The thing
about Americans, I think, is that we go all in.
We may not have invented doping but, if you have to dope to compete, we
do it right. American sports fan also
know better than to criticize too harshly when it comes to doping because our
society orbits around dope. We worship
it. It separates us from the Third World really.
Let’s start
with my favorite spectator game:
Football. (I really do like
football). As I understand it,
professional Football, Baseball and Basketball (and others) are not considered
Olympic sports. It confuses me because
Baseball and Basketball are in the Olympics but for some reason the three
staples of American pro sports are not drug tested by the United States
Anti-Doping Association. For all
practical purposes, they are not drug tested at all.
One thing
Lance is absolutely correct about is that Travis Tygart, CEO of USADA is not at
all accurate when he describes the doping scheme on US Postal as the biggest
doping conspiracy in history. I fancy
that is just a mediocre lawyer trying to feel better about his agency’s epic
failure to meet its most fundamental function.
Let’s face it, but for the Department of Justice’s file, the USADA would
still be whining about its lack of funding and suspected drug use in cycling.
I suppose
it does not matter. Clearly, the USADA is not at all able to detect doping when
it is occurring. Even if USADA was
competent and had jurisdiction over the NFL, no reasonable person would honestly
believe that the players who play in a Super Bowl are not juiced out of their
minds. Ok, except maybe the kicker. Too much caffeine for sure but other wise
probably clean.
For all of
these complicated reasons, most folks do not seem to mind the fact that Lance
doped. They certainly have forgiven
Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, David Zabriskie, Levi
Leipheimer, Jonathon Vaughters and the long list of other cyclists who were allowed
to confess and continue blissfully with their cycling careers.
I also do
not think that most people believe that Lance forced other athletes to dope
like the USADA seems to imply. That
would be nonsensical. Floyd Landis
failed a drug test after he won the Tour de France and after he rode on the
same team with Lance. The same is true
for Tyler Hamilton. Clearly, they left
US Postal and brought their syringes with them. Both of these guys blame Lance
for their fall, their lack of popularity and, oh, Lance was mean to me. These guys were all grown men who had free
will. They could have left US Postal
anytime they wanted and could have competed (and doped) on other teams such as
Cofidis, Telekom, CSC and so on.
Speaking of which, Lance certainly did not force his competitors to
dope. Shall I name a few of his top
rivals? Jan Ullrich (suspended for
doping), Vinokourov (suspended for doping), Ivan Basso (suspended for doping),
Alberto Contador (suspended for doping),
Valverde (suspended for doping), Ivan Mayo (failed drug test but never
suspended). The list could go on. Don’t believe me? For all of you football fans out there,
Fausto Coppi was like Joe Namath of cycling. Here is his approach:
Coppi spoke of the subject in a
television interview:
Question: Do cyclists take la
bomba (amphetamine)?
Answer: Yes, and those who
claim otherwise, it's not worth talking to them about cycling.
Question: And you, did you
take la bomba?
Answer: Yes. Whenever it was
necessary.
Question: And when was it
necessary?
Answer: Almost all the time
The greatest
cyclist who ever lived was not Lance Armstrong.
His name was Eddy Mercx, who was popped for doping in the 1969
Giro. Mercx to this day, in my opinion,
was not only a great cyclist but a good father and a good person. We have forgiven Mercx for doping.
So, what
exactly is it about Lance? I suppose it is because he is a Liar, Liar
Pants on Fire. He did deny doping. But, that is not really that far off of
doping. Doping is lying. Mercx
lied. He claimed that he was
innocent. So, did Flod Landis. Landis went around the country raising money
from amateur cyclists and fans for his defense fund and began each campaign for
money with a sincere explanation of his innocence. He dame to Seattle and I
personally know an amateur racer who gave him money.
The problem
with Lance, unlike all of the other dopers, was that Lance won a lot. He also
had a PR machine as good as his bike. He
was vocal, visible and very cool. This
meant that he was constantly asked whether he doped. They really don’t ask the losers if they
doped.
All of us
mortals loved it because we love winning. Admit it. We LOVED the Lance Armstrong era. It was awesome because we were winners. And, now, we feel duped. That’s why we hate him. We hate him because
we all fell for it and became groupies.
But, that’s
really as much our fault as his. After his interview with Oprah, I
read posts that were extremely mean.
He’s an asshole. Insane.
Narcisstic. Yet, at the same
time, he raised $500 million for cancer research. He clearly loves his children. I am annoyed with the Livestrong card as much
as anyone. But, it made me wonder. What is more valuable: guy who tries to contribute to the fight
against cancer but happens to be a total asshole, or a guy who really does
nothing with his life, helps no one in any way but is polite and doesn’t
lie?
