I’m dismissing headlines the likes of Terrell Thomas who is planning on making a comeback after successive ACL surgeries with the Giants, which does sound good, to the kind of headlines that the Knicks have been wire tapping Melo for any abusive language he may be dishing or may be served (cold) which don’t sound so good. I’m rather going to take this morning to address the Lance Armstrong Thursday night special with Oprah Winfrey.
I admit that I was one of the many who unquestionably believed Lance Armstrong when he told us that he was clean. He had passed a number of tests and it just sounded like the French newspapers had a vendetta against a man who routinely dominated their most physically grueling athletic competition. I even broke it down to sour grapes on their part. But little did I or many know, unless you were one of the legions of people (who we know of now apparently) who were threatened by Lance, that he was indeed guilty of being a cheater. We were all duped and I don’t feel guilty about believing him as much as I believed in the juicers in baseball.
This country loves its reclamation projects. We’re the country of second chances and no doubt Lance Armstrong, even with all his faults, will get a second chance. I for one, won’t be bothered with making that call. I for one, won’t give him a second chance. I won’t bother watching the Oprah interview*, and I won’t even be surprised when he announces that he’s doing a tour of news shows and morning shows to plead his case in front of the American public. The court of public opinion is his last bastion of hope and he’s throwing himself at the mercy of the court hoping to reclaim whatever luster he can save.
But I won’t give him that opportunity. Not because he lied. That’s between him and the people he duped. I gave that guy $3 dollars in my lifetime for 3 LiveStrong bands. I believe in what it represents. I never cared for cycling that way and the only time I ever paid attention to cycling was when ESPN would show their ten second highlights and then talk about the winner. Or when Lance would accept his awards at various sports award dinners. Or when he did this with Will Ferrell. Ok, so that sounds like a lot, but in the course of a year that’s like a whole minute or two. So don’t get me wrong, I’m not dismissing how much this hurts a professional sport especially in light of the steroid Hall of Fame debate. I’m just saying that this will be a small blip on my radar for the near future.
Lance did something that will ultimately be erased from the record books but not from my memory. To win 7 consecutive Tour de France’s is an incredible achievement even if I don’t know exactly how amazing that triumph really is. Winning second consecutive championships in any sport against the very best in the world, regardless of sport, is a remarkable achievement. But his lying about being clean in a sport that isn’t seems contradictory in so many ways. One, how can the sport of cycling come down so hard on a guy who isn’t clean when nobody is clean in that sport? That sport has more enhancing agents than a house party at Jose Canseco’s crib. Its like Sammy Sosa and Jose Canseco calling each other out for being steroid users. Really? You’re BOTH STEROID USERS. Think about how pointless that would be.
But let’s then get into his lying and cover up. There’s no defense for him there. Except, the man was fighting for his livelihood. Its not a respectable excuse but for a man who has only his reputation to fall back on, its worth it to fight it. If he didn’t fight every single person who crossed his path, why do the doping? When so many people are involved don’t you think its a possibility that one person may be willing to speak out? What’s the saying? That if one person other than you knows a secret then everyone knows the secret?
Lance put himself in this position and I’m not going to make bold statements like Lance Armstrong is a terrible person. I don’t know him that well to make that statement. I will say this though: Lance Armstrong is a cheater according to several of his own teammates. Guys who went to war with him. So I won’t blame anyone for coming to the conclusion that he’s a bad guy. No, I think the best thing America can do is just forget him. You don’t have to forgive him but please just forget about him. His name has been erased from the record books but history will tell the tale of Lance Armstrong. His story will reveal what he did. We live in an age where information leaks and things get out there that people won’t like because it can destroy credibility. Lance Armstrong is once again fighting to regain any kind of stature with the American public.
What I would ask of you to do is not watch the Oprah Winfrey special. Oprah is being used by Lance to tell his story. How contrite will he be? Who cares? Is he sorry? How can anyone possibly know that? Is he being truthful? Is Oprah doing the interview while he’s hooked to a polygraph? I’m only asking people not to watch it. Don’t bother watching it, don’t bother buying into whatever he is selling. Guys like him are used car salesman. If he knew better, I would tell him to just wait out everything, pay everyone you stole money from whether it be through lawsuits you filed trying to clear your dirty name, or companies you sued. Wait for the court ruling. Lay low. Go in hiding. Ride your bike in Texas. Apologize privately to all those you hurt. Not through the phone. Not through an interview with Oprah. Meet them and apologize.
Doing a two day interview on Oprah Winfrey’s network is nice, but its clear what your motives are in this case. Its clear what you’re trying to do. I won’t make statements like I hate you Lance, but I will say this, I won’t bother listening to another word, because frankly I don’t care and in the end, America shouldn’t either. The only people that should care are the people he hurt along the way. And those people deserve more than just to tune into a prime time special on a channel no one can find. They deserve personal visits or phone calls or repeated attempts at telling them face to face, I’m sorry. You won’t earn your true pennance here Lance. Sorry if you thought you would. America, ignore. People Lance hurt, ignore. Wait for the real thing. Whatever real is, in Lance’s book we don’t know, but normal human beings know what true apologizing sounds like.
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