About

Rant Your Head Off came into being as a result of my belief that Floyd Landis got a raw deal from the media over the allegations that he doped at the Tour de France. The lack of balanced coverage has been frustrating, to say the least. More than that, many in the media have really and truly failed to grasp the core issues of Landis’ story and the bigger story about doping in sports. These days, it seems, powerful organizations feel free to malign a person with impunity with absolutely no regard for the consequences of their actions.

So that’s what got me started, but truth be told, I’ve got quite a backlog of rants stirring around, waiting to come out. Rants about sports, politics, the media and the general direction American society seems to be heading. Many are rants that my wife has heard me go on and on (and on and on and on and on) about, and many are things that haven’t yet popped out of my head. But over time they’re all going to show up on these pages.

Who am I? I’m the author of Dope: A History of Performance Enhancement in Sports from the Nineteenth Century to Today. I’m also a former photojournalist (and a graduate of the School of Journalism at the U. of Missouri in Columbia, MO) who now makes a living developing online training. How I got from there to here is a long story, maybe I’ll rant about it some day. In my spare time, I am an avid bicyclist. I’ve been racing since the early 90s, working my way up to Category 3 for those who know about the sport. Which is to say, I’m good enough to be pack fodder in a Pro/1/2/3 race. At least, when I’m in shape. My best days as a racer, I’m afraid, are behind me as working full time takes a bite out of the amount of time I have to train.

But if I have to choose between being broke and incredibly fit (as I was in the early 90s), or being financially stable and not so fit, I’ll choose the latter every time. It aint fun being broke, especially if you need to resort to personal deficit spending to get by. Trust me, I’ve been that route and don’t ever want to go back.

My wife and I have two Siberian Huskies. The best part of my day is the time I spend with my wife and the time I spend walking our dogs when I get home from work each day.

I also enjoy reading a wide variety of books (currently Rome 1960 by David Maraniss), writing (as you can probably already tell), playing guitar, and spending time in coffee shops downing a good mocha, cappuccino, or other coffee-based beverage. If you like coffee, there’s none better than Peets. I’ve been a regular customer of theirs for more than 20 years now, and I’ve never had any better coffee anywhere within the US.

If you’d like to contact me, use the handy Comment Form. I’m always happy to hear from my readers.