The number of people lined up to take pot shots at Lance Armstrong on Friday morning in the wake of his "truth-telling" interview with Oprah Winfrey is lengthy. Tyler Hamilton is not one of them.

"I understand the general reaction, the general public reaction," Hamilton said in a phone interview with Yahoo! Sports. "He is a fighter, one of the toughest dudes I've ever met. I'd ask the public to give him a little bit of freedom going through this. They don't need to write the guy love letters, but show a little support and encourage him to do the right things.

Tyler Hamilton has a unique understanding of Lance Armstrong's burden. (Getty Images)"There are only two people in this world that I've personally hated. I no longer hate him," he continued. "In a roundabout way I feel fortunate I met him. Together, we went through some of the best of times and some of the worst of times."

Hamilton has come a long way. There was a time not too long ago when he hated Lance Armstrong, regretted ever meeting him. It was just two years ago when the two former teammates

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Of all the questions Lance Armstrong needs to answer about his use of performance-enhancing drugs and subsequent years of denial, explaining why he's decided to come clean now might be the most revealing. According to Oprah Winfrey, who conducted the yet-to-be-broadcast interview with Armstrong on Monday, the disgraced former Tour de France champion didn't provide a clear answer into that psyche. That's because there is no easy answer.

Armstrong made millions of dollars on a fairy tale that turned out to be a ruse, and cleaning up that mess isn't as simple as just saying, "Sorry, I cheated." There's litigation involved, financial repercussions to face and, in his case, a foundation that's much bigger than him to consider.

Here are five reasons why Armstrong may have decided to admit the truth now:

He no longer can face perjury charges. In 2005, Armstrong testified under oath that he never used performance-enhancing drugs. The statute of limitations on that testimony

Read More »from After years of denial, why is Lance Armstrong admitting he used PEDs now?

After years of swirling around Tim Tebow, the vultures now have something else to pick on.

It's barely a scrap, if that, for holier-than-Tebow critics who have been foaming at the mouth to dig up a granule of dirt on the man ever since he announced he was still a virgin.

So as reports surfaced that Tebow informed New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan that he didn't want to be a part of the wildcat offense in Sunday's game against the San Diego Chargers, apparently angry at being passed over for the starting quarterback job in place of maligned Mark Sanchez, the vultures closed in.

He's a "fraud," a "loser" and, as ESPN's Merril Hoge declared, is as "phony as a three-dollar bill."

[Related: Legacy on line for rookie Robert Griffin III?]

Never mind that reports of Tebow's insubordination all came via secondhand, unnamed sources or that Ryan wouldn't confirm the story. One reported moment of a frustrated quarterback is enough for some to assassinate the character of a man who has

Read More »from No let up in senseless attacks of Tim Tebow

Chad Henne and his wife, Brittany.

Doesn't look like Chad Henne's doing too badly after getting let go by Miami only to sit on the bench behind Blaine Gabbert in Jacksonville. Check out this cuddly little photo courtesy of the Facebook page of Henne's wife, Brittany, his girl since he was 14.

His and hers onesies? You're either throwing up or jealous right now. Either way, give it up to Chad for his perfect execution of a happy-wife-happy-life end around.

Henne could have more reasons to smile if Jacksonville figures out it's better off with him under center rather than Gabbert, who's out for the season with an arm injury. All Henne has done in the three games since taking over at quarterback for the Jaguars is throw for 817 yards and seven touchdowns.

Fantasy advice from Yahoo! experts:

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Read More »from Chad Henne looks great in stripes

David Beckham walks off the field with his sons. (Getty)

CARSON, Calif. – Next to a table full of empty champagne bottles, the contents of which were now flooding the floor inside the L.A. Galaxy locker room, there was Cruz Beckham trying to egg on Christian Wilhelmsson.

"I can spin on my head," the 7-year-old dared. "Want to see?"

Cruz, wearing a pair of soccer cleats and a No. 23 Galaxy jersey with "Daddy" printed on the back, was keeping busy while waiting for his father to get out of the shower. Daddy had just spent the previous 89 minutes helping ignite a second-half rally that saw the Galaxy win the MLS Cup in a 3-1 victory over the Houston Dyanamo. It was Daddy's second straight championship with the Galaxy, this one coming in his last Major League Soccer game.

"Yeah, I want to see," Wilhelmsson said to Cruz.

Like a typical 7-year-old, Cruz changed his mind, too embarrassed to show off in front of a crowd.

He gets that from his daddy, who's always looking to pass. Like in the 64th minute of Saturday's final when he had a

Read More »from Make room for Daddy: Beckham does his boys proud with championship ending to Galaxy run

CARSON, Calif. – Like Wayne Gretzky before him, David Beckham's arrival in America came with the baggage of selling to an audience a product it mostly didn't want. And now the clock starts on finding out if he succeeded.

David Beckham will leave the MLS after the Cup final.Beckham will play his final game in Major League Soccer on Saturday, a contest against the Houston Dynamo that just happens to be for the MLS Cup. Mentioning the championship game is this weekend has to be noted because six years after Beckham joined the L.A. Galaxy, much of America still doesn't care about the MLS.

That's not a dig. It's reality. And Beckham and the league know it.

But the other reality is that Beckham's time here was never going to have a microwave effect on Americans' interest in soccer – fast-baking it to be served up in 30 seconds. Like trying to forge peace in the Middle East, it seems the effort to convince America to like soccer has been going on since forever.

What Beckham has done is open the league's eyes to something it didn't see

Read More »from Beckham opened the soccer world’s eyes to MLS

Wednesday morning the nation awoke to the story of Grinnell's Jack Taylor, the 5-foot-10 guard who scored an NCAA record 138 points in a college basketball game, which undoubtedly has evoked a collective, coast-to-coast, "Whaaaaaaaaat?"

How could anyone score 138 points in a 40-minute game, even if Taylor – and his teammates – were trying to run up the total?

The answer comes from the mind of David Arseneault, who 22 years ago launched an all-out assault of 3-pointers and full-court presses that's now known as the Grinnell System.

[Related: Grinnell isn't the only team running the Grinnell System]

Here's how the system works:

Jack Taylor takes one of the 108 shots attempted during his 138-point game. (AP)• The first shot is the best shot, no matter if it's from 5 feet or 25 feet, preferably 25 feet.

• Take as many 3-pointers as possible.

• Defensively, giving up an uncontested layup is better than forcing a shot-clock violation.

• The ball-handler is double-teamed at all times.

The result is a frenetic, full-court attack that leaves the

Read More »from The system behind Jack Taylor's historic 138-point game for Grinnell

Interested in hosting a party for you and 16 of your friends at a Philadelphia 76ers game? If you've got $6.80 lying around, you're in luck, because a block of 17 tickets for Wednesday night's game against the Detroit Pistons was on sale for $0.40 a ticket on StubHub.

If your pockets aren't that deep, there was a pair selling for $0.10 each two rows up.

Ticket prices: Pistons vs. 76ersSeriously, 10 cents per ticket, not including the service charge and delivery fee, of course, which would run you $9.95. So for $10.15, you and a friend could get in the door, where your chances of moving up to a better seat would certainly be pretty good.

If you don't want to deal with the stress of playing musical chairs, you could get a seat in the lowest level for about what it will cost you to see Skyfall. Two tickets, 23 rows from the floor, normally $39, you could get them for $11 each … to see a team that last season upset the No. 1 seeded Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs.

And the fire sale is not just in

Read More »from See an NBA game for $0.10 … seriously 10 cents