he’s the world’s smartest person. The more it’s brought to our attention, the more fans learn the truth about Lane Kiffin, the second-year coach at USC, whose bizarre play calling and methods have smudged the Trojans’ national title aspirations.

With five losses this season, it’s hard to trust Kiffin, and his father, Monte, who is USC defensive coordinator. Whether they are athletic director Pat Haden’s guys or not, the Kiffins don’t deserve merit or applause for sabotaging the beauty of a prestigious and distinguished program that a multitude of Southern Californians marvel for its history of triumph, names and Heisman trophy winners. The Kiffins aren’t the centerpieces of the USC culture, just a step backwards, which could very well turn into a dilemma.

It was conceived that Lane and Monte are unfitted for demanding coaching jobs, a more notable and respected athletic program, where expectations are immense. The perception of the Trojans suddenly fading into the background is real, with no standards like before when USC used to be the powerhouses of college football, and weren’t vulnerable or substandard. Fact is, the Trojans are standing by someone who has proven he cannot coach an elite program, which is now on decline. This is something USC fans, students, faculty and alumni are not all too familiar with, but in the post-Carroll era, the Men of Troy are hurting without a first-rate coach who has an acute understanding on how to groom an attractive program inured to triumph and accumulating bowl titles.

Haden is absolutely serious about Kiffin returning next season. But what about your program, Haden? What about protecting the school, and not someone who had familiarity with the university under the tutelage of Pete Carroll from 2001-2006? What about keeping a winning team intact, and not caring so much about Kiffin’s recruiting brilliance, needing Ed Orgeron by his side to lure a top recruiting class?

Through it all, Haden assures Kiffin that he will return regardless of the Trojans (No. 18 BCS, No. 21 AP) finishing 7-5, after entering the season ranked No. 1 in the AP poll. For so long, the Trojans have been on top of the mountain. The tale of this storied program is something many would prefer not to tell when USC lost to Stanford, Arizona, Oregon and UCLA, three of those losses in the past month. Of course, no one ever saw this coming, since the Trojans were projected to contend for a national title, with all their talent, athleticism and depth. Unlike UCLA or Notre Dame, USC was devoid of Rose Bowl consideration, after an embarrassing loss to UCLA, which sent the Bruins to the Pac-12 title game Nov. 30.

The man who was hired to clean up the mess and purge all of the scummy violations is counting on Kiffin to change the culture and guide the Trojans to the promise land, failing to realize that he’s deflating just as fast as a football, quickly exposing himself to unfavorable judgment. The man who was brought on board to clean house is allowing Kiffin to demolish USC, and ride another season of hell and torture. The truth of the matter is, Haden is smarter than that, and should know better, who was once a Rhodes scholar and is a retired NFL quarterback. The bottom line is, Kiffin is a cheater and failure on so many levels.

In all seriousness, Kiffin wasn’t ever coaching material, although he worked in the shadows of one of the greats in NCAA history. And the longer he’s in Los Angeles, the faster the program will submerge under his watch. Bad as his past is, bad as his reputation is, Kiffin cannot be trusted, not anytime soon, not ever. If USC looks to move forward, they’ll have to divorce Kiffin and both parties would have to go their separate ways.

Until then, the Trojans won’t succeed with Kiffin on the sideline calling ill-advised plays and exploiting weird schemes, which gives him and his father bad names, as the vast majority are impatient and outraged hoping to run the Kiffins out of town. The most hated person in college football, undoubtedly, is easily Kiffin. From Knoxville to Los Angeles, Kiffin has encountered a tremendous amount of hatred and seems unwanted at every institution in the US of A. The spotlight placed on Lame Kiffin, the most scorned person at USC, is too much — and not once this season did Kiffin take responsibility for this team’s suffering, long suffering – to be exact.

He is not a hero in the sense of reviving a program, but a saboteur of some sort and a con artist whom we’d like to see disappear into the darkened clouds of his own allegations from the past, and never step foot on campus ever again. It’s utterly repugnant that he ignored NCAA rules at Tennessee, where Kiffin was cited by the NCAA for his involvement in coaches and student hostesses making improper contacts with recruits. For a long time, he was in people’s heads, beating and abusing the system, just what he had in mind. As a scumbag with no morals and no sense of integrity for the game, Kiffin violated the rules as if he was above the law, arrogant and reckless during the NCAA investigations, which led to another boneheaded action.

That was when he forayed into the Tennessee Titans and hired running backs coach Kennedy Pola as his offensive coordinator, without getting permission from Titans then-head coach Jeff Fisher. For much of his coaching career, Kiffin has been a sneaky, untrustworthy person who’s out to create mishap and play loose with the rules that enables him to behave impolitely and wrongly, which usually results in infractions. What we can take away from Kiffin’s arrogance and self-indulgence, along with his lack of awareness and concern about an institution, is the fact that he refuses to consult the rulebook and just go about it his way.

Kiffin, from the first day, was never the guy for USC when, in fact, he was hired by ex-athletic director, Mike Garrett, another former Trojan football legend, leaving USC in an absolute mess and tarnishing his legacy with a reputation as the worst sham in college athletics. The humiliating 22-13 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday night marked the first time since 1995 that the Trojans were swept by their rivals. So now there’s blame on Kiffin, which seems accurate with his play calling in critical situations.

The criticism of Kiffin is understandable, after failing to call timeouts after two runs were stopped in the Notre Dame game and after he didn’t signal for a timeout in a goal-line situation early in the game, which might’ve taken away a touchdown pass. Kiffin, who has more enemies than friends, is blamed for the Trojans disappointing season because of his dumb mistakes and clock management issues. This is something the Trojans don’t need, because the fall from grace has been horrendous, particularly when they could and should have beaten the unbeaten Irish Saturday.

While USC could have smeared No. 1 Notre Dame from playing for its first national championship in 24 years, the Irish celebrated on the field in Los Angeles and finally had bragging rights over USC, with the versatility of Everett Golson, championship-building guru Brian Kelly and senior linebacker Manti Te’o. The Trojans talent was unlimited, with Marqise Lee and Robert Woods of a lethal USC receiving core, along with Matt Barkley, who the Trojans missed on Saturday night. The injured quarterback was replaced by redshirt freshman Max Wittek, who had a solid debut. He completed 14 of 23 passes for 186 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions, but it certainly wasn’t good enough to end the Irish’s hopes.

And so the Trojans lacks leadership and have a lethargic, futile and flawed defense. But the bigger issue here is Kiffin, folks. It won’t get any better for USC, until Haden realizes that he’s essentially not made to be a coach. For his career, he is a staggering 37-32 as a head coach with the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Volunteers and USC. It sounds like Kiffin can only beat unranked opponents, and loses to top-ranked opponents. That’s become his trait, and it’s a bad trait.

As long as Haden calls Kiffin his guy, well, then, expect the worst.

Miami Marlins: Crooked Jeffrey Loria Destroys Another Franchise

Never did I perceive Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria as a crook. But now, today, I have a different outlook on Loria and can't stomach his sins, which are embarrassing and negligent. He drops his head in shame with a sorrowful gaze in his eyes, watching his reputation smear, seeing his image fall from grace these days when he deceived, hoodwinked, misled and lied to millions of people in South Florida.

Loria, a dishonest, immoral, deceitful criminal, stole $509 million of taxpayer dollars to build a colossal palace, Marlins Park, and needs to be arrested, prosecuted and spend time behind bars. Along those lines, Loria’s con artistry and absolute crime is morally wrong, just like years ago when he was an owner in Montreal. The fact he's responsible and forever guilty of destroying the once pride and joy of major league baseball describes Loria's character.

By now, he's not the most likable guy, particularly in South Florida, where the folks can run him out of town for his dirtiness and deceptiveness. It's clear Marlins president, David Samson, and Loria lied about their finances, foolishly stabbed fans and taxpayers in the back to build a $634 million ballpark right across from a Walgreens - a team that was supposed to contend in October and maybe even for the fall classic after a rebuilding project. The Marlins, who were expected to make the postseason with an all-star team, couldn't reach expectations and prematurely exposed themselves to criticism by fading out of contention and underachieving, regardless of having a solid ball club.

Still, while he was committing fraud, and failed to run his business flawlessly, fans should have known something fishy was happening. Years removed from his prior affair in Montreal, Loria wasn't ever to be trusted. When he brought the Expos in 1999, he promised to remodel and turn the franchise into a winner. Perhaps most of all, dating back to those days, he assured that he’d build a new stadium or else move the team elsewhere. As time went on, during his ownership of the Expos, Loria dumped so much talent and fans angrily disconnected from a downcast, broken franchise. So before his arrival to Miami, Loria destroyed the Expos.

People in Montreal were lied to as well, as Loria promised to rebuild the franchise and bring a championship, but it was one of his conniving misdeeds. But winning a championship wasn't ever his priority, either. This isn't to say he wasn't a winner or that he never cared about constructing a triumphant ball club.

But there is a sense that he's only in the business to embezzle millions of dollars while running a scam, and ruin the integrity of a game that is already in shambles because of the performance-enhancing drug crisis and other deficiencies that have materialized under inept MLB commissioner, Bud Selig's watch. Granted, Loria lied to taxpayers of Miami Dade County, who are now irate over a hoax that leaves thousands of South Florida residents pledging to boycott the team. The monstrosity for a sordid owner, when Loria swindled taxpayers out of millions just to buy office furniture, expensive drapes and fabric for pillow covers, has sadly sabotaged his reputation and also placed the Marlins franchise in the middle of turmoil.

