Armstrong’s Ex-Assistant Files Banned Drug Claim

A former personal assistant to Lance Armstrong filed court papers in Austin, Texas, on Thursday alleging that he discovered a banned substance in the cycling champion’s apartment early last year.

Armstrong’s attorney, Timothy Herman, called the allegation false and “absurd.”

Speculation kept building, meanwhile, that Armstrong would retire later this year after trying to win his seventh straight Tour de France.

“Four more months and it’s over,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian newspaper reported Thursday.

“I miss my kids and all the pressure I have on me is taking its toll,” he said.

Armstrong has scheduled a news conference in the United States on April 18 before the Tour of Georgia.

In Texas, Mike Anderson, who is involved in a legal fight with Armstrong over alleged promises the cyclist made to help Anderson start a bike shop, made the claim about a banned substance in a brief filed in state District Court.

Armstrong, who is in Europe, has maintained that he is drug-free. The cancer survivor frequently notes he is one of the most drug-tested athletes in the world.

Anderson, who says he had a key to Armstrong’s apartment in Girona, Spain, alleges he was cleaning the bathroom in “early 2004” when he found a white box labeled “like any other prescription drug” but that it did not have a doctor’s prescription attached.

Written on the box was the trademark name “Androstenine, or something very close to this,” Anderson said.

“He went to the computer, looked it up on the WADA or USADA website(s), and confirmed that what he had found was an androgen, a listed banned substance,” Anderson’s court brief states, referring to the World Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

Anderson said he put the box back in the medicine cabinet where he found it.

Anderson also said he and Armstrong had a discussion in 2004 about cyclists who dope and claimed Armstrong told him, “Everyone does it.”

Armstrong’s attorney, Hal Gillespie, said that conversation took place before Anderson allegedly found the steroid. The lawyer also said he planned to depose Armstrong.

Pro Football

Maurice Clarett ran faster on his home turf than he did at the NFL combine.

A month after Clarett disappointed scouts in Indianapolis, he was clocked at about 4.67 seconds in two 40-yard dashes, according to his agents, while working out at Cortland, Ohio, for scouts from eight NFL teams.

At the combine, the former Ohio State star was clocked from 4.72 to 4.82 in the 40.

Guard Bennie Anderson signed a three-year, $5.1-million contract with the Buffalo Bills, bolstering the team’s depleted offensive line.

Anderson spent the last four seasons mostly as a starting right guard with Baltimore.

Free-agent safety Idrees Bashir signed with the Carolina Panthers. Bashir started 13 games for the Indianapolis Colts last season.... The Jacksonville Jaguars signed free-agent cornerback Kenny Wright to a one-year contract. Wright spent the last three seasons with the Houston Texans.... Fullback Rob Konrad and defensive lineman Kenny Smith signed with the Oakland Raiders.

Golf

The rainy weather that has plagued the PGA Tour this season struck again, washing out the opening round of the BellSouth Classic at Duluth, Ga.

If all goes well, the first round will be today, the second Saturday and the field will play 36 holes Sunday to finish the tournament on time.

Jurisprudence

Leonard Little failed several field sobriety tests when stopped for speeding a year ago, the officer who arrested him told jurors as testimony began in the DWI trial at Clayton, Mo., of the St. Louis Rams’ defensive end.

Scott Rosenblum, Little’s attorney, said in his opening argument earlier in the day that the sobriety tests were flawed.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the University of Colorado filed by two women whose allegations of sexual abuse sparked a scandal last year over its football team’s recruiting practices.

The plaintiffs said they were raped by football players or recruits, but U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn said the women failed to prove the university had actual knowledge of sexual harassment.

He also said they didn’t show the school was deliberately indifferent to any known sexual harassment.

Miscellany

The Internal Revenue Service has requested documents related to Colorado football Coach Gary Barnett’s two summer football camps.

Details of the IRS investigation, first reported in the Rocky Mountain News, were not available. An IRS spokeswoman said disclosure rules kept her from confirming or denying any investigation.

Rewarding its football staff for the school’s first bowl victory in 38 years, the University of Wyoming extended Coach Joe Glenn’s contract a year through 2009 and also renewed his assistants’ deals.

Glenn led the Cowboys to a 7-5 record last season, capped by a 24-21 victory over UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Australian Trent Munro out-surfed reigning world champion Andy Irons to win the Rip Curl Pro in tiny waves at Woolamai Beach on Phillip Island in Australia. The contest had to be moved from renowned Bells Beach because of poor conditions.

Munro’s last victory on the World Championship Tour was as a rookie in 2001.

After battling into the final from the bottom of the draw, Munro held a two-wave score of 16.57 late in the 35-minute heat, which left Irons needing to score a nine out of a possible 10 on his final wave as the heat drew to a close. The waves failed to cooperate for the surfer from Princeville, Hawaii.

T.J. Simers is on vacation.