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AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 18, 2007

STEVE GRIFFITH: Thanks for joining us. It's the 18th Annual American Century Championship set for July 13 through 15 in Lake Tahoe. Today we are announcing that this year the Lance Armstrong Foundation will be the sole beneficiary of fundraising activities around the tournament, which brings together some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment. The tournament will be televised on NBC Sports over the weekend with five hours of live coverage. ESPN provides coverage of Friday's first round.
Let me introduce the principals on the call; Mark Killen, senior VP corporate and product marketing for American Century; Jon Miller, senior VP, NBC Sports; Jerry Rice, Hall of Fame wide-receiver-to-be and veteran participant in the American Century Championship; Heisman Trophy winner, No.1 overall draft pick and Pro Bowl MVP quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, Carson Palmer; seven-time Tour de France champion and founder of the prominent foundation that bears his name, Lance Armstrong.
Let me ask Mark Killen from American Century to start us off.
MARK KILLEN: Thanks, Steve, thank you for joining us today for a preview of our upcoming American Century Championship. We're really excited; this is our ninth consecutive year as the sponsor of this event. Of course, our business is managing investments and money for individuals and institutions, and that's why we like to bring this event to you. It celebrates performance, but it also celebrates doing good things for charities.
And as we've done in the past, this year we're using the tournament as a platform for fundraising activities for a very worthy cause, and this is the second consecutive year that we're proud to be supporting the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The LAF was founded by Lance, who is with us on the call today, and its mission is to inspire and empower people affected by cancer.
Last year we entered into a multiyear collaboration with Lance and his foundation, and this is a real natural partnership for us because our founder, Jim Stowers, Jr., and his wife Virginia were also affected by cancer.
As cancer survivors, both Jim and Lance have made substantial commitments to help improve the quality of life of those affected by the disease, Lance through his foundation and Mr. Stowers through the creation of the Stowers Institute For Medical Research here in Kansas City, Missouri.
Now, charities are very important to us, yet we know that it's the caliber of the celebrity athletes that come to the American Century Championship that create a lot of interest and excitement. So with that I'd like to pass it back to Steve.
STEVE GRIFFITH: Thanks, Mark. The tournament is unique in that it's owned and operated by NBC Sports, which puts together the field each year and directs the fundraising activities under Jon Miller. Jon?
JON MILLER: Thanks very much, Steve, and thanks to all of you for joining. This is our 18th year and it's grown every year, but this I think we can honestly say is our biggest year ever. We are up to over 81 players, and we have our strongest celebrity field ever, led by several new names.
We are in a unique position that we are sold out, and then our fan base has grown dramatically, as well. We've averaged over 30,000 in attendance the past couple of years. We're thrilled to be obviously associated with Lance Armstrong and it's obviously important for us to be able to get exposure as well as direct funds to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
As Mark mentioned before, we are happy to donate a sizable amount each year, and in fact, all of the winnings by the amateur players from the $600,000 in purse will be donated directly to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I mentioned our field before, but just to let you know who some of our big returning stars are, obviously it's Michael Jordan, Carson Palmer, John Elway, Charles Barkley, Donald Trump, Ray Romano to name a few, and then some of our newcomers are Jerome Bettis, actor Chris Tucker, quarterback Tony Romo, Billy Crudup the actor, Matt Lauer, John Lynch, Vinnie Testaverde, we've got a real strong field.
STEVE GRIFFITH: Let me start it off with a question for Lance and then we'll up to up to Q & A. Lance, you were there last year for the first year of affiliation with the tournament. This year the LAF will be the sole beneficiary. What was your experience like last year, and compare it to what you expected it to be like before you came out.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: You know, it was about what I expected. I'm not -- although I go in with not a lot of expectation because I'm not much of a golfer, but a great organization, beautiful setting obviously there on the lake, bigger crowds than I think I expected there to be. Like I just said, for somebody who doesn't golf much, it's not that fun to tee off in front of a group of people (laughing), so that was a little uncomfortable. But I've been working on my game, so maybe it'll be better.
STEVE GRIFFITH: Lance, can you shed any light on this passion that professional athletes have for golf? The bug hasn't bit you yet?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: No, it hasn't, although I did play a couple of days ago. It's just been -- I think in the past for my sport it's been hard because it takes quite a bit of time to go out and play golf. In other words, it's somewhat of a time commitment to go out there and drive to the course, play 18 holes, get home, and it's five, six hours, so if you're trying to juggle training and kids and the rest of your lifestyle, it never fit into what I was doing.
But now that I'm retired, you never know.