There is, no doubt, people hoping to file a lawsuit against Loria at this point, enraged and disgusted over the fact that he swindled fans again. It's almost mind-boggling how Loria hasn't learned the first time, committing similar crimes twice, still set in his narrow-minded, deplorable ways. The most troubling part of all of this, throughout the SEC investigation, is that Miami taxpayers will owe more than $2.4 billion once payments on the stadium balloons. He's more of criminal for pocketing revenue-sharing dollars, for claiming the team couldn't afford to erect the park themselves and for building a stadium on counterfeit money, thanks to baffled, misguided taxpayers who made it possible for the new ballpark, a venue with a bevy of empty seats last season.

This is a public outrage, to say the least, a franchise foundering and deteriorating on its deathbed. Selig couldn't stop Loria and Samson from destroying another baseball market, and a high-market team on the top of it. At least a couple times, perhaps more, Loria has done something to hurt and affect his persona. As he undermines the sport, he is, as usual, brilliant in a sense -- and sadly -- is brilliant enough to influence people to believe he's a shrewd businessman who will follow through on his promises.

The most powerful man in baseball, using his business acumen to become richer and bolder, happens to be a fraud, a phony, and a two-timing swindler. But no matter how one understands it, no matter how much no one wants to think about it, Loria and Samson are partners in crime, and this is a slap in the face to those who actually appreciates the game. After the most bizarre scene in Montreal, after allowing the team to hit rock bottom, Loria sold the Expos for $120 million to a partnership comprising of 29 other major league baseball clubs and he was given a $38.5 million interest-free loan. In return, he brought the Marlins for $158.5 million.

This made it possible for then-Marlins owner John Henry to purchase the Boston Red Sox. Of all things he's done, the Marlins team won the 2003 World Series. Amazingly enough he was the owner, he was the man who celebrated in triumph, but destroyed plenty of lives before and after. But because of an arbitration panel ruled in favor of Loria, Samson and Selig, claiming the plaintiffs' "sense of betrayal, even if justified, doesn't amount to fraud." At the end of the 2004 season, Selig declared the Expos would relocate to Washington, D.C.

All along, Selig know they were lying and refused to confront Loria and Samson. In other words, he condoned this behavior, he allowed them both to get away with these senseless actions. There wasn't a year that Selig didn't see the Marlins finances, but as always he's covering up for Loria and Samson to protect his legacy, the dispirited league and those two frauds' reputations. It's obvious Loria will be allowed a free ride, without serving a suspension or being hit with an expensive fine. In the meantime, though, he broke his promise that he and Samson vowed to competitiveness. Turns out he reneged on his word.

There's a problem in Miami, in the recent fallout of a trade frenzy, dumping $181 million in salary by sending Hanley Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers before the 2012 trade deadline. The next move sending Heath Bell to Arizona shortly after the season ended. But the Marlins weren't done. Bye bye, Jose Reyes. See you later, Mark Buehrle. Farewell, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio. In other news, the Toronto Blue Jays -- just like that -- are AL East contenders, pulling off a 12-player trade, which is deemed as a major overhaul for the Blue Jays. And suddenly, even throughout the offseason, Toronto benefits in the latest fire sale for a Marlins team that's in tremendous disarray.

"Alright, I'm pissed off!!! Plain & Simple," slugger Giancarlo Stanton tweeted.

The Marlins owe $19.6 million to their four players past arbitrations, when they entered last season with a $101.6 million payroll. There's a very slight chance Stanton will re-sign and commit to a long-term deal with the Marlins. With all this lost talent, it only makes the Marlins richer, as the value increases to an estimate of $450 million, according to Forbes.

This is what sports have become in Miami, unfortunately, where a shenanigan is committing fraud and robbing fans of currency.

Andy Reid’s Days Are Numbered In Philly

A long time ago, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie should have parted ways with embattled coach Andy Reid. A long time ago, the Eagles should have moved in another direction for the betterment of their team. The level of tension and criticism, which coaches and pro athletes commonly tolerates on the east coast, is anything but respectful and kind to Mr. Reid.

That might be east coast bias? Um, no east coast bias here.

No one is kidding when they say the Philadelphia Eagles are an absolute mess, amid a publicity outcry as ineptitude and struggles from quarterback Mike Vick creates a ruckus in the City of Brotherly Love. It’s anything but lovely in Philly, and more than ever, it’s becoming hell on earth every week for a team that seems to be in a state of confusion, not sure which direction to take to resolve these repeated letdowns. The endless uproar of a quarterback controversy is taking away from what could and should have been an efficient season, with the entire Eagles’ ingredients, possessing the qualities of presumably a Super Bowl team.

Turns out the Eagles aren’t a legitimate threat as everyone had made them out to be, but an utter disappointment, leaving fans wondering and thinking about what direction this team needs to take to heal the wounds. Reid and Vick’s careers are in absolute uncertainty — a rational sentiment that inevitably comes to one’s mind. The Eagles, who are just 3-4 this season, haven’t stood up to expectations. This team was supposed to be the self-proclaimed “Dream Team,” an overhyped team operated by an inept Reid, whose coaching tenure is numbered.

Fourteen years now, and Reid is finally hit with more scrutiny, clearly ridiculed and loathed for his stubbornness and inflexibly. Philly fans are unhappy – not content with Reid. With time winding down, disgruntled Philly fans had enough of Andy Reid, and people locally have called in to sports talk radio ripping and venting their anger toward him. Early in the season, Lurie addressed the team with his unambiguous statement and said that another 8-8 season would not be tolerated. In clarity, Reid’s coaching job could be on the line, even though Lurie has been loyal and given his coach more elbowroom than most coaches in a risky business.

The final days of a reign looms for Reid and even he knows that himself, but not worried about his job status and is just taking it day by day to avoid unnecessary stress, while dealing with heavy burdens and criticism for sticking with Vick and not giving the starting nod to backup Nick Foles. This would be a good time to experiment and explore other options. This would be a good time, though some fans are satisfied and prefer to see Vick engineer the offense, to bench him in favor of the rookie quarterback and see what he can produce for the second half of the season. Vick, who has nine touchdowns and eight interceptions, lacks a sense of awareness and has been too clumsy.

The struggles that have haunted the Eagles through the first six weeks are Vick’s ball security issues and Reid’s decision to not demote him and not make a drastic change for the sake of the franchise, as Reid desperately should be trying anything to save his job. But it’s a bit too late. Nothing can save Reid’s job, not even Foles, not even a hapless defense, not even team executives. The firing of defensive coordinator Juan Castillo during bye week and awarding Todd Bowles a challenging role, the Eagles’ new defensive coordinator, certainly wasn’t enough.

No matter what Reid does at this point, no matter what direction he takes, he’s on his way out of Philly by the holiday season and should be dismissed. He’s the longest-tenure NFL head coach, and the most polarizing coach ever — it would be the end of his coaching era in Philly. It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship Reid and Lurie built over the years, just doesn’t seem relevant. Lurie is running a business, not having a family reunion. He is trying to put the best product and coaching staff on the field and, at the end of the day, it’s all about winning if nothing else.

It was Reid’s idea to give Vick the starting job and replace the veteran quarterback with a beleaguered Donovan McNabb, who was wrongly blamed and then ran out of town by bitter and ungrateful Philly fans. If nobody else had confidence in Vick, following a dogfighting scandal that killed his credibility and reflected on his image in a negative way as he had fallen from grace, Reid did and gave Vick a second chance after paying his debts to society. When he bankrolled a dogfighting ring, which was perceived as Bad Newz Kennels, he was portrayed as a criminal and now he’s a scapegoat on the field, sputtering badly after three straight losses. For one, Vick’s offensive line is horrendous and cannot protect him from taking a brutal beating that usually results in a fumble or either an interception, as he’s forced to get rid of the ball to avoid a boisterous pass-rush.

It’s becoming a weekly trait, as Eagles defense, under Bowles, continues to struggle collectively. They’ve got a lot of major problems defensively – missing too many tackles, bad penalties and few stops on third downs. So, it’s not only fair to blame Vick, but the quarterbacks do take 90 percent of the blame when something goes wrong during the regular season as it has in Philly. Vick isn’t getting it done, but Reid insists that he’s his guy. That’s where Reid is making his mistake and where he will cost himself a job as Eagles head coach, especially if this team misses the postseason, which they probably will at the rate the Eagles are playing.

Stop being the Eaglets.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize it is time for a new regime in Philly, time to cut ties with Reid and ride the coaching carousel during the offseason. A lot of the blame in recent memory, particularly after a humiliating 30-17 loss to the Atlanta Falcons last Sunday, has been placed on Reid and Vick. Frustrated and disillusioned, fans showed up at Lincoln Financial Field, booing and jeering Reid. They were chanting “Fire Andy,” in a game that the Birds were outplayed and outcoached.

I’ve tried defending Andy for many years. I cannot much longer. It’s time for a change and he won’t be coaching the Eagles much longer. Barring a change of culture, Reid’s theory of doing a better job is getting old and Vick should be benched. If he’s not athletic or accurate, maybe it’s a sign that this team now requires a change … or else no success for a non-talented, broken and underachieving franchise, unable to make strides and dominate the NFC East – with LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, and Brent Celek. There’s no question, after his gruesome crime off the field and recent struggles, that Vick has turned into the most polarizing figure in the NFL, if not in sports.

Vick is either loved or hated but Reid is scorned completely, with profoundly uncheerful fans that can’t wait to celebrate his demise to erase the long-suffering of losses and endless woes. This gives a person every right to be skeptical and unsure about Vick. But it’s rational to assume that Vick is gone if Reid is fired at the end of this season, when he was the one coach who gambled and recruited the troubled star player, and then made him a starter. This late in Vick’s career, he’s not an elite quarterback, although at one point he was a prodigious athlete before sent to prison for his dogfighting scandal. The more he throws, the more likely he will throw the ball to the opposite team for an interception. The more he holds on to the ball, the more likely he fumbles. By the end of every game this season, when he’s turned over the ball 50,000 times, we think of his poor accuracy, his apathy and his lack of maturity.

