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Former French national goalie Fabien Barthez is quitting the Nantes soccer team, saying he fears for his safety from angry fans.

Barthez, a World Cup and European Championship winner with France, has made costly errors in recent matches -- and was booed and jeered by some Nantes fans on Saturday. Several fans surrounded Barthez's car as he left the stadium, kicked the vehicle, and tried to pull him out.

Not long ago, high school sporting officials in the state of Washington were considering tough new rules for spectators, including a ban on booing. Those who support the ban say that too often, spectators are cruel. While I believe booing can be unsportsmanlike, physical threats such as those that Barthez encountered go beyond the realm of sports.

In a sports world that has a father throwing his son���s opponent from the wrestling mat, a youth coach knocking down a football referee, and soccer matches being played in empty stadiums due to security concerns ��� an athlete can���t even feel safe and supported by his team���s own fans? I find the situation in Nantes ridiculous -- a World Cup hero for the very same country is taking abuse. I think that certain fans of ���the beautiful game��� need to reevaluate their allegiances and loyalties.

(Photograph provided by Getty Images/Michael Steele)

[http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/27/shoelessjoe.jpg]Last month I posted an entry that covered a few of the most unique mascots that I could dig up. When I posted the topic to our message boards, there was some very interesting feedback on mascots from all over.

Today I decided to sift through some of the great sports nicknames and post up a list of my favorites. Many people say the creation of sports nicknames is a lost art and that athletes just don���t have nicknames like they used to. To an extent, they have a point; modern nicknames are, for the most part, boring and unimaginative (T-Mac, A-Rod, etc.) I'd like to salute a few of the great ones from the past in a brief list of my favorites (in no particular order):

The Iron Horse (Lou Gehrig) ��� There are few nicknames that are more apt in their description of a player than ���The Iron Horse���, earned by Gehrig during his long-standing record streak of 2,130 consecutive games played.

Shoeless Joe (Joe Jackson) ��� This is one of my favorite

nicknames of all time. Joe Jackson earned the name ���Shoeless��� when, as

a young player, he took off a pair of spikes that hurt his feet and

played the outfield wearing only socks.

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The first All-African Amputee Football Championship, supported by FIFA, recently took place in Freetown, Sierra Leone. I happened to come across a series of photos in Sports Illustrated featuring the athletes involved that gave me a glimpse into the competition and what it's about. I had to learn more.

Four participating nations, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, gave thousands of spectators a tournament to remember. Soccer for amputees has thus far received little global recognition; however, the local media covered the competition, along with the BBC, Reuters and France Television. Also, 10,000 spectators present at Freetown's national stadium for the opening game between Sierra Leone and Ghana, and some 40,000 attending over the five days of the event.

Soccer has given hope to so many men struck by tragedy, and helped rebuild the futures of members of Africa's most traumatized communities. "Football has saved my life. I never thought I'd play the game again until I discovered football for amputees. It's given me hope again," Victor Musa, captain of the team from Sierra Leone, told FIFA.

There were an estimated 4,000 such amputations during the civil war, which lasted from 1991-2000 and resulted in an estimated 50,000 deaths. Many of these amputations were caused by anti-personnel mines, bullet wounds, torture, or a lack of proper first aid.

Ghana won the event, overcoming Liberia 4-3 in the final. The country's minister, Dennis Bright, summed up the general feeling when he said, "You've proved to the world that you're not second-class citizens but real heroes."

(Photo provided by AFP/taken by Issouf Sanogo)

[http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/73252797.jpg]Second half goals from Jimmy Conrad and Landon Donovan gave the United States a 2-0 victory over Mexico last night in an international friendly match.

However, emotions flared late, with Mexico's Rafael Marquez and U.S. forward Eddie Johnson exchanging shoves. Mexican goalkeeper, Oswaldo Sanchez, attempted to slide tackle Landon Donovan after he scored his goal. After the final whistle blew, the Mexicans strode off the field without shaking the U.S. players' hands or exchanging jerseys, as is customary.

