I’m not surprised that Lance Armstrong got caught with his hand in the Performance Enhancing Cookie Jar, even though, during his long and storied career, he never tested positive for PEDs.
And I’m not surprised that all his corporate endorsement have suddenly acted oh, so surprised and jumped ship, leaving him holding the EPO bag. (“Oh, my stars and garters! I never would have thought such a thing! Mercy me! How horrible! And what will we EVER DO about those third world sweatshops of ours?”)
And I’m not surprised at how the US Anti Doping Agency “got him” — by going after all the little guys who rode with Lance and couldn’t afford to have THEIR careers and THEIR endorsements taken from them, such as George and Levi and Frankie and Christian and others. Threats work wonders, even thought some, such as Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis, have already lost everything, so getting them on board was easy-peasy.
The USADA couldn’t get the baseball players. They couldn’t get the football players. So, they went after the guys with less money to defend themselves. Cyclists. Professional cyclists. Who had short term careers and looked for any way to make their careers longer, bigger and better.
And they got them where it counted — in their future earning potential.
Finally, the USADA wins one and gets what it so desperately needs: a justification of its own existence.
Thing is …
With all the self righteousness that seems to be floating around this case, you’ve got to remember that we LOVED watching Lance win 7 Tour de France victories, just as we LOVED seeing the big home run and LOVED seeing the larger than life linemen squash the quarterback (as long as he was the OTHER GUY’S quarterback).
The crowd loved it, the corporations loved it, the owners and sponsors loved it.
To lift our skirts now, in an effort to keep them clean, and bounce around the room as if there is a mouse on the floor bent on attacking our ankles, is the height of hypocrisy.
We all knew it, even though we might not admit it.
In the end, the USADA wins.
What they win, is anyone’s guess.
What we lose, is far easier to determine.
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