Meanwhile, if he can’t win eight games at the most, Reid is definitely hitting the road and won’t ever be appreciated by unsympathetic fans.

Whose Fault Now, Cowboys? Tony Romo, No Doubt

A person can only give Tony Romo the benefit of the doubt for so long. By now, we are long past extending our sympathy to an unskilled player who is not reaching standards with a demanding, heavy scrutinized franchise, as we should be with a man who continues to make the same mistakes and not learn from his boo-boos.

Romo is playing for the wrong team, an organization not committed to failure and instead perfection. But we never see perfection from Romo, and if Cowboys’ fans happen to witness a paragon of excellence, it’s never during a critical time in the game. That’s usually when he blows it. Late in the game.

When he’s under pressure and needs to make a statement, Romo chokes on damn applesauce. The worst he’s ever choked on was Gerber’s baby food. Over the past few seasons, as Romo quarterbacked the Dallas Cowboys to early postseason exits or horrifying collapses, which usually comes no later than December, he’s rarely been blamed or vilified following embarrassing losses that were a disgrace to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who spent top-dollar to assemble the best product.

Maybe Romo can pioneer the Cowboys to a Super Bowl victory, but he’d have to minimize the number of turnovers, cease making poor decisions with the ball and stop being so careless and play with more assertiveness. Sometimes watching Romo makes me cringe. Sometimes watching Romo makes me less interested in watching the Cowboys. It’s the same old routine, the same tired absurdity each week and Romo is so predictable, that fans don’t have to even watch to get the 411.

Be consistent and protect the ball. That’s all we ever ask of Antonio Ramiro Romo, the choking quarterback who is overpraised and defended by his peers, fans and bosses. For almost six years, Romo wasn’t keeping up with the Joneses, not then, not ever. It’s well established that Romo, who threw four interceptions on Sunday in a disastrous 29-24 loss to the New York Giants, is not the next elite quarterback. He’s not even close to what Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach were. It’s troubling enough that Romo, whose inability to complete and deliver a pass to his wide receivers, cannot ever advance further than the first round or even escape the first round with a postseason victory. And if he’s not mistake-free and persists on blundering week in and week out, Romo will always be victimized by a defensive back and will have the ball picked.

One day, eventually, Jones will come to his senses and replace him with another quarterback. No one in pro football, after having an awful performance, has been appreciated more than Romo. He thinks he’s one who should be anchoring the Cowboys. And, of course, just by his body language and frantic looks, which has become old news lately for Cowboys fans, Romo does not take accountability for his team’s failures. Like so many tortured fans, mad with the world and disappointed at the organization, they surely could run Romo out of town, burn his expensive jerseys and stage a funeral outside of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

It’s hard to believe in a guy when each week he repeatedly turns over the ball to cost the Cowboys and his teammates a victory. It’s hard to believe in a guy who is frequently shaky and vulnerable for attack every time he takes a snap. It has become common to watch Romo gag each week, like a man gagging on a T-bone steak. The Heinrich maneuver could in all probability save that man’s life, whereas for Romo, not even an emergency rescue procedure could rescue him from hell. In fairness, Romo is likely less blameless, with a team that consist of an aging core, with a team that lacks an offensive line. It doesn’t help that Jason Garrett is on the sideline as Cowboys head coach, as his bad clock management and unsuccessful play calling could have an unwanted effect on Romo.

If people would just look at the offense, they’d see an aging group of players who were recruited by Bill Parcells – Miles Austin and Jason Witten. As they approach the end of their careers, DeMarcus Ware and Jay Ratliff are only getting older and cannot run as hard as they once did to rush the opposing quarterback. But before the Cowboys are described as a mediocre team for the next few years, which makes sense if Romo is still quarterbacking the team, let’s not forget that Dez Bryant is the star of the future. And, in fact, he should be the only player worthy of wearing the star logo helmet, after making what appeared to be a spectacular game-winning catch Sunday.

Sadly enough, the Cowboys are a staggering 3-4 and are in tremendous disarray, with another season in jeopardy of nothing more but a waste. If Jones doesn’t care much, then apparently no one else cares much, either, when in fact all of his players are paid and overly pampered. This is a huge problem for the Cowboys and Romo, about as worst as it can get for a famous team that has failed to reach expectations and is bothered by fiascoes, which has crippled Jones’ ‘Boys for years. What should have been an eye opener a long time ago was Romo, who was given more than enough time to correct his throwing mechanics, his weak spots and find ways to eliminate costly mistakes that normally results in an intercepted pass. Romo can’t breathe, nor can he dodge the scrutiny, after throwing to men wearing blue uniforms instead of those wearing white. What I know is, and you should know this as well, is that the Cowboys won’t ever again see triumph until Jones part ways with a fluctuant quarterback.

I don’t care that he becomes the first ever Cowboys quarterback to throw for 500 yards in a game. I don’t care that he’s signed through 2013. I don’t care that Bill Polian, a former Panthers and Colts executive, advised the Cowboys to stick with him. And I certainly don’t care that Romo wasn’t the center of attention or even blamed for most of the team’s misfortune, during a time in his life when he was dating starlet Jessica Simpson and jetted off to a romantic trip to Mexico before a playoff game. I don’t even care whether or not Terrell Owens was a detriment to the team and divided his teammates. That’s all irrelevant now. Talk about what’s relevant.

Romo has won only one playoff game in his six seasons as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback. Romo, sad to say the least, is really not much of a difference from Ryan Leaf, Quincy Carter, Vinny Testaverde or Drew Bledsoe. This season alone, he has nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions. As we are midway through the NFL season, Romo is declining, retrograding and deteriorating. Where he stands now is far from elite. Where he stands now is far from a Super Bowl winner. If they could, the Cowboys would snatch Aikman from the broadcasting booth and sign him to a deal to take snaps on Sundays. If you think this is a joke, it’s really not a joke, it’s not a laughing matter. It’s a disgrace to a well-respected franchise, which is now America’s most scrutinized franchise, as Romo and company makes a damn mockery out of a team built of champions, good character and grace.

If Romo is their guy, ‘Boys won’t be ‘Boys.

Truth is, he’s not a franchise quarterback, he’s a franchise disgrace, but Jones doesn’t see it. Then again, maybe he does and just doesn’t want change and rather continue to head down the wrong direction, delaying success and keeping an impatient Dallas fan base waiting for different results.

If the Cowboys are to escape misery and win a Super Bowl title, Jones must get rid of Romo.

No other solution.

2012 London Olympics: LeBron James’ Heroics Delivers Gold to U.S.

A nation shared its proudness and appreciation Sunday. Basketball was MADE IN THE USA, after all. LeBron James, among all players, was the man of red, white and blue, representing the United States with a sense of pride and grace and led the U.S. to back-to-back Olympic gold medals. He, among all players, jumped for joy in celebration near the bench, wearing a widened smile as if he was a kid who opened a brand new Spalding basketball with MJ’s signature on it. As he led the Americans in the gold-medal game, he was entitled to jubilate with his U.S. teammates, he was entitled to laugh and crack jokes with the youngest one on the team, Anthony Davis.

The man who is the most polarizing figure is suddenly an American hero for restoring hope in U.S. basketball, for reducing the embarrassment of falling from grace in a game we originated, dominated, popularized, and then produced NBA’s finest studs to showcase a new era of talented stars. The man who is the most loathed player is suddenly a savior, a humble and unselfish human being. You don’t have to like him, no, but what he’s done for U.S. basketball is beyond incredible — it’s athletic brilliance and staying power. Maybe after he searched for U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski on the sideline and greeted him with a hug, you perceive him differently. Maybe after he stood on the podium, aglow with pride, fighting back tears as the Star Spangled Banner belted out of the loudspeaker, you have gained more respect for James. Lauded in these games, he wrapped the American flag around his shoulders and sprinted a victory lap around the court, and then celebrated with the guys proudly and happily.

He didn’t just make the country proud — he escaped hatred, anger and antipathy as one of the most recognizable athletes in the world. It marked the first time, since the megalomaniacal spectacle he televised to announce that he would be signing with the Miami Heat, that he’s pleased millions nationwide. It marked the first time, since he departed Cleveland abruptly to outrage most of the town, that he’s beautifully appreciated for an unpaid effort to compete for our country and be honored for healing America’s basketball woes. The dominance of the United States men’s basketball team, mainly because of James’ leadership and humility, has been profoundly crafty and unbeatable. With James on the U.S. side, the basketball program has risen to the top of the world again, built with NBA stars from a number of franchises that came together and contended against world-class athletes as the game is globalized. You may not love LeBron, but he loves you, willing to sacrifice his vacation months to represent this country in a respectful manner. That’s what he did this summer — unselfishly and willingly — and didn’t mind playing for his country. Before they partied in London, with gold medals hanging from their necks, James poured in 19 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had a team-high four assists, all while he was in foul trouble.

So he finally smiled, breathed a sigh of relief, realizing he had just done something good for America, where he’s despised and demonized because of jealousy or bitterness. But now, we can only send our thanks and bow to the King after his excellent performances throughout the tournament. There’s no doubt, just no doubt, that James would have been named the MVP in the Olympics, if such an honorable award existed. But in America, he’s clearly our Most Valuable Player, the global superstar we are impressed by and call our superhero. For James, the reigning NBA champion after winning his first title for the Miami Heat, he’s the iconic face of American sports, particularly for what he’s accomplished in these Olympics. And by no means were Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant underachievers in London, as the team almost featured a different star on a nightly basis.