"The sportsmanship -- it would be nice if you guys reporters and the Mexican press talked about it, because it's really poor," Donovan said. "When we lose to them there, we shake their hands and say, 'Good job.' There's none of that reciprocally, and it's kind of disappointing."

The traditional value of sportsmanship is being challenged from

all sides: professional, college, high school, and even in youth sports. There are some who say sportsmanship is becoming a lost art and that unless we remind ourselves of the essentials of sportsmanship it will gradually fade as other values have done in our society.

In the midst of all this, it seems doubly important that we recommit ourselves to guiding our youth by reminding them what sportsmanship is all about. Help the effort by rewarding them for showing good sportsmanship and showing, by our example, that sportsmanship is still alive and valued in youth sports today.

(Photo provided by Getty Images, taken by Stephen Dunn)

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Another year, another list of compelling sports stories. Here is a quick review of some of the events from 2006 that make us love sports...

The Winter Olympics in Turin featured highs and lows for the U.S., which placed second to Germany in the medal count.  Among the highlights was Shaun White, deemed the Flying Tomato by dominating the X Games over the years, delivering the same results on an international stage during the Winter Olympics. He twisted, turned, and flipped his way to a gold medal in the Men's Halfpipe competition, an event in which the U.S. had three of the top four highest scores.

The Final Four has been dominated by college basketball's big boys for more than a quarter of a century, with powerful teams and tournament-tested conferences gathering at the end of the season to sort out the champion. This year was a little different thanks to George Mason, a commuter school in suburban Virginia that never had won a single game in the NCAA tournament until two weeks prior to March Madness. What an inspirational run they had!

The world watched as the beautiful game took center stage this summer for the World Cup. We have video clips of the most beautiful goals in effort to forget the ugly image of Zidane's head butt heard 'round the world.

An autistic hoopster made headlines. During his first and only appearance for his high-school basketball team in Greece, N.Y., Jason McElwain, who is autistic, drains six three-pointers, adds another field goal and is carried off the court by his jubilant teammates.

An autistic hoopster made headlines

It was a very exciting and entertaining year for Little League Baseball as well. What a series! The Southeast team became the new world champs winning the 60th Little League World Series in a 2-1 upset over Japan. Also, the USA softball team took gold in the World Softball Championships in Beijing with a little help from Jessica Mendoza.

And in Ottaw[took gold|http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/footballblind.jpg]a, Kansas there is a running back who rushed for 1,000 yards on the football field this season despite being legally blind and having a debilitating disease known as sickle cell anemia.

Thanks for an exciting and memorable 2006 - we're looking forward to 2007!

(Photo provided by Getty Images, taken by Jim McIsaac)

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I am home for the holidays and just watched a replay of the women's soccer Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. There is an extraordinary athlete from Florida State University who just completed her collegiate soccer career and who's story should be shared.

Sixth-year senior goalkeeper, Ali Mims, endured 20 surgical procedures on her leg during her college career. In the beginning of the 2002 she fractured her left leg in a scrimmage against Georgia and was forced to miss the entire season. Mims had a surgical procedure to correct the initial fracture, another because of acute compartment syndrome caused by an abnormal amount of swelling in the lower leg, 12 procedures to rid infection that had enveloped the area and even more surgeries to correct tendon problems caused by nerve damage and scar tissue suffered when her leg was broken. Just as she was set to return in 2003, the chronic infection in her leg became active once again forcing her to the sidelines for another year. More rehabilitation was needed to repair her body of the subsequent tendon problems and nerve damage.

[http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/zidane.jpg]File this under the extremely bizarre department...

FIFA President Sepp Blatter is attempting to resolve the whole World Cup head-butting incident involving Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materazzi by bringing the two world-famous soccer players together on Robben Island in South Africa to patch up their differences before World Cup 2010.

For those not intimately acquainted with Robben Island it has been a penal colony for political prisoners and social outcasts for the past 400 years--and housed Nelson Mandela for many years. (It is now the site of a Nelson Mandela musuem.)

No word on what kind of protective headgear Materazzi will be wearing.