1. ‘If you feel the need to cry, or even make your voice wobble a little like you’re going to cry but instead fight back those tears and take a breath and keep right on with what you were saying because dammit you’re better than this and you owe it to not just the world but to yourself to tell this story then do you think, Lance, that you might be best just giving in to it?’

Barney Ronay, writing in The Guardian, writes what most of us have been thinking since finding out that Lance Armstrong will be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey.

2. ‘Take ESPN’s frankly minimal reaction to that of Sky Sports in England, when a similar controversy broke in 2011. Richard Keys and Andy Gray were the biggest soccer commentary team possibly in all of Europe, and both were sacked immediately in the aftermath of a controversy that saw them make sexist comments about a female official that were picked up on air. Gray’s comment in particular was very similar to Musburger’s seemingly senile ramblings. At the time, Gray said; “Can you believe that? A female linesman. Women don’t know the offside rule.” Sky Sports acted immediately, sacking the two for that and other comments, and were almost unanimously applauded for doing so.

‘Why is it not OK in the UK and Ireland to make sexist comments to a wide audience, but, it would appear it is OK to do so in the USA? None of the fallout from this is funny, or acceptable. In this day and age we should not be accepting the objectification of a gender, male or female.’

Cormac Eklof, writing on IrishCentral.com, writes about Brent Musburger’s objectification of Katherine Webb.

3. ‘After taking charge of Celtic, Neil Lennon demanded his scouts pay closer attention to Ireland, explaining: “We probably took our eye off the ball as far as the League of Ireland is concerned.

‘“You look at players like Keith Fahey, Kevin Doyle, Shane Long and Conor Sammon — and top of the list would be Roy Keane.

‘“There are players who maybe missed the boat or go to clubs early, don’t succeed, come back and find their feet in the League of Ireland.

‘“Sometimes there are late developers who go on to have great careers, like Paul McGrath and Kevin Moran. There is a constant stream of players coming out of Ireland and they’re hungry to succeed.”

‘Keane himself shopped in the League of Ireland with mixed results. Sunderland are set to make a 15-fold profit on David Meyler, whom he brought in from Cork City, but Roy O’Donovan — who made the same move — did not live up to his near €500,000 price tag.’

Writing in The Irish Sun, Neil O’Riordan on how League of Ireland players can make it in England.

4. ‘A quarter of a century after the disgrace of Ben Johnson at the Seoul Olympics, more than a decade after the single season home run record was corrupted six times in four years (and not at all in 48 seasons before and since) and in the immediate wake of confirmation that Lance “Never Failed a Test” Armstrong — surprise! — masterminded a massive fraud, I still have to explain why I will not endorse any known steroid user for the Hall of Fame.’

Tom Verducci takes a zero tolerance stance on Sports Illustrated.

5. ‘Lampard’s particular talent was in never finding space too soon. Instead, he would amble, trot, skulk; anything to avoid looking conspicuous.

‘Then, at the last possible moment, with all other eyes on the ball, he would make his move. You will find no YouTube compilation of Lampard’s late penalty-box runs. No child ever tried to emulate Lampard’s stealthy prowl in front of his mates at school. But it was a talent, sure enough, and one that reaped so many of his 193 goals for Chelsea.’

Writing for The Telegraph, Jonathan Liew fails to recognise the fact that Frank Lampard remains a professional footballer for Chelsea.

Returning Stars: GAA players who came back from Oz >