For me
personally, I do not feel like I have standing to answer that question. That is a value judgment. I would be “judgmental” if I tried. So, why do so many people feel like they have
standing to judge Lance? Who could say
with 100% certainty that they would have done anything different? Think about it. Let’s suppose that you are lucky enough to be
genetically gifted. You have high red
blood count naturally, long femurs, etc.
You have an incentive to train hard because your genetic gifts give you
a higher chance of winning or placing well. You train and train and go from Cat
5 to Cat 1 and professional by age 21.
Once in the professional peloton, you are introduced to doping, like
everyone else. You win and win and win.
You are on TV, make an obscene amount of money and more and more and
more. More opportunity. More
success. More money. Sex. Rock and
Roll. Who can honestly say that they would not have
become arrogant, self-centered and narcisstic.
I
understand it. I hope I would have made
different decisions but I admit that maybe I would not. You can say it is insane or narcissistic but
it is entirely possible that it is human.
I am not genetically gifted so there would never be a chance that I
would face the decisions that Lance faced.
Thank goodness for that !
The last
charge in the Inquisition is that Lance ruined other people’s lives. I have no idea if that is true. He clearly called people liars who said he
doped. He was involved in defamation
lawsuits in England with David Walsh and the SCA/Tailwind lawsuit in
America. Lance won both and his lawyers
no doubt cross examined witnesses zealously.
I do not know if the lives of the witnesses were destroyed. The barely articulate Betsy Andreau’s beef
after the interview was that Lance still denied that he told a doctor that he
had taken performance-enhancing drugs.
Ms. Andreau’s logic is hard to follow considering his blanket admission
on national television. Candidly, I think she is playing semantics, upset that
a man, who at the time he was alleged to have made these statements was dying
of a cancer, did not remember the event the way she remembered it. What does it matter?
I am not
sure what other lives were ruined. Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton sealed their
own fates, Floyd in particular. Eamma
OReilly is another story. She clearly
knew something, tried to get the word out and was crushed.
Tyler
Hamilton described Lance’s emotion on the Oprah show as genuine. He said that he knew immediately that he was
a broken man and that it was the first time he had ever seen Lance Armstrong
shed a tear. Yet, arm chair pundits
characterize his emotion as “fake.” I
guess if you lie about doping that means you lie about your emotions even if
none of us have ever meet Lance.
For me, I
do not think it is my job to judge Lance.
I do feel like I can opine about the cycling organizations that created
this fiasco. Yes, I said “created.”
Cycling is an international sport with deep roots in Belgium, France,
Italy and Spain. Doping creeped into cycling
because organizers required humans to race their bikes over distances and
elevations that are not human. Fans
required more. Organizers game them more
and the cyclists had to dig deeper and deeper and looked for ways to cope. I suspect that organizers and race officials
recognized this and allowed it because it helped the races become longer,
faster and more exciting.
Then, it
got out of hand. The entire pack started
to race the whole of the Tour de France at average speeds over 25 mph. Pantani’s attack on Alpe d’Huez was awesome
but, well, far fetched. When the Postal
Service arrived, the organization and methodic shredding caught the Europeans
off guard. Knocked on their heels by the
Capitalistic approach to doping, the cat was out. No one wanted to take the blame. No one could admit that the governing bodies
were so lame. It would show what a joke
the organizations really were.
Professional cycling, after all, is the larges amateur sports league in
the world.
And, so,
the fans were duped. Again. Made to believe that Lance Armstrong is to
blame. We deserve it because we are so
stupid. Too stupid to see that
professional cycling is corrupt.
Unwilling to place blame on even ourselves for our lust for more and
more. We truly want it to be like all of
the other sports, sports in which engineered humans sacrifice life expectancy
for fame, glory and freakish strength. Fine
with us unless the athlete is caught.
Then, apparently, we think he or she is insane.
For me, there needs to be a reboot. For me to follow professional cycling, the organizers, governing bodies and anti-doping agencies must decide what they will tolerate. Do they want popular, American style sports where drugs, sex and rock and roll takes precedence over honesty. If so, I will quietly ride my bike and race it on occasion. If that is the future, there is no need to worry about what individual athletes do or do not do because I will not even know who they are. If it is to be an honest sport, then it must be led honestly. Notice I said "led". That means that pro cycling needs to stop trying to blame Lance and eject all athletes and managers who were ever connected with doping. All of them. No quarter. No amnesty. There are plenty of riders who are more than happy to race professionally clean. Without the juice, the sprints may be a little slower but all is relative.
So, what is it going to be?
