ounds and advantages, genetic or otherwise from LAM's blog
ALLEN PARK, Mich. Dwight Howard Jersey . -- Joique Bell could be headed for one big weekend.Bell picks up his masters degree in sports administration at Wayne State University on Saturday. The next day, he could make his season debut with the Detroit Lions in his return after they cut him in February.Its funny that my first week back here is the same week that I graduate, he said Wednesday.Desperate for depth in its banged-up backfield, Detroit brought Bell back by signing him Tuesday.The NFC North-leading Lions (8-4) might need Bell to play against the last-place Chicago Bears (3-9) on Sunday at Ford Field, less than a mile from where he expects 30 to 40 family members and friends to attend his commencement.Detroits starting running back, Theo Riddick, didnt practice Wednesday because of an ankle injury and his backup, Dwayne Washington, was limited because of an ankle issue. Ameer Abdullah began the season as the teams No. 1 running back, but he has been out with a foot injury since Week 2. That leaves Bell and Zach Zenner as the Lions only healthy running backs on the roster.Even though Bell is joining the team so late in the year, he did play for offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter last season in a similar offense.Its coming back to me and the more I look at stuff and Im like, `Oh, OK. I remember that, Bell said. When I go out there, Ill be able to play comfortably and I wont have to think as much.Bell insisted he wasnt surprised when the Lions new general manager, Bob Quinn, released him less than a year after he signed a two-year deal with former GM Martin Mayhew. In fact, Bell said he kept in touch with Quinn before and after Chicago signed him earlier this season. He had three carries for 6 yards on Oct. 2, when the Bears beat the Lions, and didnt run the ball once over the next three games before being cut.When I left the Bears, I texted (Quinn) back and said, `Bring me home, Bell recalled. He sent me a text the other day and said, `Do you want to come home? I said, `Yeah. My heart has never left here. My family is here. I played most of his career and built my foundation here.Bell, who is from Benton Harbor, Michigan, won the Harlon Hill Trophy as the NCAA Division II Player of the Year in 2009 at Wayne State, but that wasnt enough to get him drafted.After playing sparingly for Indianapolis and Philadelphia, he did enough well as a runner and receiver with the Lions to sign a $9.3 million, three-year contract in 2014.We certainly know what his traits are, Detroit coach Jim Caldwell said. Hes always been a very, very positive guy. A very, very good locker-room guy. Lot of energy. Loves to play the game. And hes a good, tough runner as well. Hes alright with the ball in his hands throwing it to him, also. There a number of different things that he can do.And soon, Bell will add another accomplishment to his resume when he walks across a stage in front of a crowd he is proud to say will include his 11-year-old son, Jordan.I always preach to the kids that Im trying to mentor, or kids that come to my camp, how important education is, he said. I dont want to tell them to do something that I havent done. So for me to come back to my alma mater and to finish my masters degree there and to be able to have my son there, thats probably one of the greatest experiences Ill ever have as a father.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Larry Lage at http://www.twitter.com/larrylage Mario Hezonja Jersey .2 billion agreement with Rogers Communications for the leagues broadcast and multimedia rights. Discount Magic Jerseys . The Australian is competing in his final season in Formula One and still looking for his first win this year. He will look to end Vettels run of six straight race wins on Sunday. Webber, who is fifth in the championship, earned his second pole from the past three races and 13th of his career. http://www.cheapmagicjerseys.us/ .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. Ive been thinking about South African runner Caster Semenya, and about whether I should write about her, for two months.The topic has been ping-ponging inside my mind: write, dont write, write, dont write.A column about Semenya would seem like piling on. Regardless of the content, the piece would be just another headline, just another brick in the imaginary wall that has been slowly closing around her.But then, not writing about her would feel like giving up -- surrendering the space to certain voices, who right now dont seem to understand that their conversation, as elevated as their language might be, is really nothing more than a witch hunt in disguise.What am I talking about, exactly?Since May, a steady stream of articles -- see here,?here?and here -- have highlighted the supposed hysteria that will descend on the 2016 Olympics if Semenya does what many expect her to do: win gold in the 800 meters. You might remember Semenya as the protagonist of one of the most explosive sports stories of 2009, when she was flagged for sex-verification testing, the results of which were subsequently leaked. In the weeks after, we found out that, to comply with track and fields regulation on what constitutes a female athlete, the then-18-year-old needed to undergo some sort of treatment, the specific details of which went unpublished.So heres the newest twist, the one that has sparked the latest hand-wringing. A year ago, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that using natural testosterone levels as the measure for sex verification, which most