Durant, meanwhile, scored 30 points and collected nine rebounds and Bryant scored 17 points. This time, respectfully so, the United States needed James in the fourth quarter. As time dwindled down in the final period — like he did last spring for the Heat — he came through when it counted the most to prove to the world that he’s a clutch performer. He carried Team USA on his shoulders, just as he carried the flag proudly when it all came to an end on the last day of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, a chance for the players to get to know one another as they came together as respected teammates. But most of all, even if you hate James, he did this for you, he did this for America, and he did this for me.

It’s about America, not LeBron. The absence of King James could have smudged Team USA’s gold-medal ambitions, but, of course, Krzyzewski lobbied for him to join Team USA and restore a winning personality internationally. We can make better sense of it, when perhaps James had the best fourth-quarter performance of the afternoon, silencing haters and doubters. It looks a lot like James isn’t selfish and egocentric, but a competitor who opted for a change of scenery and seized the opportunity to venture elsewhere to win a championship. The chosen one, the man of the fourth performed to hold off Spain late in the closing minutes. James basically rebranded U.S. basketball and repaired his bad-boy image. The nail-biting scare was when James took over, as the Americans coasted to a 107-100 victory.

The Spaniards tried to cut into a lead the U.S. owned, but down the stretch Chris Paul made a couple of baskets that extended the lead. The signature play happened when James drove to the lane for a dunk that gave the U.S. a 99-91 lead and put the icing on the cake. When Spain pulled within six points, LeBron was still playing aggressive, although he had four fouls, and responded by hitting a three-pointer that gave Team USA an eight-point advantage. At age 33, entering his 16th season, Bryant is still the best closer but isn’t as dominant. There’s the notion that Team USA could have taken home silver, if not for James, as the U.S. beat Spain by 11 points. In today’s game, LeBron is gradually stepping into the closer role in his prime, and four years from now in Rio, he’ll definitely be the star all eyes will be on.

The Americans are back to take back what was theirs at the Summer Olympics with the likes of Bryant, Paul, Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler, Deron Williams and James Harden, doing it without the presence of Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard and Dwyane Wade.

But it’s about the USA and thanking James.

2012 London Games: Nobody Can Catch Usain Bolt

The first thing I should note, as I couldn’t keep track of the Jamaicans smoking the U.S., is that Usain Bolt is really the greatest track showman. He’s a showboat, a demigod and a natural-born athlete, the sprinting sensation of the world, which affirms he’s The World’s Fastest Man. Nobody can keep up with Bolt, let alone the Americans, an amazing talent running the greatest footraces of these London Games.

Lightning Bolt is the hero of the Olympics, a new theme of track and field. It’s the greatest show in the world by a man who is merely described as the fastest man alive, born with a gift to run for his life and break world records as we become crazy about the Usain Bolt Show. His countryman, Yohan Blake, the 100 and 200-meter silver medalist, handed over the baton and, man, Bolt pulled away in the final leg to blaze across the finish line with a time of 36.84 seconds. I was impressed by him and dropped my jaw Saturday night, as always, when Bolt anchored Jamaica’s world-record performance in the 4×100 relay, breaking its own record in its gold-medal medal victory.

Walt Disney released a film called “Cool Runnings” years ago. The movie was based on a true story about a Jamaican bobsled team that raced at the Winter Olympics. The folks at Disney — as Bolt has been entertaining and electrifying to characterize the nature of track and field events in these games — should choose to make a sequel to “Cool Runnings” and call it Lightning Bolt. The motion picture, after all, would be a seller and top the movie’s box office as one of the greatest sports films of all-time.

It was, after all, the prelude to an Olympic dream, and Bolt cemented his place as one of the greatest runners of all time. There’s no denying it — we are watching Bolt blossom into a legend of these London Games before our very eyes, after sustaining excellence of defending three championships. He is hailed as the Michael Jordan of track stars, captivating 80,000 in Olympic Stadium, with his incredible feet, agility and will to win during his prime as millions across the world respects him rightfully so. The night for Great Britain was filled with euphoria, as well, when Mo Farah beat Ethiopia’s Dejen Gebremeskel in the men’s 5,000-meter final to go with his 10,000 gold, perhaps more impressive than watching Bolt and Bailey in the final leg that concluded with a dramatic finish. Bolt is the most coveted of all Olympians and pulled away from American Ryan Bailey, an impressive run in the final leg of the race, while a rambunctious crowd erupted in cheers and wildly screamed.

My eyes, however, were glued to Bolt the entire time, and no one else. He is, without argument, an Olympic legend, no matter what IOC president Jacques Rogge thinks about his legacy, saying Bolt is not yet there. The rest of the world thinks he wasn’t only the star of the sport, but feels he took another step toward moving into the company of all-time great Carl Lewis, who Bolt ripped earlier this week. If not now, eventually we’ll have no choice but to call him a legend, surpassing Lewis as the most decorated sprinter in Olympic history. Most of all, however, he’s wore the Jamaican flag around his shoulders and gold medals around his neck three times. It’s no fluke that Bolt dominated the 100 and 200-meter with his God-given speed when, rather amazingly, he’s the most relentless athlete the world has ever seen and embraced.

There’s no one as fast as Bolt, a near-perfectionist and the greatest sprinter, running all the way to claim his third gold medal of these London Games and sixth in two summer games. There’s no one who runs harder than Bolt, not right now at least. There’s nothing more breathtaking and wonderful in sports than Bolt. You were delighted, thrilled, essentially falling out of your seat, wondering how the heck he runs so quick. The most athletic runner in London is Bolt. This is a guy who once, with a straight face, said he’s the best of all-time and he’s right about it.

That’s no lie.

But what about the United States? From the moment American Tyson Gay was handed the baton, he had trouble keeping up with Blake, who outran him to give Bolt a huge lead. The handoff from Gay to Justin Gatlin was anything but perfect. But if we’ve learned anything, besides understanding that Bolt is by far the greatest, it’s that Bailey can somehow stay with the fastest man in history. This is not to say, mind you, that he can edge Bolt in a race, because it’s not seemingly possible and won’t ever happen. As time progressed during the race, Bolt had to run all the way and beat Bailey to the finish. There’s no doubt Bailey, 23, is an emerging U.S. track star, not intimidated to compete and endure a challenging footrace against Bolt.

Short of the finish — as Jamaica dominated again — a common trait of the Jamaican culture, the Americans finished second in a time of 37.04 and captured silver. As for Bailey, he’s the emerging U.S track star for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, where he looks to compete and avenge a gold-medal loss against Bolt, who had to run at full speed. This time, Bolt had to actually give it his best effort, like having to accelerate and run all the way until he reached the finish line, just enough to hold off the Americans. Bolt couldn’t slow down and celebrate prematurely, but when he delivered a signature performance, he performed gold-medal winner Farah’s famous salute.

The Jamaicans were running for one purpose, and indeed they brought home the gold, as defending three titles was Bolt’s stated goal. The Jamaicans are celebrating, and among all sprinters, Bolt is partying the most. But as long as Bolt is around, he will be the man to beat. With him around, Jamaica has sustained historic achievements.

Dwight Howard To Hollywood: Lakers Soar Into Prime Contention

The Buss family, especially Jim, the son of Jerry who is running an operation out of Los Angeles, negotiated and somehow landed Dwight Howard in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Lakers, whose recipe for success is constant rebuilding with blockbuster moves, satisfied their star guard Kobe Bryant, surrounding him with star power and plenty of talent to suddenly emerge as favorites in the West.

It’s a no-brainer, after a four-team trade sent Howard to L.A. and after the Lakers super-sized their roster to regain strength and aspiration — as always — that the Lakers are in contention for an NBA championship. The embarrassment the Lakers sustained the last two seasons impetuously drove the Busses to revamp and make certain they stay at the top to contend in the postseason. The Dwightmare is finally over, and folks all over can breathe a sigh of relief, particularly fans donning purple and gold attire who are lucky to have D12 arrive at Hollywood, where he fits in rather perfectly. After all, he’s an entertainer, a solid performer when he chooses to be and earned the “Superman” moniker from his days in Orlando.

Put aside all the rumors. Put aside all the speculations and tired trade sagas. Willingly and merrily, he’s leaving the Sunshine State to relocate to a new address in Los Angeles — off Figueroa Street and Chick Hearn Court — and respectfully steps into the spotlight, welcomed to his new home immediately with a chance to contend for a title with a team demanding to continue a winning tradition. Not surprising, however, that the Lakers acquired Howard from Orlando to make Thursday’s headlines, when he’s been seen around Los Angeles. It’s evident he enjoys the glamour of five-star restaurants and luxury hotels in a town where he’s now famously known as the Lakers’ seven-foot center, or rather remarkably, a superhero who is already idolized, although L.A. fans booed Howard during a ballgame at Dodger Stadium when the Jumbotron showed him standing outside of a stadium suite. And then he was also spotted walking out of a Beverly Hills hotel.

Like Randy Newman and most celebrities, Howard LOVES L.A., realizing he’s joined the Lakers, an assembled team with a nucleus of talent. After adding Howard to the roster, the magnitude of L.A. pro sports centers around the Lakers, whose starting lineup features NBA’s finest studs in Bryant, Metta World Peace and Steve Nash. Pau Gasol, who is also an elite megastar for the Lakers, was ecstatic and relieved he wasn’t traded elsewhere when he’s been floating in trade rumors for months and likely was one of the players to be moved as part of a blockbuster deal. Meanwhile, Howard is, at long last, out of Orlando. He is, at long last, glad to be putting on a Lakers uniform. He is not, at long last, disgruntled or unhappy with a change of scenery, coming to an established team destined to make a strong championship push.