Q. Jon Miller, this is for you. I'm kind of curious, doing something on the field, what goes on behind the scenes with NBC in terms of how you guys decide who's in and who is maybe on the cusp?
JON MILLER: That's a good question, and it's not an easy selection process. We start off with a list of about 250 names, and there are a group of people who are involved in the process, and we try to obviously find high-profile celebrities who play golf, along the Michael Jordan and Jerry Rice line and John Elway, and then you obviously want to find some people with some name value, and it's tough because we don't do a cut and it's a three-day event. So we're trying to find as many active celebrities who are also golfers as we can.
And the other challenge, which is something we work with American Century on, is we try to refresh the list every year, and our goal is to bring in 15 to 20 new names every year, which we've been pretty successful doing.
But it's a challenge. It's never easy to let somebody know who wants to come play that there's just not a spot, but with only one golf course and a limited amount of daylight and no cut, you have to draw the line somewhere.

Q. Lance, with winning the Tour de France seven times and being broadcast to millions all around the earth, how are you going to handle the pressure it takes to play golf at this altitude here in Lake Tahoe and still come off looking cool?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: (Laughing) I don't at all expect to come off looking cool, so my expectations are low.

Q. Will you be using a lot of mulligans?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: I'm a big believer in mulligans. I'll use as many as they give me.
STEVE GRIFFITH: So everyone understands, Lance is playing in the Celeb Am on Thursday but will not be competing in the no-handicap competition over the weekend.

Q. I wonder if you might comment on the impact on your former sport of the recent admissions by Zabel, Aldag and Bjarne Riis and what impact that might have on the attention that will be paid to the Tour de France?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: Here in the States or globally?

Q. In both places, please.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: Well, we saw -- I mean, last year you saw a dropoff in interest for some reason, really around the world, so even television numbers in France, Germany, Spain and Italy and then here in the U.S. for whatever reason. So I don't know what will necessarily happen this year, although I saw that the viewership and the interest in the Tour of Italy was up significantly amidst all this stuff. So it's tough to say.

Q. What about just the general impact of those admissions on the sport?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: You know, it's never -- I mean, doping is a global problem. It's a sports problem, and it's never a good thing, either through positive tests or admissions. It is a black eye, but I suspect that there are a lot of sports out there with black eyes, and it's just something that we as a community or global community, sports community, have to work through.

Q. I'm going to open with a question for Carson and Jerry. How is your golf game, and is it fairly possible that the competitor in you pushes you to work as hard to excel in golf the way you have in football?
JERRY RICE: I think Carson, he's an exceptional quarterback, and he wants to be the best, and it's the same way in golf. You know, you go out there and you compete, and with the American Century, it gives you an opportunity to go up against the best. Every year I get a chance to go against Michael, and what I want to do, I want to take Michael down, and I'm sure Michael wants to do the same thing with me.
I have really worked on my game, and I have gotten my game down to like a 0.9, and I'm just hoping to be able to go out there, you know, the 13th through the 15th, and play my best golf. And I'm sure Carson, he is competitive the same way.
CARSON PALMER: Personally I've struggled up there. This will be my third year at the Tahoe, and I haven't played well because of the pressure of all the people. Really I hadn't had a chance to really work on my game, but this off-season I didn't have rehab or anything like that to go through. I've really been working on my game and really been looking forward to this weekend. It's kind of like the highlight of my sports off-season. It's the most fun thing I do.
I play in a number of different charity golf tournaments, but to have the competition involved in this tournament where you're going head-to-head for three consecutive days and playing golf against some really bad players and some really good players, it's the competition that excites me. And that's what Jerry is saying, too, that you can go out and play with your friends and play with people at different charity events, but when you get to go head-to-head against good golfers and see who the best out there is and compare yourself to them, that's kind of the cream-of-the-crop, the most fun experience you can have playing golf.