sports were doing, is unjustified. The CAS told the governing bodies of sport, including the IAAF and International Olympic Committee, that they had two years to prove that increased levels of natural testosterone (known as hyperandrogenism) provided female athletes with a demonstrable advantage.The ruling meant that Semenya could immediately stop taking testosterone-suppression drugs. Of course, nobody knows if she actually did stop, or if she ever started in the first place -- only that the highest court in sports said no cis-gender woman could or should be forced to take them. In other words: Testosterone levels were not a legitimate barometer for deciding which female athletes were female enough to compete.And yet, in the buildup to these Olympics, a few people have once again focused the microscope on Semenya, who won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and who has been burning up the track lately. In July, she ran the 800 in 1 minute, 55 seconds -- the fastest time in the world this year and two seconds off the world record.What has happened since the CAS ruling is actually embarrassingly simple. Since the highest sports court in the world decided that Semenya is free to compete without restrictions, certain people have moved the conversation to another venue -- the court of public opinion.Guess which one is more vicious.This conversation is supposedly about fairness and protection. Or, rather, protecting female athletes whose appearance reflects societys standard of femininity. Ross Tucker, a South African professor of exercise physiology who has banged the drum the loudest (and who did not respond to multiple email requests for an interview), offered this quote to the Guardian: If Semenya can eventually run 1:51 she is better than [Usain] Bolt comparatively. But Bolt doesnt compete in a protected category for people with fast-twitch muscle fibers. He isnt subjected to the same classification issues as Semenya is by virtue of the fact were trying to protect women.As Stanford bioethicist Katrina Karkazis has saaid: Protect women from what? Protect women from . Cheap Orlando Magic Jerseys. .. other women? Or protect more traditionally feminine looking women from women whose appearance is more masculine? Because the reality is, until you do invasive sex testing on every single female athlete in international competition -- and to be clear, I am absolutely not advocating for this -- we have no clue whats happening inside the body of each athlete.We have no idea on what point of the biological sex continuum each female athlete resides, and who might have what advantages. And without that knowledge, the people currently ringing the alarm bells on Semenya are actually engaging in discriminatory behavior. They are singling out Semenya because her physique was deemed too masculine, which led to her being flagged for sex verification testing, which means she is now one of the few female athletes whose sex test results have been made public.Hundreds of other female athletes might possess the same hormones as Semenya, but because their physiques are deemed more feminine, theyll never be flagged for testing, and so well never know.The CAS verdict was, in hindsight, almost predictable. Over the course of sporting history, every previous sex testing measure has been deemed flawed: naked parades, physical examinations, chromosome testing -- all are now seen as archaic, outdated and inadequate.In fact, an adequate test does not exist -- of course it doesnt. Biological sex exists along a continuum of unknown length, not on a binary. And finding the midpoint of a line of unknown length is impossible. Perhaps thats hard for some to comprehend, considering that, for thousands of years, weve had just two options (blue or pink, suit or dress) for how to outwardly express a thousand variations of biological sex.No wonder so many people think there are only two sexes.And no doubt this appears to be a tricky issue. Truth is, weve separated sports into two categories, so we must police those categories, right? If women are a protected class in sports, then we must institute measures -- even if those measures are imprecise or flawed -- to protect them.Right?Not quite.Stick with me.The articles I linked to above make it seem as though the very future of womens sports is at stake -- as though a Semenya victory in the Olympics would shatter womens sports into a million pieces because the categorization would be obliterated.But consider this: Until 1966, international competitions were still using physical examinations to determine which female athletes could and could not compete. No complicated science. No chromosome tests. No testing of hormones. No scans of internal organs. Just a simple glance at a naked body to ensure that no men were masquerading as women. So its possible that hundreds of women (and some men, for that matter) have competed, unbeknownst to anyone, with myriad different internal makeups.And have womens sports imploded?No. So why would it now?Kendra Harrison just broke a 28-year-old world record in the womens 100-meter hurdles; Katie Ledecky is about to rewrite the Olympic record books in swimming. And no one is concerned.Womens sports have carried on nicely for decades, with female athletes of varying backgrounds and advantages, genetic or otherwise, running and swimming against one another, largely without incident. And the courts have said sex testing, as it currently exists, is flawed and unfair.So ask yourself this: Exactly why is Caster Semenya still on trial? 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