The Lakers, suddenly, are very interesting. The offseason was, for the most part, chaotic and tumult with a lingering saga hijacking the summer as 24/7 coverage on Howard annoyed fans. When he demanded to be traded — with all indications that he wanted to call Brooklyn home — the Lakers, as they should have, phoned the Orlando Magic organization and listened to offers. It was frustrating for months, as the Magic and Howard weren’t sure what their intentions were as to whether or not the self-proclaimed Superman desired staying in Orlando until he became a free agent after next season. It was telling the Lakers were old and stagnant, and were in dire need of younger and fresher legs to keep up with teams like the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder in the open floor. Having said that, the Lakers continue to bring in the missing pieces to blend in well alongside Bryant, who still wants to be bestowed a championship ring, as they are now in position to win a championship.

Before Nash and Howard joined the company of Bryant and the gang, the Lakers were devoid of athleticism with an aging Kobe well past his prime. As he continues to age, Bryant can’t score as much as he used to nor can he play as hard as he used to when he was well in his prime. The folks in the front office knew they had to sooner than later be proactive and build around one of the greatest scorers in the game, as a way to put a smile on Kobe’s face to avoid any feuding. Remember, years ago he demanded a trade and essentially — if you believe everything you read and hear — was supposed to end up finishing his fantastic career in the Windy City, where he’d have played in the shadows of Michael Jordan and would’ve had tremendous pressure to fill the shoes of a legend. Had it not been for Kobe’s pouting and whining, which may have been a brilliant strategy that forced the Lakers to head into a new direction, they wouldn’t have pursued in a deal to acquire Gasol from Memphis.

Right now, though, the newest Laker is Howard. The deal is officially done, and the Lakers look forward to raising a 17th championship banner into the rafters at Staples Center with a celebration on their minds. In many ways — that is — we simply understand the Lakers’ motives and philosophies. The thing is, if there is a talked-about big man available who is dominant to prolong excellence in the modern era, the Lakers don’t hesitate and finds a way to get him. Quite often, as we’ve seen for decades, the Lakers have turned sizable big men into legends, relying on a dominant inside presence and high-profile centers — Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, George Mikan and Shaquille O’Neal.

Truth be told, the Lakers were aggressive and refused to pass on a lifetime offer that could benefit the team in the long run. It’s tough to be in Mitch Kupchak’s position, but the Lakers general manager wasn’t letting Howard get away and amazingly pulled of another steal, certainly in conversations to be named NBA Executive of the Year. It wasn’t long ago, when he blundered on botched maneuvers and dismantled the team briefly, that he was a puppet on strings unable to have a word in the personnel decisions, as Buss dictated the direction of his franchise. They both needed a wake up call, which occurred when the Lakers were dispatched in the second round for the second straight year with a five-game loss to the Thunder last season.

The reality of it all was that the Lakers couldn’t win with their current roster, badly and seriously needing an overhaul to revitalize a broken team in the City of Angels. The reality of it all was that the Lakers couldn’t survive after embarrassing losses that resulted in early playoff exits. The Lakers wasted no time to rectify the problem, and wisely addressed their top priority by strengthening the point guard position, bringing in two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash to considerably form a scintillating backcourt combination. This is what happens when a team is humiliated in the postseason and continues to fall victim to blowouts, a prominent franchise that upgraded its team to make a run at the championship.

It was nice of the rival Phoenix Suns to reach an agreement on a sign-and-trade that sent Nash to Los Angeles. The only solution, then, was for the Lakers to trade center Andrew Bynum for Howard. They had conversations over the phone, trying hard to whisper sweet things in Rob Hennigan’s ears, Orlando’s newly minted GM. It took a four-team, eight-player deal to get it done, and while the Lakers have improved overnight it seems, the 76ers ended up with Bynum and will now have a low-post presence to create shooting opportunities for Evan Turner and Jrue Holiday. The other team involved was Denver and they picked up Andre Iguodala, a swingman whose presence can sharpen the Nuggets’ perimeter defense.

On the day the Lakers welcomed home Howard, it was a day the Lakers waved goodbye to Bynum, as his services were no longer needed. Either he was consistent or inconsistent. Either he was lousy or effective. And with Howard, as the team’s next big man, the Lakers think they can actually succeed with him in the lineup — they are doing whatever it takes to win. That explains why they have a multitude of NBA titles, why they are either loved or loathed and why Lakers’ games are national televised regularly. This is what happens when an NBA team consists of an array of stars. We are infatuated with stars and love our superstars, as many Americans revere these idols, madly obsessed with the Bryants, the Howards, the Nashes and other attractive figures who are marketable and winners.

As for the Lakers, they make moves to win NOW. The Lakers, as usual, are eyeing a gleaming trophy. It’s all about winning championships, and each year L.A. is normally in contention, rarely missing the postseason. If the Lakers do miss the postseason, they aren’t down very long and eventually return to the playoffs and makes a deep run to be a menace in the West, like they will now. The Lakers, ladies and gentlemen, are back and could have a 70-plus-win season, especially with Kobe and Nash’s veteran leadership. It’s their 17th season in the league, but they both can still play at a high level as the new 30 and older is the new 20 and younger. The gravity of an NBA championship is within reach, and with the Howard acquisition, anything can happen. It’s still surreal that Howard will make Hollywood his home, when becoming a Laker didn’t ever seem feasible, until three days ago. And before then, he was flirting with the Nets and the Rockets, without the Lakers even being on his list. But now that he’s with the Lakers, he doesn’t regret it and appears to be in high spirits.

Howard will be a free agent at the end of next season, and said he’s testing the market. There’s nothing wrong with exploring options, but he won’t be going anywhere after next season if the Lakers have a deep playoff run and wins a championship. He realizes that he can win multiple titles in L.A. and celebrate alongside Bryant, who is by far the best player of this generation. If Howard is playing for championship rings, then he knows L.A. is the right place.

With All Due Respect, Hope Solo Gets Save for U.S. Women

When the clock finally expired, Hope Solo met her teammates at midfield for a group hug, then leaped in the air and wrapped herself in the American flag. The U.S. goalkeeping star wasn’t always a genuine sweetheart, or wasn’t always a quiet girl. And suddenly Solo, now an Olympic champion at Wembley Stadium, London’s most prestigious sporting venue, is humbled and meek, finally a winner in the Summer Games.

At best she’s not egomaniacal and not bombastic, growing as a person each day and curtailing her arrogant and defiant personality. Humility is helping her grow as a person. Gracefulness is helping her appreciate life better. The heroine of American soccer — a blowhard, a boaster and a loudmouth – was cocky and bitter in a sense, becoming a lightning rod as a well-known American sporting icon. But now, she has a gold medal hanging from her neck and backed up her talk with a diving save on Japanese forward Mana Iwabuchi in the 83rd minute to preserve a 2-1 victory over Japan on Thursday night in the Olympic gold-medal game. So, amid the doubts and unnecessary talk, Solo played the role of a goddess, and not an annoying prima donna who made headlines for arrogantly lashing out at Brandi Chastain on Twitter following her comments about the current’s team defense at the start of the tournament.

In defense, Solo was immature and mishandled the situation with a lack of class and no respect, childishly ranting her displeasure and rage with her big mouth and reckless tweets, allowing her emotions to get the best of her when remarks seem offensive. It shouldn’t be so shocking that Solo is overly sensitive and deciphers things wrongly, or takes unfavorable judgment too personal and doesn’t keep her cool. It’s been seen too often, but what’s also been impressive lately is her marvelous defensive play, leadership and maturity, stepping up at the right time to finally realize her responsibilities were extremely important for the Americans to beat Japan.

While the U.S. team pressed on throughout the tournament, Solo matured as a person, she was more gracious and cordial, handling her task as a goalkeeper, the most difficult position in soccer in which protecting the net is key. If it all looks unreal for the most polarizing athlete of all women — especially in these summer games — where she’s an angel or embattled because of her pompous comments, well, it’s as real as it gets. Solo is not someone you’d like to marry, but she’s very athletic and is the most recognizable female goalie in her country. For those who are not familiar with Solo — perhaps the best female goalie to ever play — she’s a winner and proved it when she rose to the occasion and was stout for much of the night.

This is her moment to laugh, and then years and years from now she can reminisce about the yesteryears with her kids, and tell her story about wrapping herself in the country’s flag. Years from now, Solo can share portraits of the moment she and her teammates stood in line with gold medals around their necks. This, of course, was an exhilarating and special day when she celebrated and soaked in a wonderful moment with her teammates. It’s one victory that might have signified vindication and mounted Solo’s status in U.S. women’s soccer, when she had a stellar performance after underachieving throughout the tournament.

At the right time, she came up big in the crucial moments, basically the justification for Americans coming away with a redemptive victory over their foes from Japan. The craziest, nastiest, bad-tempered woman turned into a score-stopping machine, stopping 12 of 13 shots she encountered that could have been game-changing plays had the Japanese converted goal-scoring opportunities. If not for her, the Americans could have lost for a second time to Japan, who defeated the United States in the World Cup last year. It came down to Solo stretching out her body, extending her arms and diving to amazingly fend off a missile shot. There surely is no way she will change her demeanor or personality, and she represents her country so proudly that she’ll always have a fiery and snobbish attitude, although she stands by America and gives us a bad name with her actions.

It’s in her nature and she’s molded in a sense to conduct herself in such a way that we should realize who she truly is by now, as we’ve all known Solo so well. If I had to choose the most noteworthy athlete to play goalkeeper for the U.S. soccer team, the first person who’d come to mind is Solo, even though she’s quite smug about being the star of the sport, thinking highly of herself as if she’s the best soccer star ever in the land of the USA. That sense of mannerism is irritating and annoying, but as we all know, winning is a cure to humanity. So once an athlete wins, particularly a medal for its country, everything turns irrelevant. Solo is, in her own way, a witness to that, no doubt. She can irritate and peeve our senses, and then carry the weight of expectations on her shoulders. There wasn’t a better time to come along and become a shutdown goalkeeper, coming through when it matters the most.