Q. For each of you, what turned you on to golf? When did you start?
JERRY RICE: It was funny how I got turned after to golf because I was out training with my trainer and we had just finished working out, and he had a couple golf clubs and some golf balls, and hey, I decided that being the athlete I am I should be able to hit this golf ball, and I couldn't do it, and that really frustrated me.
That became more of a challenge, and after that I got hooked. I got bit by the bug. I was hitting golf balls early in the morning, going to practice and coming back after practice to hit golf balls. And it's just amazing; it's a great game, and you can always go out there and challenge yourself because you never know what this day is going to hold for you. If you have a great round, you think the next day, I've got this, I'm going to go out there and have an exceptional round. And that's really the mistake. That's when the game can really humble you.
CARSON PALMER: For me, I've been playing golf kind of off and on since high school, and once I really got into college and we could play for free, USC had a little practice range that I would go out there with some pretty much half-broken clubs that I bought off of eBay.
But what excites me about golf is the challenge. I'll never be a great golfer, I'll never play on Tour, but it's always something to challenge yourself and see how good you can actually get. Really it's the most challenging sport I've ever participated in.

Q. I have one for Lance, too. The fact that your foundation is the sole charity beneficiary for the tournament, what does that mean to you and for the foundation?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: Well, it's a huge honor for us. Not only do we have the opportunity to raise funds to fulfill the mission, but you have the exposure side of things, which to us is really equally important, if not more important, because, you know, you have a disease or an issue that is the No. 1 killer in this country that is almost forgotten on a daily basis while we discuss so many other things, the run-up to electing a new president. Rarely do we talk about something that kills 600,000 people a year.
So for us to be associated and to be able to tell our story and to also help raise a little money for our mission, it's hugely important, and ultimately us and everybody else involved in this fight want to see the disease go away at some point.

Q. Is it really gratifying to you how big the foundation has become and what it's done, or do you try to keep your ego out of it?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: I'm constantly surprised. I never expected that we would -- I remember the first day, I think somebody gave us a $1,000 donation and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and now that we've been around for ten years and raised about $180 million, I'm still humbled by that and still surprised. Every day is a new day and we just keep plugging along, and I think we can be proud of the progress we've made, and I think we're on the right track.

Q. Well, I keep my softball equipment in a Lance Armstrong Foundation bag for what it's worth.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: Thank you.

Q. You talked about the competition that you get in golf, and I know you guys compete every day for a profession, but I'm wondering if you can also go out there and just enjoy golf as a serene setting and as an escape. Do you take time to enjoy a beautiful golf course? Is that an appeal of the sport to you, as well, and what are some of the better courses that you've played?
JERRY RICE: Well, for me, no, I can't just enjoy golf if I don't play well (laughing). It's just my competitive nature. Some of the courses that I have played, though, Pebble Beach, the Olympic Club, just so many courses around the Bay Area. I can enjoy the scenery, but it is something of a competitive nature. If I don't go out there -- it's basically like Lance said, you're giving up five hours, and you don't go out there and really have a good round of golf, it's almost like it's wasted. You know, I'm just a competitive player.
CARSON PALMER: Personally kind of like along the lines of what Jerry is saying. If you're not playing well and you've got the shanks or you're just having one of those days, it can be miserable. Now, if you're playing at some of the better courses I've played at just out here in Cincinnati, down in Louisville they have Valhalla, Muirfield up in Columbus, and I played a couple courses over in New Zealand, Cape Kidnappers and the Kauri Cliffs, which are just phenomenal courses.
But if you are -- if you happen to be at one of those courses and I'm having one of those rounds where I'm shooting 90-something or hopefully not in the hundreds, but you can get miserable and it can be a long day. But you just need to realize you're outside, you're enjoying just being outdoors, and if you're playing at one of those courses, there's plenty to look at and plenty to enjoy.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: It's tougher for me to answer that since I don't play much. It's hard to say. I've had the opportunity to play some nice courses. I played Shadow Creek in Vegas back when it opened and played a lot of great courses in and around Austin, Texas; played LA North, also, which I guess is also quite a well-known course. But I don't really know much about the ins and outs of the courses or the game or the architecture of it. Like I said, I think I'm going to consider a run at this game one of these days.

