The NFL's richest man.

This weekend has produced the highest NFL contract since the beginnings of professional football. Drew Brees, the man who has just broken Dan Marino's single season passing yardage record, was handed his 5-years $ 100 million contract by the New Orleans Saints.

While this move is not only record setting in terms of per year salary, it is also a significant move for the New Orleans franchise. The organization which was hit hard by the harsh penalties following the still evolving "bounty-gate scandal" had the first positive news since the end of last season. They signed the most productive and successful Quarterback in franchise history for a long-term deal and sent a message to the whole league that they want to be contenders in the future.

In terms of economics it is amazing to give a 32 year old QB such a huge contract, including $ 60 million of guaranteed money. Remember: Before coming to the Saints Brees had a significant, career-threatening shoulder injury, and he is not exactly young either. When the full 5 years of this contract are played out, he will be around 37, which is very old for an NFL QB. My guess is that this contract either makes the Saints look extremely smart over the next few seasons, or it will pretty much end the feel-good-story in the Big Easy.

Anyway:  i think it is just appropriate to congratulate Brees and I wish him all the best for the next five years at least.

Here we go again...

Another year at the Tour de France and we have yet another doping scandal. Yesterday we had the first day of rest of the 99th edition of the Grande Boucle. But instead of resting the peloton experienced a major shakeup. Cofidis rider Rémy Di Gregorio was arrested by the French police in the aftermath of a team hotel raid. He was later suspended by his team and is the first doping casualty of this year's tour.

But it is not the only doping related story these days. Lance Armstrong is fighting doping allegations brought forward by the USADA. Currently highly successful team SKY, the team featuring the current tour leader Bradley Wiggins, is confronted with doubt and suspicion, as it was questioned by the media if the remarkable time trial performance on Monday was possible without performance enhancing drugs.

After a relatively quiet Tour in 2011 we are probably back to the days when doping news were daily business during the 3 weeks of the Tour. Up to this day no positive test results were published, but Di Grigorio's case does not look good. Maybe he is indeed the "single case" his team wants him to look like - or not guilty at all. Maybe he is part of a team Festina-like structure of organized doping and just a scapegoat. We will have to wait and see what the next few weeks will bring along...

Doping is a highly interesting topic in sports economics. A recent paper by Coupé and Gergaud (2012) presents a recent attempt to analyze data from professional cycling in order to establish a link between doping related indicators and riders' performance.