Bonds Indicted

Barry Bonds, all time leader in home runs in Major League Baseball, was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice charges. "I've never seen these documents before," Bonds said, speaking before a federal grand jury investigating the Bay Area Lab Co-Operative, or BALCO, after he had just been shown what prosecutors say was a positive steroid test conducted on a player with the name Barry B. Bonds simply repeated, "I've never seen these papers." These results may be the key result to proving that Bonds lied under oath, giving him the charge of obstruction of justice. "Bonds' lawyers are expected to fiercely attack their reliability, much the way O.J. Simpson's legal team undermined the football star's murder case by questioning the handling of his blood samples." Michael Rains, who is Bonds' attorney, offered no comment on the subject. However, Victor Conte, founder of BALCO offered his own insight to how his legal team would cast their doubts on the evidence. According to Conte, a convicted steroids dealer, Barry Bonds came into the lab on Saturdays, always after regular business hours, with a group of men that included his trainer (Greg Anderson) and his personal physician (Dr. Arthur Ting).

Anderson had convinced Bonds that BALCO would develop a dietary and supplementary regimen, which Conte had designed based solely on the results of past blood and semen results. The only thing that the indictment does NOT say is WHERE the prosecutors obtained the results, only that they were obtained when federal agents raided Conte's lab back in September of 2003. "There is always an opportunity to attack that kind of forensic evidence through its chain of custody," said attorney William Sullivan, who recently won an acquittal for former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino on an obstruction charge alleging he withheld evidence in a terrorism trial in Detroit. "You look at how the evidence was preserved, who handled it," Sullivan said. "You can even attack the analysis itself. Conte said, "I don't think you can prove those were Barry's samples." So as of now, there is no way the jury can prove to anyone that Bonds has used steroids. Until they can, there is nothing that they can do. He will still be allowed to play baseball, and won't have to worry about the maximum 30 years in prison just yet, just how to prove that those results are either tainted, or not his at all.

Final games brings much anticipation

So the final week of regular season college football is upon us.

There are two games this Saturday that will make or break the year for me. First of all, Purdue University vs. Indiana University. This game is important to because I am a student at Purdue University and of course IU is our rival. It’s the bucket game and this is what the season boils down to. I’m pretty confident in Curtis Painter’s ability to make this a good game. Dorien Bryant and the rest of the team have been pulling their slack for the most part over the couple of weeks. They did better than I expected against Michigan State. I can’t blame the team for anything bad over the last couple weeks. If I were to place blame, it would be upon the coaching staff and the of course the referees.

The second game that has me in major anticipation for this Saturday is the University of Michigan vs. Ohio State University. Being that I’m not from Indiana, I don’t completely feel the rivalry that most native “hoosiers” feel between Purdue and IU. Therefore, I get excited about beating IU, but not THAT excited. However, despite being born and raised in Illinois, I have been a Michigan fan for most of my life. I go to Ann Arbor about once a month and love it there. And, as any Michigan fan does, I hate Ohio State. I can’t deny that they are good. I just don’t like them. So this weekend will be interesting. I wouldn’t be as riled up for it as I am if Ohio State didn’t lose last week to University of Illinois. This shows that Michigan does have a shot since they beat Illinois just a few weeks ago. Last week Michigan lost to Wisconsin, but I think that both teams want this not just because they hate each other but to compensate for their losses last week. Hopefully, Henne and Hart will be fully healthy and ready to go for the game.

So as the final week approaches us before the bowl games, there is a lot to be excited for. Hopefully Michigan and Purdue pull through for me.

NFL allows ejections for hard hits

A new rule instated by the NFL is allowing players to be ejected from the game for helmet to helmet hits. There were two fines that foreshadowed the making of this rule. These fines ranged in amount from $15,000 to $21,176.

These hits are illegal because of how dangerous they are to the players head and neck. There is a high rate of concussions because of these helmet to helmet hits.

I think this new rule will be great for football. One of the main concerns in the sport is the high rate of injuries including concussions. One of the worse things to do is watch a player being carried off the field on a stretcher. Fining a player won’t really teach him a lesson. With the amount of money football players make, a few thousand dollars won’t even make a dent in his bank account. However being kicked out of a game or being suspended would hurt a player more because they’d have to watch their team compete with out them. It’s like letting down your team. Being suspended or kicked out of a game is also very embarrassing for the player.

Hopefully this will teach players how to act more fairly so fewer players get hurt.