Q. What do you find to be the most frustrating part of golf? Is there any particular part of the game that you really struggle with? And then as a second part, you're just playing in that Thursday. Are you sort of humbled by that and do you want to get to the point where you can play in the weekend and compete with the guys like Carson and Jerry?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: What's the hardest part? You know, it is a very frustrating game. It takes a lot of patience, and patience probably is not my strongest suit. I just haven't spent the time to go and study the game and work with somebody, and I do think that -- I should emphasize that many times when I've worked with a golf pro or a coach, within an hour I'm hitting like a champ, and then you go out on the course, and two or three holes in it's all gone. So that's been the hardest thing for me.
I mean, the problem with doing something not very well and being competitive is if you go out and do it for five hours, that's not my idea of a great time. But if you focus on it and you get some kind of consistency to your game, then it would be more enjoyable.
You know, as far as me playing at a higher level, I mean, if I break 100 I'm happy, so I obviously have a long ways to go until I'm at their level or even considering playing in a multi-day tournament.

Q. It's good to know there's one thing I might actually do better than Lance Armstrong. I have a question for you guys. How important is it to have women celebrities in the tournament? You know, there are more and more actresses in Hollywood playing golf. How do you find them? I know Cheryl Ladd has played in the past.
JON MILLER: It's very important to us. We've got Brandi Chastain coming, and we've extended an invitation to several women golfers who we'd love to come and get in to play. We've invited Heather Locklear, Martina Navratilova. We've sent a lot of invitations out. A lot of the players we have found -- as Lance put it, a lot of people sometimes don't want to put their game on display here. If you talk to most of the athletes, and we've had a chance over the years to talk to guys like Mario Lemieux and Michael Jordan, and I can tell you that this is one of the most competitive and nerve-wracking experiences there is.
But we are constantly on the lookout. We have Carolyn Kepcher, who was on The Apprentice, play for a couple years, and we've had several female stars come out and play, and we are always looking to increase that involvement.

Q. You know, Jane Seymour is on our next cover and she actually loves to play golf. She's played in some big tournaments in Wales and so forth.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: I know that we've invited Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Douglas' wife, because we do Michael Douglas and Friends event. So we have extended quite a few invitations and we are always on the lookout.

Q. Here's my last question --
LANCE ARMSTRONG: We also invited Jane Seymour, and her folks came back and she chose to pass.

Q. That's too bad. That was a mistake. How important is it for you guys, you athletes, for the women in your life to play golf, or do you play golf because they don't? It's kind of -- sometimes men kind of like to get away from the house and play golf together and be with their buddies. Do you want the women in your life to play golf with you?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: It's hard to say since I don't play much golf, but if I did, yeah, why not? I mean, as long as -- never mind.

Q. As long as what?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: I don't know what I was going to say.

Q. What about Jerry? You're married, right?
JERRY RICE: Yes, I am.

Q. Does your wife play?
JERRY RICE: No, she likes to shop. She's more of a shopper. My thing for me is like when I go into say a golf shop or whatever, if I can go into a clubhouse, my heart rate goes up. If my wife goes to the mall to shop, her heart rate goes up, so that's how we balance everything out.
Golf is a great game for me. It's very challenging, and I know it's a game that I can't master, but still, I go out there every day and try to improve.

Q. Carson, one of your quarterbacks this year came from Reno. I'm just curious what kind of relationship you have with Jeff Rowe now and what kind of progress he's made this summer.
CARSON PALMER: Yeah, I think Jeff Rowe is going to be a really good player. He was I think our sixth round pick and he's picked up our offense really quickly and done really well in our mini-camps. Now he's just got to put it all together and we'll see how he does in August in the preseason, in some preseason games.
I think he's got a chance to be a really good player, and as long as he keeps progressing, keeps studying, keeps working at it, I think myself and the entire organization has been really happy and pleased with his progress.

Q. What kind of relationship do you have with him off the field? Have you nurtured any of these guys, whether it's Jeff or -- I believe you have one other rookie quarterback, correct?
CARSON PALMER: I don't know if I'd use the term nurtured. We really have been busy with mini-camps and OTAs and just all the workouts. But we've had a chance to get to know him and I think he's a really nice guy and we've had a good time. But you wait until the season and that's when you really have a chance to get to know people because there's a lot more downtime and time away from football. So far he's been a great guy and I'm excited about getting to know him better.

