By Tom Kando
It is now inescapable
that Lance Armstrong cheated MASSIVELY and consistently during much of his
career. As the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad puts it, “the
stench is rising...there is overwhelming proof of systematic doping by the
seven-time Tour winner.” (October 10, 2012).
The number of witnesses testifying to this has risen to 26. The
accusations include alleged intimidation and threats by Armstrong against his
peers, huge suspicious payments to Italian Dr. Michele Ferrari, and all sorts of other sleaze.
I have often defended
Armstrong - most recently in a
post on September 16 of this year. Even then, I wasn’t so foolish as to claim
that he didn’t cheat. I was arguing for extenuating circumstances.
But now, I am embarrassed
by some of the things I wrote and by my comments afterward, in which I tried to justify my
position to anonymous critics. I shouldn’t have tried to question the evidence.
Sorry.
So I am eating crow.
It doesn’t even taste so bad, because I have this nice sauce
of miscellaneous musings to go with it.
Having behaved naively, I am reminded of the joke about the cuckold: He suspects his
wife of cheating, so he hires a private
eye to tail her. After a while, the detective reports back to him: “Well, I saw
your wife meet this guy in a cafe and they kissed. Then they went to a motel. I
saw them undress and jump into bed. And
then they drew the curtain closed and turned off the light,
so I don’t know what happened after that.” The husband’s reaction: “Damn! I
wish I knew for sure whether or not she is cheating on me!”
Although I am betrayed, I am not angry. I hate witch hunts,
crucifixions, public hangings. I was
late coming on board against Richard Nixon during Watergate, I was late joining
the pack against George W. Bush. I believed Floyd Landis when he claimed to be
innocent. I am a softie.
Reactions to the Armstrong saga range from soft and
forgiving to harshly punitive. America
has a lot of the latter. To them I quote Jesus: “Let he who is without Sin cast
the first Stone.”
The social media show that millions of people remain as
ambivalent as I. Donations to Armstrong’s
Charity Livestrong
have actually gone UP since August. Public opinion is much more divided than in
cases like Marion Jones, Barry Bonds and
Pete Rose. As Eddie Pells wrote recently, “sometimes good people do bad things.” (Sacramento Bee, October 14, 2012).
And there is no doubt that Lance Armstrong has done not just
good things, but great things. His bicycling achievements are stupendous,
with or without doping. And most
importantly, he has raised hundreds of
millions of dollars to fight cancer.
So how bad is Lance Armstrong? Has he murdered people? On
the contrary, he has probably saved many lives.
But what does my reaction matter? Think of the huge
ramifications: Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated had declared him the
greatest athlete in the history of the world. Nike, Anheuser-Busch and and
his other multi-million dollar
sponsors have already dumped him. He has stepped down as chairman of
Livestrong. Magazines, corporations,
governmental agencies around the world
now have egg on their face - as I do.
The man is going to suffer plenty enough. His career, his
reputation, his financial empire, his cancer foundation, his place in history
are being destroyed or severely damaged.
That’s enough of a comeuppance.
