Freakosports

The Freakonomics blog has been featuring quite a few sports stories of late. First, Steven Levitt covered the current scandal rocking the NBA of a referee having placed bets on the games in which he was officiating. Then, with the Tour de France going to the dogs with title contender Alexander Vinokourov (well, he was a contender when the race began; not by the stage when he was dumped) and yellow jersey Michael Rasmussen getting kicked out for doping, Stephen Dubner suggested that maybe we should just legalize doping in the Tour. Finally, today, the blog features a rebuttal by sports writer Joe Lindsey on why legalizing doping in sports won't work. All make for interesting reading.