Q. You pretty much covered the stuff I wondered about, like how serious you take the game. What's your sense for other guys out there? Are there other guys that are pretty much there for the fun of it? Are there some that go overboard in their attempt to win that title?
JERRY RICE: Well, look, everybody that pretty much competes in this tournament, they want to win. They want to have a good showing, and like I said, if I'm playing against Carson, I want to beat up on Carson. I'm going to be honest with you. And I think all the athletes, all the entertainers or whatever that are involved in the American Century, they want to go out there and they want to play well and they want to win.
CARSON PALMER: I think the same thing. You know, there's always -- there's such a drastic difference in some of the players. I remember my first year, one of the girls from the TV show with Donald Trump, The Apprentice, was on it, and she had played golf like three times in her entire life and had absolutely no chance of winning and knew she had no chance.
Then I go out there every year and I think I'm going to win it. I really almost have as good of a shot as the lady from The Apprentice does. It's a lot of fun in that sense, that because of the scoring system, it's very fair to the players that aren't consistent golfers because you can get lucky and get an eagle or get a couple birdies and score really well.
But I think most of the athletes, at least most of the athletes, come in with the intent to win or at least to beat the other guys.
Personally you play against Ben Roethlisberger, Kyle Boller, Peyton Manning, some of the old greats, like we said earlier, John Elway and these guys, I kind of compete against those guys. I know guys like Lynn Swann or some other receivers who I'm sure Jerry kind of eyes at the whole time and watches their scores and keeps track of those guys.
JON MILLER: Point of information, at the Harrah's Harvey sports book, Jerry Rice is 18 to 1, Carson 25 to 1, a couple of other notables are Billy Joe Tolliver 5 to 1, Mario Lemieux 7 to 1, Michael Jordan 20 to 1, Charles Barkley 500 to 1 (laughter).
JERRY RICE: Charles should give up.

Q. Lance, I notice the dates of this event fall during the Tour. Could you discuss a little bit what plans you may have of joining up with the team during the Tour, and also, would you mind handicapping your short list of favorites for me, and specifically how do you feel about Levi's chances?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: My summer plans are unclear right now. I believe that we're going over for the start in London, but then obviously coming back to the U.S. for some other stuff, including the golf tournament. So we'll see. We'll see how the race plays out, and whether or not we go back to Paris, I don't know.
I think as far as the race goes that it's wide open. It's really anybody's guess. I think before -- we were just speaking about the odds on this particular tournament, but before last week the odds were that Vinokourov would be the winner. I think he had the best chances, but he didn't perform well in the high mountains, in the Dauphine, nor did -- I mean, I don't think our guys were particularly that great there, either, but I think they're on a good path to be in top form for the race.
I mean, our goal has been all along to get Levi on the podium, Contador in the white jersey, the young guy's jersey, and then two stage wins. So if we can get all four of those things, then we'll be happy.

Q. This is for Lance, as well. Every beginning golfer usually has some fun stories of things they've done. I'm wondering if you've ever hit somebody with a shot or done anything interesting or have funny stories from your early rounds that you can share with us.
CARSON PALMER: I actually hit a little kid I believe on No. 10, a par 4 uphill, and on my second shot, it was an elevated green and I couldn't see the top of the green, and I hit a ball and it was going a little bit left, and I heard a lot of noise from the audience up top, and I got up there and there was like a little eight-year-old kid wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey. I didn't actually see the contact, but I hit him on the fly right in the middle of his back. He was all right, but I got up there and I said I was sorry, and I said, "At least you're a Steelers fan, I don't feel so bad." That was my only experience with hitting anybody.

Q. That was at this tournament last year?
CARSON PALMER: Yeah, this was last year.

Q. Lance, what about you?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: No, I think certainly the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me was I played in the Jimmy V Golf Tournament about ten years ago for the Jimmy V Foundation in North Carolina, this par-3 thing where everybody was teeing off. And if you hit a hole-in-one, I guess they had ensured that they would donate a million dollars to cancer research. I felt like I was the perfect guy to get up there and hit the hole-in-one.
I didn't hit it 100 feet. It went straight to the left, and it was totally humiliating. I had this dream that I would actually make a hole-in-one and raise a million bucks.
JERRY RICE: I haven't hit anyone or anything like that, but the worst thing for me is like when you've been playing for a long time, then all of a sudden you're just not striking the ball well that day and you dribble a ball. That's the most embarrassing thing for me. If I should hit someone, I'm going to make sure I find the ball for them and give it to them.

