Remember when this guy used to be a badass?
Now Lance Armstrong has won as many Tour de Frances as me: none, after getting them stripped amid doping and drug allegations. If those weren't damning enough, and I think they were but the average American could probably care less, he then went on Oprah last night to admit he did all those horrible, no-good awful things that everyone else was doing at the time too.
Sportscenter then played highlights of the interview on a non-stop loop and people had to come to grips why they really give a crap about this guy and cycling. Okay he cheated, so did a lot of other cyclists. Do we have to freak out?
Well yeah. Here's why. Being in the public eye, Lance Armstrong didn't just deny the possibility of drug use or blood doping He vehemently denied it and sued the pants off anyone who questions him. My good friend Curtis Campbell had this to say in a Facebook comment and I think it sums up this mess in about 140 characters...
You know, the doping thing is forgivable. But suing and ruining the lives of those who were telling the truth?!? It takes a special kind of scumbag to do something like that. He doesn't deserve to be ostracized because he's a cheater, he deserves to be because he's a horrible human being.
In the interview, Lance also read the definition of cheater and said he didn't cheat because he wasn't gaining an unfair advantage over everyone else. Apparently using PEDs or doping was as common as filling up your tires with air or taking a water bottle along. Thinking like this, I believe people would have been more than understanding of Lance had he not denied the truth for so long.
But he attacked his critics in a vain attempt to keep his image. A false attack. Lance Armstrong is a liar, which is worse than a cheater.
So instead of blowing this up in some controversy that rages on sports talk radio for years like Pete Rose or Barry Bonds - lets do what this guy deserves ... ask him to just go away, we don't care about him or cycling anymore.
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