And Team USA? It was redemption and relief for the U.S women’s soccer team, erasing the heartbreaking blow in the World Cup championship game. The victory gave the Americans a third consecutive Olympic title, with a pair of spectacular goals from Carli Lloyd, who scored both goals including the gold-medal winning goal. And this wasn’t a time Solo blew it, or a time she couldn’t defend the net and instead came on strong for Team USA. Without Hope, the Americans had no chance to survive. The reality is, she wanted it badly, and within reach of her stated goal, Solo was huge in stretches of the game. Such was when she leaped in the air and deflected the ball with her fingertips on a header by Yuki Ogimi in the 18th minute.

A mountain of failures in the past brought her to reality, and she indeed responded, on the biggest stage in front of 80,203 roaring fans at London’s cathedral. The largest crowd ever attended to watch a women’s soccer game, and surely Solo had the game of her striking career. Spectators also saw Abby Wambach move toward becoming one of the all-time U.S. greats.

Solo, though, was given her chance to prove she can play.

If there were one thing we can take away from this miraculous Olympic games, it would be her goal-saving stops that led to American gold.

2012 London Olympics: A Dynasty at the Beach Like No Other

The nation’s best volleyball players, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings had a wild party on the sand Wednesday night. The game ended, and May-Treanor danced and then ran around like a little girl at the playground, celebrating and hopping in the sand. The bikini babes medaled again, cementing a legacy on the beach every summer of the Olympic year, to clearly stand alone as the greatest dynasty in Olympic history.

After dominating three straight Summer Olympics, Walsh Jennings searched for her family in the stands, making a quick trip to her parents and her husband in the stands. The moment felt real, with her mom and dad, with her husband, hugging each of them proudly to embrace her last match. Teary-eyed and overjoyed, she grabbed and squeezed her children tightly, celebrating and sharing the moment in tears with Kessy and Ross, who wrapped a flag around their backs and playfully loped across the sand to be showered with “USA!” chants.

All along, we had the feeling May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings, favorites entering the contest, would pull off the victory. It’s as if they couldn’t ever lose, and the truth to the matter is, they never lost. It was theirs, and nobody else’s game. It seemed that they stole the ball to keep it out of reach, buried it under the sand and impressed every country, including the two Americans they met in the medal game, with their supremacy and flair to absorb all the spotlight and popularity.

It’s never easy to leave behind a game, especially when both Kerri and Misty, the most recognizable athletes in beach volleyball, dominated the sport for a decade and fascinated millions again beating Americans Jennifer Kessy and April Ross to win their third consecutive Olympic title. It’s no wonder we’ve fallen in love with the game of volleyball whenever the Summer Games were in progress, fascinated with Misty and Kerri and finished taking pleasure in one of the wonderful Olympic marathons in history by two U.S. hotshots that cultivated the sport’s significance.

The night ended so fast, and just like that, the girls were gold medalists — three-time gold medalists in the same thing they’ve played so well in their flawless Olympic careers. It still amazes me, as they swatted a ball over the net for the longest, that these ladies finished unbeaten. The whole time in competition against competitors from other countries they’ve never lost a match. They were all about winning, ever since teaming up together at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where they started to produce win after win and went a combined 21-0 and unbelievably dropped just one set overall.

The beach girls came from California to London to compete again and leave precisely a legacy — two of the finest athletes, not only because of beauty or attractiveness but because they are indeed among the top athletes in American sports. Already world champions on the beach, Misty and Kerri, as we are all too familiar with every time the Olympics come in the summer months, were emotional, truly humbled and in tears of joy.

The most admired athletes, after going out as role models for many young girls who may be ambitious to follow their shoes, played in the Summer Games together for the last time, bringing home gold for the third straight time at the Olympics, a rare accomplishment not seen too often in these games. But it’s real and a dynasty is possible, just ask the best tandem in Olympic history. Oh, and they will tell you it wasn’t easy to win three straight gold medals. The two heroines, as we know, have a special bond, an enduring friendship that will remain intact, no doubt, spending countless hours together training and preparing for the world’s toughest competition.

They are Olympian darlings, often appreciated, and totally cool among an elite class of female athletes. Friendship, and competitiveness, is what led to a deep bond, made for a good show and popularized a sport that originated in Southern California at a beach, which gave us May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings. The game that defined a couple of legacies, on a night at a fake beach in the middle of England where spectators looked on and watched history happen before their very eyes, was beautifully magnificent and the legendary beach girls defeated a duo of two emerging Americans in straight sets (21-16, 21-16).

And while Walsh Jennings, 36, said she will return for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio seeking another gold medal to add to her precious collection, her friend and longtime partner, May-Treanor announced her retirement. At age 35, May-Treanor has plans for life after these games, standing by her word to stay retired and spend time with her family and husband Matt Treanor, who is a major league baseball player with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Before she ever was an Olympian, May-Treanor earned her master’s degree in coaching and athletic administration, and desires to coach indoor volleyball for her second-career.

For two years, after the Beijing Games, the two separated and dealt with personal issues in their lives. Things changed for Kerri having to be there for her kids. She’s a mother of two and spent plenty of time with her kids, while May-Treanor fractured her Achilles tendon on “Dancing With The Stars,” when she was a contestant. But the women finally took care of priorities and met again in 2011, and began to get back into studying and finding a workable blueprint for adjustments.

The hard work, because they were willing to give it their best effort in seeking gold, benefited in their favor indeed. The three-time Olympic beach volleyball champions were spectacular and performed impressively at these games.

It was a phenomenal tandem, an awesome dynasty, and I’m going to miss the most dominant team in U.S. Olympic history.

With Failure After Failure, Lolo Jones Doesn’t Live Up to Hype

And so it ends, without Lolo Jones earning a medal to drape around her neck. For the American hurdler who has been criticized so much, it’s quite iconic with what happened to Jones again in these games, heartbroken and disillusioned, fighting through much adversity and having a second chance to respond, but unfortunately she was unsuccessful in redeeming herself of failures.

In Beijing, she tripped over the penultimate hurdle, falling flat on her face in the final to experience an agonizing debacle that crushed her heart, and then she had no choice but to live with the pain and humiliation until the London Games. Seeking redemption after blowing a gold-medal run in 2008, Jones perhaps was too slow, and without even tripping over a hurdle, she suffered a heartbreaker that will hurt for a while as she was supposed to be the comeback kid.

Considering that she’s a megastar in women’s track and field, engulfed in much tension and associated with negative publicity, she’s not famous only for her hurdling but sex appeal and marketing in which Jones attracts so much attention and plenty of hype because she’s gorgeous and sells products. It was four years later, not long after she burst into tears and missed out on Olympic gold, that Jones was burnt out from the annoying criticism and bashing, dealing with a remote crossroads and tough obstacles as she trained hard six days a week for the London Olympics.

The most hyped Olympian ever, finishing the 100-meter hurdles fourth and then walking off in shock Tuesday, stood at the finish line, with her eyes staring at the scoreboard, fighting away tears and holding back emotions as the gold medal slipped away ever so quickly. This time, it boiled down to a tight, nerve-racking finish, and then by the time Jones broke the tape to record a time of 12.58 seconds, her fastest time of the season, she still couldn’t medal to exceed expectations in the summer games. She was so disgusted, that she barely took a few minutes to congratulate second-place finisher Dawn Harper, the gold medalist in Beijing. The sight of her reaction was depressing and disheartening, and when she walked off promptly to escape from cameramen, she put her hands over her head and bent over, with tears flowing after enduring a gut-wrenching near miss.

The rain dropped softly, and as it was another lamentable night, she failed to prove she’s an athletic runner and not just a marketer, widely dissed by the media and critics for having no athleticism but an image and beauty that has ballooned her stardom. Having a beautiful smile and gorgeous looks that gives off a glow, Jones’ endorsements makes her rich and popular, not the way she performs on the track when she tries jumping over hurdles. The star of American track and field is the epitome of an overly beloved athlete treated like a heroine, making the cover of Time, along with a spread in Rolling Stone and a feature on MTV.com, when she had not medaled in the Olympics. The American diva of Olympians is also the prototype of a supermodel and could have a second career as a famous TV personality, especially after appearing on late-night television as a guest on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where she was rather more entertaining in front of the camera than running a footrace that she has not seen much triumph in during the course of her prosaic Olympic career.

It was, at the very least, intriguing that she opened up publicly to offer her biography on a rough life story. It wasn’t always easy for Jones, growing up in poverty as a young girl and living in a church basement with her family. Growing up poor with practically nothing, her ex-con father taught her to shoplift but she refused to take such a horrific path, turning to sports for a new outlet and then became a track star in high school that earned her a scholarship to LSU. Shortly after her phenomenal college career at Louisiana State University that launched her Olympic career and formed unnecessary hype, she foolishly posed nude in a magazine, and then vowed to remain a virgin until marriage. She is coming off a career threatening injury, and made a strong recovery after undergoing spinal cord surgery. Days after the procedure, despite a speedy rehab that allowed Jones to resume intense training, it was believed to be that she wouldn’t ever race again.

It’s funny she’s overly advertised and portrayed as a winner, when truthfully she has not won a damn thing, sputtering on the biggest stage and fluffing her chances of proving to be one of the best hurdlers. But as it turns out, Jones is merely a Twitter sensation, a superwoman exposed to all the glamour and endorsement deals. So basically, she’s a marketing ploy, a woman with a sexy body and beautiful looks. There’s nothing more to it, and by thinking there’s more to it, then just flash back to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I remember the race like it was yesterday, and not only was she in the lead for the 100-meter hurdle race, but right there at the finish line to secure the gold medal until hitting the last hurdle to finish seventh.