Q. Do you guys also, if you have a bad day, do you think because you guys are professional athletes that other people expect you to be really good golfers and maybe you're just not on that --
JERRY RICE: No, no. You can be great at one thing and not good at golf. It doesn't mean that just because you're a good athlete you're going to be good at golf. Golf is totally different. It's a lot of muscle memory, and also you've got that -- I feel you've got to have some skills.
And being around the greens, you've got to be able to get it up-and-down, but once you get it on the green you've got to be able to read putts and you've got to be able to drop those putts. It's so many different phases when it comes to golf. I feel like for me it's just like doing Dancing With the Stars. Just because I was an athlete on the football field, everybody thought I could dance, and it was just something completely out of my character, and I had to work at it. I think I did okay on the dance floor, but it was a lot of work.

Q. Lance, do you find when you go out to the golf course that people kind of expect you to play like Tiger?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: I hope not. That's why it's nice to do this call beforehand and just warn people that it's not my game and I am, in fact, terrible and to not get your hopes up. Hopefully you guys will get the message out.
And then when you do stand up there and hit a good drive or make a long putt, people are like, wow, that was pretty good.

Q. Lance, I was wondering if you have any chance of appearing at the Leadville 100 in August.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: Probably not.

Q. And you mentioned earlier that everyone is discussing the election of a new president, and you've mentioned in the past that you have a very keen interest in politics, and I was wondering if you have any early picks for the presidential nomination.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: I don't. I find it -- I think the most interesting thing is how early this process has begun on both sides of the aisle and how I think particularly interested the people of this country are in terms of paying attention to the debates. Viewership is huge when it comes to early, early, early debates where you're really not discussing much of anything significantly because you have too many candidates up there.
I think it's interesting we're talking about sport and talking to athletes, but this election almost feels like a Super Bowl because you have so much hype around it, who's going to win, who's not going to win. It feels like you have pregame and all this analysis, and really these candidates are becoming like athletes or like stars. Let's just hope that we elect somebody that is a solid leader, and as far as I'm concerned, I hope we can elect somebody that makes the No. 1 killer in this country a national priority.

Q. My last question for you is you're planning on participating in RAGBRAI in Iowa, and I was wondering if you have any special plans while you are participating in that.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: No, I mean, we'll ride every day, which is different than we did last year. We are -- we'll also do some events. There's a concert one night that Blues Traveler is playing for all of the riders and their families and friends, so we'll obviously do some stuff around that.
But other than that, it's pretty much a basic, grass-roots ride across Iowa, so we'll stop in the towns and the communities across the state and then hopefully do some stuff with their Governor there, too, and help support him because he's very involved in making health a real issue.

Q. Lance, now that you're retired from the bicycle racing and stuff, do you enjoy more now getting to bicycle places such as obviously Lake Tahoe? They just had their annual The Most Beautiful Bike Ride in America, and do you just enjoy it much more now without having to compete for the gold at the end of the line?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: Well, I've always enjoyed it. Even when it was my job, I still liked to go out and do it. That hasn't changed, although there's no pressure involved. I'm in northern Idaho right now. I just got back from a two-hour bike ride in the mountains, which was probably the most beautiful mountain bike ride I've ever done. Just at the end of those things you sit there and say -- one obvious question is why the hell did I go out and do that. The answer is because I love it. That was the answer for the last 15 or 20 years that I did it professionally, and that hasn't changed. So while there's no pressure and no pride and there's no fame and glory and money, it's still a passion of mine, so I enjoy it.

Q. And it must feel great, too, that because -- not just coming up to Lake Tahoe for this, but now -- and thanks to a lot of folks, including American Century and Jon Miller bringing you on board, a lot of hopefully friends of yours have been trying to bug you and saying, "Hey, Lance, can you get me into that gig up there at the lake?"
LANCE ARMSTRONG: No, I haven't been -- I've been free of being bugged by anybody to get in the field, fortunately. Although I will say that I do have a couple tricks planned for Mr. Barkley. Last year I got him pretty good on something he can tell you about later. I'm still planning my next trick.

Q. This is a question for Lance. You said you've retired to a life of golf and fundraising, but what about triathlons? Do you have any plans to participate in any in the future?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: No, probably not. Never say never, but I get asked that question almost daily when it comes to triathlons and the Ironman, whether or not I'll do that, especially after doing the marathon last year in New York. That was a logical question. But I don't think so. Tri's are a little bit more time-intensive than I probably want to commit to right now.

