france Page 27 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Not Looking Good For Mr. Landis
For those still holding out hope that Tour de France winner Floyd Landis is truly the nice Mennonite boy who feel victim to an unfortunate, accidental circumstance involving testosterone on Jack Daniels, The New York Times has some bad news today....

Floyd Cruises
It was Floyd Landis, as expected, rolling to victory in the Tour de France. Thor Hushovd won the final stage, which earns him not much more than a hearty pat on the back. It's Floyd who will sip the victory champagne, maybe for the first time in his life. That's a guess. Floyd just looks like a g...

Floyd Makes Us Proud
Floyd Landis did what Floyd Landis does this morning, cruising past Spaniard Oscar Pereiro to put himself in position to claim the Tour de France tomorrow. Pereiro started the day 30 seconds ahead of Landis, and finished it about a minute behind him. I don't know anything about cycling, but I kno...

Here Comes Landis!
OK, after we poked a little fun at him yesterday, we've gotta point out: American cyclist Floyd Landis appears to be a total badass. Today, after being counted out of the Tour de France after collapsing yesterday, he blasted by everyone to win the stage and slip just 30 seconds behind the leaders....

Are We Ready For A Tour de Landis?
Can Floyd Landis be the next Lance Armstrong? We as Americans have to decide, and soon. It's clear after Tuesday's 15th stage of the Tour de France that Landis just could win this thing. Are we sure if we can embrace a cycling icon who looks exactly like a slightly younger version of actor Jim Bro...

Americans Temporarily Release Death Grip On Tour De France
Floyd Landis is no longer the leader of the Tour de France, after struggling in the longest stage of the Tour de France. Not only is he not leading anymore, but he's over a minute behind. The stage winner was a German named Jens Voigt, and the Overall leader is Spain's Oscar Pereiro....

No Idea Where Zidane Might Have Gotten His Temper From
In a time of heated rhetoric, political grandstanding and continued confusion on the facts, we looked forward to an interview with Zinedine Zidane's ailing mother. Perhaps the woman would provide us with some much-need perspective, give everyone a chance to just cool down and realize that it's jus...

Marco Materazzi Is Apparently A Total Moron
As far as defenses against accusations of making racist remarks go, we have to say, Italian player Marco Materazzi has a particularly good one after being notoriously head-butted by Zinedine Zidane....

Dr. Z Is Mad As Hell (Again)
We'll get into an update of all the fun Zinedine Zidane theories a little later today, but we wanted to pause to take a look at Paul Zimmerman's column for SI.com yesterday. We have no shame about this: We love Paul Zimmerman. We know he's old, we know he's cranky, we know he probably spends most ...

Your Last Zidane Roundup
In case you haven't exhausted your Zinedine Zidane animated GIF quotient for the day, here's a compendium of some of our favorite ones; the Butterfinger one is still the best. And if you like your moving online stuff to be interactive, here's a game that allows you to collect Zidane red cards. Oh, a...

Hirshey: Madness, Glory And The Self-Correcting Aneurysm
Madness. Can there be any other word for both this World Cup and the way it ended? It would be like Tiger Woods, moments from donning another green jacket at the Masters, bringing his putter down on top of Vijay Singh's skull. Or Michael Jordan stepping up to the free throw line in the final ticks...

Zinedine Zidane, Slightly Perturbed
So, it has been about 16 hours, and we still haven't quite gotten over the amazement of Zinedine Zidane's brutal headbutt to end his soccer career. It was truly one of the most astounding sports moments we can remember; like many Americans, we struggled to come up with an American sports equivalen...

The Head Heard Round the World
Congratulations to Italy, World Cup Champions. However, I have to admit, that's probably one of the greatest retirements I've ever seen. Better than John Kruk leaving the game after he got his average back up to .300 for his career....

World Cup Final Live Blog: Italy Vs. France
Well, it took long enough, but it's finally time for the World Cup Final. It's your favorite divers from Italy against the surrender monkeys from France. It's non-stop fun; it's the World Cup....

Just One (Real) World Cup Match To Go
All right, well, this is it: Just one more World Cup game — one that counts, anyway — and this whole thing is over. On Sunday, it's France vs. Italy for the World Cup title and all the international respect for its citizens and its style of play that comes with it....

Another Reason To Leave The MLS
The joke about employees skipping out of work to watch the World Cup has become so prevalent that even ESPN is making the joke (and setting it, cleverly, to a U2 song). But what about when one of your employees is, well, a soccer player?...

Hirshey: One More Time For Some Old Frenchmen
David Hirshey — whose beauty has been captured photographically at ESPN.com — is writing for Deadspin throughout the World Cup....

Live Blog: France Vs. Portugal
We're down to the final three teams in the World Cup — unless you count the third-place game, and who counts the third place game? — and we're knocking out one of them right now. The first team in the World Cup Finals is Italy; who will be the second, as they say?...

More Cheaters At The Tour de France
With all the hullabaloo about doping at the Tour de France, we find it amazing, in this day and age, that Dick Pound (hee!) and the other blood-thinning experts are missing out on rather obvious examples of malfeasance such as this one....

The Semifinal Preview, Deadspin Reader Style
Hey, many many thanks to all those who sent in their thoughts on the World Cup semifinals, to which Spain is not invited. Here are some of the finer selections....