Talk about a heartbreaker. The standards are always more demanding for Olympic athletes when supporting and savoring high regards, leaving the athlete with no room to breathe or even commit failure. The weight of expectations is larger. The magnitude of failure is a concern. And the pressure of having to win and sustain near-perfection is hard and oppressive. By now Jones can see it, now that she is living through it and faces a sense of reality. She’s anything but golden. Not as advertised, she’s wrongly publicized. Not once in the Olympics has she ever been that good of a hurdler.

Australia’s Sally Pearson finished in 12.35 seconds, just .02 ahead of Harper to win gold. The other American medal-winner was Kellie Wells, an athlete who wasn’t nearly as popular or talked about. If you’ve been watching, then you certainly know of Lolo, a hurdler you cannot miss. It’s impossible to miss her, with all the attention she absorbs, which is not floating too well with a number of U.S. Olympic athletes. The Lolo drama is nothing more but an insult to them, a form of disrespect and disregard when two Americans beat Jones, who is so famous in London, she could have her reality show as the diva of pop culture and not a real athlete. Maybe she’s an idol, but she’s not an Olympian just because of her title in these games.

It doesn’t mean anything if she can’t ever win a medal. It doesn’t matter whether she’s a world indoor champion and first-place finisher at meets in Norway and Qatar. Wake me up when she wins at the Olympics. Until then, I’m sleeping on Lolo, a name that sounds like a baby lullaby. And, after all, she has been pouting and crying in these games, mad over a controversial New York Times magazine article last week that compared Jones to Anna Kournikova. The female tennis star has never won a Grand Slam singles final. So that’s not such a bad comparison quite frankly, in fact, it’s brilliant.

As it seems, at least for now, Jones is no crying or laughing matter. Try an American disgrace.

A fat hippo has a better chance of winning a race than she does.

Usain Bolt Strikes Lightning On London’s Brightest Stage

He is about to become the king of racing, to be precise. Taking off out of the starting block the minute the starting gun fired at Olympic Stadium, unfazed by the doubts and skeptics discounting him as the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt hauled down the track, faster than a stampede of wildebeests. Well ahead of other sprinters to defend the Olympic 100-meter title Sunday night, he spread his arms in celebration, knowing nobody was behind him to catch up and deprive him of back-to-back resplendent performances, knowing he had just claimed the shiny hardware that he wore around his neck in Beijing four years ago.

As quickly as he dusted everyone in competition, he crossed the finish line and rolled his eyes, as the world’s fastest man alive celebrated, showboated, preened and bobbed his head. It also was Bolt bobblehead night at the center of Olympic Stadium, moving and jerking his head so much to revel in the moment after seizing another opportunity to win the 100-meter gold in 9.63 seconds, the second-fastest time ever run. After weeks of doubt, Bolt won the race, as usual, and kissed the ground, performed a somersault, struck his trademark lightning bolt pose and hugged his training partner and countryman Yohan Blake, who was second matching his personal best with a time of 9.75 seconds. There was an American who finished in the spotlight, as well, but Justin Gatlin lost for the first time this season, settling for bronze in a time of 9.79 seconds. Of course, Bolt was going to win the race — and not just by a step, but dust everyone in the fastest 100-meter dash you will ever see this generation. There’s no overstatement. Bolt, born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, had the greatest footrace in history to burnish a wondrous legacy.

At age 25, he’s achieved more than the average Olympian, idolized in his native home Jamaica, including other parts of the world as people all over the universe savor his awesome, far-reaching speed, a natural born star treated like an almighty superstar worldwide. That’s what happens when a man has a signature race that we will certainly recall one day, as the incredible showman put on a breathtaking display no one will ever forget, flying faster than Carl Lewis, who is the only other sprinter to defend his 100 Olympic title. Jesse Owens? Not so sure about him… But I do know that Bolt ran the race under 10 seconds to truly become a sporting legend, maybe even one of the most attractive icons in the land of the USA, where he even featured in an ESPN Sportscenter commercial, where he’s marketable, which he is one of the world’s richest sports personalities.

Yet his sport isn’t nearly as respected as are football, basketball and baseball, the basic three Americans tend to follow, while we ignore track and field, which is only popular and eventful every four years that the summer games are in progress. Otherwise, nobody talks about Bolt, an athletic star just as famous and competitive as, say, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and David Beckham. If he was born and raised in the U.S., he’d easily be seen among the greatest, but Bolt is a stud, an all-time great and is anointed all over the world, drawing all eyes as a sellout crowd of 80,000 chanted “Usain! Usain! Usain!” In these Olympics, shutting up the few who said he wasn’t fast enough to continue his dominance, Bolt, famously living up to his moniker, exploded to the finish just hours before Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of independence, giving his folks back home more reason to celebrate.

If you can beat Tyson Gay, the second-fastest man in the world, and also outrun Richard Thompson of Trinidad, who won silver in the event four years ago in China, then you know you are pretty damn fast. He also burned Blake, yes, his teammate who smoked Bolt twice in the 100 and 200 at the Jamaican Olympic trials, and folks wondered about Bolt’s health status that raised concern as to whether or not he could retain the men’s 100m title when indeed he secured another Olympic gold to add to his collection. From the water to the track, as we dwelled on U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps for the past week when he shattered an historic Olympic record and earned a massive total of 22 medals, 18 of them gold, now we are harping on the fastest creature to run. In a statement victory, followed by a standing ovation from an amazed crowd that witnessed a jaw-dropping, dramatic finish, he can wear the Jamaican flag around his shoulders like a superhero’s cape all he wants and can keep running on the track as if there’s a race to be ran.

From here on out, Bolt has a molded personality that best defines him, and so he won’t change anytime soon, as we’ve grown to accept his victory pose, his dancing and his obnoxious frowns and facial gestures. He is, nonetheless, entitled to do what he feels is necessary, winning again to bloom on the biggest stage and keep the Olympic cauldron burning until Sunday, thanks in large part to his fastness and finesse. The need to defy science is the least important to Bolt — running not for scientists’ curiosity of evaluating the speed of sprinters — but to compete in a sport that he trains hard for and succeeds in these days. The race, believe it or not, was collectively the fastest 100-meter race in history, when seven sprinters zipped across the finish line under 10 seconds for a track event that will forever be talked about. Soon after he left the block, running faster than the rest of the gang, he had separated himself from them and then he turned his head back and effortlessly brought it home, a familiar affair recognized in Beijing four years ago. It was a time he dominated the summer games, as well, owning the track at the Bird Nest in China, like the way he owns Olympic Stadium now to the point where it can be named after him.

Bolt Stadium?

No, he couldn’t set a world record but he didn’t really have to, and still ran like a ferocious animal. Had he ran harder, and not decided to relax, Bolt would have broken the world record easily. But he wasn’t concerned about the world record, and just cared about becoming a two-time champion in the same race, one that seems to expose his strength and no weaknesses. Better than ever, Bolt likes drama, he likes excitement, he likes the noise he makes, bringing plenty of action to a race every time he walks onto the track and sets up for a footrace that he usually wins ridiculously. The attention was more important, craving the spotlight more than he does actually winning a race? Hmmm. Maybe he does. Maybe he doesn’t.

But either way, that is, he certainly loves the limelight, which explains why he’s so flashy and is much of a showboat by his actions and facial expressions that doesn’t float too well for some who think Bolt is pompous and arrogant. Not the case whatsoever. But now, as we can see straight and clearly, he’s a competitor, an athlete who cares about his popularity and rather entertain a large crowd, win or lose. So by staying true to his word, a civilized and humanly unstoppable specimen, ran almost the perfect and fastest race.

In fact, he had to be flying as fast as a 90 mph fastball, quicker than a cheetah or dragsters. With his speed, just to ensure you, Bolt can have a second-career, once he’s done racing and start a business for public transportation that wheels people across a community in a four-wheeled wagon at high speed. Millions of people in America waited to witness the fastest man alive, Usain Bolt, as opposed to U.S. sprinters Gay and Gatlin. We adore the drama and gripping performances in sports, and with Bolt’s burst of speed, his much-hyped world records in the modern era of the 100-meter dash, attracting such a mass audience that he fascinates as he leans back with his arms slanted and the left hand pointing into the air, our folks are infatuated with Jamaica’s sprinting sensation.

If you’re not awestruck by this, then I don’t know what to tell you. It was the race of the ages, an instant classic, an Olympic games to remember.

Oscar Pistorius: ‘The Blade Runner’ Makes for Wonderful Story, So Don’t Ruin It

The folks of the Olympics don’t understand it, probably because Oscar Pistorius is different from everybody else, a double amputee born with no fibulas in his legs. It’s one of the many inspirational stories to ever bring a glow to the summer games, as the South African product ran in the 2012 Olympics on prosthetic legs, with millions inspired and overwhelmed having their sights on the fastest man with no legs.

The problem? Listen to what the naysayers are saying. The oblivious and dubious people are prejudice to the disabled, not kind allowing Pistorius to compete in these games, simply finding a convenient excuse to do whatever it takes to discourage him. But he refused to let the criticism stop him from seizing an opportunity that was finally given to him, and from a very young age, he’s always dreamed of getting into the action at the summer games. Fortunately, he was allowed to run with the world’s best after the International Association of Athletics Federations banned Pistorius from able-bodied events when tests conducted on him at German Sport University showed that his Cheetah blades gave him an advantage. Months later, the court attested that the IAAF had plundered his rights and violated its own rules, and with the concepts of science having a huge influence on their decision, he was unfairly excluded from qualifying for Beijing in 2008.

