The Tour de France concluded the other day. I know nothing about the guy that won. I stopped carrying about bike races after Ricky Potter beat me in a race in 4^th grade. I do regret all those great baseball cards I ruined attaching them to the spokes, too (but damn did it make a great sound).

This blog isn’t about that, but an event Lance Armstrong took part in. He rode the Tour de France route for charity last week and not surprisingly, it was a much smaller crowd. The people were there either yelling negative stuff at him, or seeking autographs.

Some criticized him for taking attention away from the actual race.

It was a British footballer, Geoff Thomas, that invited him to ride in the Le Tour-One Day Ahead benefit ride, to help fight leukemia.

Armstrong signed autographs and said there weren’t as many people yelling negative things as some reported.

All of this got me thinking…is there anybody you guys have in your collection that you no longer like?

For example, I won a radio trivia contest when I was 17. I got $1,000 worth of prizes from various stores. One of those was a baseball card shop for $100. I didn’t care about the baseball cards but picked up three framed, autographed pictures. They were Johnny Unitas, Bob Feller, and O.J. Simpson. This was years before he murdered Nicole (allegedly. Oh hell…we know he did it, forget the “allegedly.” Steve can deal with his lawyers if they call).

I have to think there are many that got Armstrong’s autograph when he was the best cyclist in the world…only to throw them away after the scandal broke.

Did people get rid of Ray Rice autographs after they saw video of him punching the woman in the elevator? What about Michael Vick after the dog fighting?

Of course, some people probably secretly got him to sign pictures of dogs. I remember reading a story in Autograph Magazine about a guy that got Hillary Clinton to sign a Monica Lewinsky book by showing up at her office, and having her book cover over it. Wow!

I’m guessing with lesser offenses, fans aren’t going to get rid of their memorabilia.

Ray Lewis is one of the best defensive players to ever step on the field, yet when he lied to cops and was involved in the murder of somebody…I guarantee nobody got rid of the signed photos, jerseys, or footballs they had from him.

I still have the O.J. signed picture, but will never display it.

I remember Bill Cosby was coming to a venue in town that’s easy to get autographs at. Since I have six of his albums, I was going to bring a few for him to sign (he was always good about signing…but better about drugging the female fans…”allegedly”).

So…who do you have in your collection that you wonder about, or would think twice about getting?

I loved when a TV show was following O.J. Simpson around after the trial, and a woman came up to him on the beach and said, “Can I please shake your hand?”

As O.J. smiled and started shaking her hand she said, “I’ve never shaken the hands of a murderer before, thank you!”

He started to thank her, until he realized what it was she actually said.

If only more autograph seekers would do that.