Q. And you have said that you're not much of a golfer, but did you ever get a chance to golf with any other cyclists?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: No. Not anybody that you would know. A lot of my buddies are cyclists, too, but they're not -- these are 50-year-old guys that ride at about 10 miles an hour, so I don't think you guys have written about them lately.

Q. This is for both Carson and Lance. Anyone who watched the U.S. Open this last weekend knows how tough a game golf is. Have you guys gotten used to the pressure of 1,000 screaming fans behind you when you're doing what you do, whether it's being under center or riding up the Alps for Lance, but what's the difference between standing over a little while ball and trying to hit it down the middle of the fairway, no one saying a word, and doing what you guys normally do with 1,000 screaming fans?
CARSON PALMER: I think for me it's -- there's a big difference because when it comes to golf and there's people around, there's people watching, there's cameras there, and I'm standing over the ball, I'm not confident and comfortable over the ball like I should be. When it comes to playing football in front of a packed stadium, I'm confident and comfortable being there.
But playing golf is a little bit out of my comfort zone. I in no way have the game mastered or have the feel mastered to be able to concentrate and not worry about shanking one into the audience and hitting a little kid like I did before. So I think the main thing is just the fact that when I stand over that ball and there's people around, I get nervous that I'm not confident and comfortable in what I'm doing.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: I agree. I mean, you're talking about apples and oranges. So if you're used to doing something, like Carson is saying, he grew up playing football, so when he gets on the field, that's his zone, that's his space. He's comfortable there, he's worked hard to get there, and there are intense situations but at the end of the day it's been a drill that you've run a million times so you just have to execute. Whereas with golf it's a whole 'nother sport, whole 'nother beast. Hell, I get nervous when the lady in the beverage cart pulls up on the tee box. I don't like it when there are people around, although I know that's part of it. Fortunately I don't have to do that much. Again, it's just completely different realms, and so when you take somebody out of that and try to put them into it -- it would be the same as if you took a golfer and put them into a football game (laughter). They would be so incredibly -- maybe they wouldn't even do that, but they would be really obviously nervous.

Q. What's you guys' thought process then standing over the ball? Do you like a nice swing thought you go through, or do you just take aim and hopefully make good contact?
CARSON PALMER: With me it's different. I try to play three or four times a week, and when I'm playing at the country club or the local course, I do have a routine that I go through. I keep my head down, don't swing too hard, make sure your hips are coming through at the right time. But then when I go and play golf at the Tahoe tournament and there's people around, I start to say those same things to myself and then say, keep your head down, don't swing too hard because you might shank it and knock somebody out, or the camera is on me, who's watching. There's a whole different thought process just because of the environment you're in. When you're out playing with your buddies, you don't care if you shank one or hit a bad shot. But at the Tahoe tournament if I hit a bad shot or shank one, you can hurt somebody.

Q. This is for Carson. Is there a different mood around the Bengals after the way last season ended?
CARSON PALMER: Yeah, I mean, I think we've had a lot of high expectations going into seasons. Two years ago we had a home playoff game, and I think we ended up going 12 and 4 or 11 and 5, and we were kind of the talk of the NFL, and we didn't finish things off that year. And then this past year there was a lot of talk about us making a run at the playoff, and it came down to the last two games to get into the playoffs, and couldn't quite get the job done.
I think we're at a point now where we're realizing our window of opportunity in this league isn't open for that much longer. We've got a lot of older vets. We potentially have some salary cap problems. So we realize it's almost this year or bust. We need to go out and have a great year, play some good games, play against some good teams and get some experience to get to the playoffs and then be successful in the playoffs.

Q. What's the key to sort of breaking through that window?
CARSON PALMER: I think the key is just consistency. We played great at times last year and we played terrible at times last year. The best teams in this league don't necessarily have the best players on the teams, but the best teams in this league play consistently week in and week out. They play consistent, good football. They don't play streaky like we did. They don't make mistakes in big games. They overall, throughout the entire season, throughout 16 games and the playoffs, they consistently execute their plays offensively and defensively, and that's kind of been our Achilles heel, too, is consistency.
STEVE GRIFFITH: Thanks for joining us. Any questions, I'm at (212) 643-1068. Please give me a call if you need anything, and we'll see you in Lake Tahoe.

End of FastScripts

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