By now, with only nine days remaining until closing ceremonies, the swirling controversy circling around Pistorius, known as the “Blade Runner, is getting old and people are already fatigued by the endless debates. Why oh why must we ruin such a heartwarming story of a determined athlete who is handicap but has the mettle and self-command to work toward his passion and run with the able-bodies? Why oh why must we discriminate, and turn down a man different from other elite runners, yet he really isn’t much different from any one else? A day doesn’t pass without a tired conversation as to whether or not he belongs on the same track with able-bodied sprinters, an overblown and ignorant argument that has peeved our senses, well, some of us rather. What is there to argue?

Pistorius, like it or not, became the first double-amputee to compete in an Olympics. He also, like it or not, ran on the blades, the prosthetic legs people are negatively passing judgment and voicing opinions on without actually knowing if the blades are what gives him energy to dust able-bodies. Though the laboratories evaluated his blades, which delayed Pistorius’ Olympic eligibility, he dropped into the starting block. From the start, he was slow and couldn’t pick up speed but finally burst out of the crowd, and as a result, he finished in 45.44 seconds Saturday morning, one of his best times this season. That would be good enough for advancing into Sunday’s semifinal round of the 400-meter qualifying to hopefully finish in the top eight of the round to qualify for Monday’s final.

When he is running, as you probably notice, Pistorius’ legs make it seem as if he’s soaring and not actually running. It’s like he’s flying to give us his best imitation of Michael J. Fox on a hover board. It’s like he’s living in the year of 2030, or something. The footrace ended, and Pistorius had qualified for the next round, in sight of advancing further and pulling off the unthinkable. Among all things, now that he’s finally here reaching new heights as a runner, Pistorius is just graceful and happy to be belting along at full speed in these Olympics. He has been training diligently for these games for years and it has certainly paid off. He is stepping into the scene in hopes to stun the world, and he has the heart, he has the spirit, disallowing a birth defect to obstruct a sports career.

But to say he’s not allowed and that his blades gives him an advantage is injustice and folly 24 years after he had his legs amputated. It’s not his fault he was born without fibulas, but still turned into one of the world’s fastest runners with no legs, amazingly keeping pace with the able-bodies that makes for a wonderful book on one of the gorgeous heroic tale. There are signs that his prosthetics are an unfair competitive advantage to abled-bodied runners, but we really don’t know, no matter what scientists tells us, no matter what scientists wants us to believe. The same could be said about Pistorius, unfairly mistreated to take action against healthy runners. The effort of the Court of Arbitration for Sport to reinstate him, after track and field’s international governing body briefly banned him from able-bodied competition briefly, allowed Pistorius to compete — once two scientists confirmed his blades gave him extra propulsion.

He is, indeed, amazing and inspiring that encourage disabled athletes to take on sports and overcome adversity, opening doors for someone handicap, not as fortunate as those with arms and legs that allows them to perform at the highest level in whatever sport they decide trying. It’s only an insult to keep knocking him, downgrading him and disrespecting him, with the human race diminishing the magnitude of inspiration, encouragement, motivation, drive and dedication he brings to mind, uplifting the confidence of others willing to become stimulated with the challenge of overcoming a disability and not letting it stop a person from reaching his or her ambitions. Used to the doubt, Pistorius takes it as motivation. Used to the negative publicity, Pistorius runs harder every time he’s in for a dogfight.

Even if he doesn’t win, he’s still a winner just for hanging with the able-bodied runners, dauntless and courageous to expose his talent with help from his artificial legs. But while I’m OK with him out there, no different from anybody else who I’m fair to as well, you aren’t fine by him racing and think he should only be sprinting in the Paralympics when he has every damn right to have fun in London on his vicious Cheetah blades. Scientists, and it figures, are trying to study him as if he’s a science experiment, and the research has been vague and false, not sure what to believe. There’s no evidence to prove whether or not Pistorius’ blades offers an advantage, and we can only speculate and theorize, just as scientists can predict and try hard to sound intelligent when deep down they don’t know the truth about these blades themselves. In specifics, the carbon-fiber Cheetah Flex-Feet is what he’s wearing to race, the artificial legs he used for the 2004 Athens Paralympics, where he won gold in the 200 to shatter the world record.

Maybe he’s an unfair advantage. Maybe not. But, no matter what, he’s this year’s delightful story.

Let’s not make this an episode of Sports Science but a story of inspiration.

2012 Olympics: Allyson Felix Tries to Exceed Expectations

Allyson Felix sprints into Olympic Stadium with a glare in her eyes, and the body language of a serious competitor, the kind of vibes she brings to racing. It’s about her intensity and emotions, building a winning attitude, on a mission to smoke each sprinter in London and sell a million of Nike shoes, feature on the front cover of sports magazines and be immortalized on Kellogg’s cereal boxes.

The pressure is on as she can rise to stardom, already a rising star in these games, considering that she’s one of America’s fastest women in the world. When she finally arrived in London, after training hard in Los Angeles for the 2012 Summer Olympics, she could have run a marathon around Great Britain. The reigning three-time world 200m champion, Felix, enters as favorite with Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica standing in her way to once again try and unhinge her pursuit of becoming the next beautiful American dream. These games feels like her moment to capture the world’s attention, her moment to shine, proudly wearing the red, white and blue of the United States, representing a nation where it has produced some of the top competitors to take on elite Olympians from all over the world.

Thus, she has twice finished second to Campbell-Brown in the 200-meter at the Games after qualifying in heats running onto the track with a goal on her mind. The two-time silver medalist insisted she is much-improved and can win multiple gold medals, as her goal of winning seems well within reach. She’s dreaming about earning her gold, not silver, which she won at the age of 18 at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The weigh of expectations that she may not exceed, the notion of failure and incompleteness are what the naysayers are thinking about, not kind to give her the benefit of the doubt, although four years later makes a difference in one’s performance.

Even at 26, Felix has been mentioned in the same breath as Marion Jones and has the weight her on shoulders to try and surpass a former U.S. sprinter whose sensational performance in Sydney was later tainted because of performance-enhancing drugs. In contrast, Felix has never tested positive for banned substances, which means nobody has placed an asterisk next to her incredible mark. Not once in her Olympic career has she fallen from grace or into deep shame. The world will be looking on to watch Felix hopefully sprint her way into the finish for an elusive individual Olympic gold medal, when she is arguably the fastest U.S. sprinter in track and field nowadays, with another crack to post an exceptional time and have a personal best in the 200 for the first time since in five years. The notion of track and field is that competition is about the fastest, strongest, or toughest, and Felix might just be the fastest, strongest, or toughest woman in these games, a track star who is gifted to blow past every runner in both the 100 and 200.

If she strides in the 100 and solidifies her Olympic career, for the most part, she will be a megastar in the world of track and field. If not, she will have to live with the doubt and misery of failing to capture a gold medal. In the women’s sprints, with all the attention pointing in her direction and really no one else’s, Felix is the more talked-about athlete and is joined by Carmelita Jeter and Tianna Madison. You’ve seen Felix race down the track like a cheetah on the prowl, a burst of speed during the final seconds of her race. At top speed, she just keeps running, on the flat surfaces as thousands of spectators watch from the stands amaze by her incredible agility and swiftness, dashing to the finish with an unbelievable time. For years now, she’s been running, training hard to develop her craft and preparing specifically for these games.

For years, she has been doubted and disrespected as much as she’s finally gotten the credit where credit is due, including in these Olympics favorite to walk away with the bright hardware that she hopes to drape around her neck this time around, awestruck by her improvement and odds of beating the Jamaican girl and other sprinters. With Felix in the middle of the strangest controversy due to a mishandled runoff, in which she and Jeneba Tarmoh finished in a dead heat for the USA’s final spot in the 100 meters, she just missed qualifying for the 100, a race Jeter won as Madison crossed the line second. And when she was disgusted by her fourth-place finish at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Ore., while a review of the race conceded that Felix and Tarmoh finished in a dead beat, Tarmoh withdrew from a runoff and Felix was given the spot in the Olympic 100.

It’s no coincidence that we are embracing her as a true heroine or either an American disillusionment, an iconic sprinter anticipated to have a few races of her lifetime, particularly after Tarmoh determined the final Olympic spot by barely beating Felix for third place before it was overturned. Heretofore, she really wasn’t even eligible to compete in her best event, a race that exposes her strength and rarely a weakness and a few other activities she takes on in the summer games. It seems more people like her chances, including disbelievers, which she can likely come away with the gold. It may just be her time to spice up the games for the American folks watching from coast to coast, from state to state, from city to city, from living room to living room, from TV set to TV set.

We tend to fall in love with our superstars in America, and when it involves mano-a-mano competition that comprise of U.S. athletes, then viewers are willing to pay close attention. Felix, win or lose, does give us a show, sprinting as fast as she can, not to only awe spectators but chase her dream of standing tall on the podium with Olympic gold around her neck. This time, it was Felix who won her heat easily on Friday in a time of 11.01 seconds, advancing to Saturday’s semifinals and angling for well-respected, a most precious prize of representing a country as an Olympian. Her coach happens to be Florence Griffith-Joyner, the husband of Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Her performances and speed, although she has not brought the same kind of intensity into the Olympics, is what allows her to own the moniker as the fastest women in the United States, if not the world. From her body of work, which has been seen over the years, she has won three world championships in the 200 meter and finished second at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. But if she’d like to post the quickest time and respectively finish first to accept the gold medal, an award she has been dreaming of and running after for years, Felix must beat rival Campbell-Brown. Felix saw an opportunity to accomplish her No. 1 goal, as she stated so often over the years.

She wants gold, not silver, not bronze. Gold.