Is He Lyin'?

 Showed the 60 Minutes clip of the alleged supplier of steroids to Alex Rodriguez to one of my classes today.  After watching it, neither he nor A-Rod look like paragons of virtue.

I was reading a Deadspin article related to the A-Rod saga and most of the commenters seemed to condone the cheating.  Is that OK now?

Lyin' Like It's 1999

Oh, how the mighty have fallen!  Lance Armstrong goes from one of the most admired people in sports history to a complete pariah in less than two years, and he may not be done.

It was interesting to watch the clip above with my students.  Many of them took the side of Armstrong, explaining away his cheating and making snarking comments about the head of the US Anti-Doping Agency.  It's almost like it's OK to cheat...wait a minute--it is!  Right?

Lies & Lying Liars

I don't consider myself a naive person; certainly not on the level of Manti Te'o.  But there have been times where I've wanted to believe whatever some of these athletes are selling--Pete Rose and the gambling deal and Lance Armstrong and the blood doping.

I mean, come on, the guy never failed a drug test.   Oops!  I guess I should've listened when guys like Greg LeMond said there was no way that an average cyclist could beat cancer, and then have the most dominant stretch in an insanely grueling test of physicality.  I guess I should've listened when papers like The Guardian and Le Monde had their doubts.  I doubted Barry Bonds and A-Rod; why not this guy.

Leave it to Oprah to get to the bottom of this!

Guilty?

I showed this "60 Minutes" video to my classes today regarding Lance Armstrong and doping. Lance has passed 500 drug tests without a fail, but now is weathering allegations from former teammates Tyler Hamilton and George Hincapie that he did, in fact, drug it up to win all those Tour de France titles.

One of my buddies and former co-workers is a huge cycling fan, so I was familiar with all the names in this story. Our class had an interesting discussion about Hamilton's motivations and veracity in the video. Bottom line, I think he's telling the truth as he knows it, albeit at gunpoint (i.e. federal subpoena). Whether all of these allegations hurt Armstrong remain to be seen. I wonder if the public will be as cynical about Armstrong as they seem to be about the baseball sluggers of the late '90s.

Does LiveStrong mean anything anymore?

Human Target: Lance Armstrong

Cycling is one of those sports, like baseball and track & field, that seems to be under constant scrutiny regarding the "cleanliness" of its stars. Lots of big names in those sports have been caught: Manny Ramirez, Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, etc. Now it may be Lance Armstrong's turn to face the heat.

Many in France questioned how a cancer survivor could dominate such a physically grueling race year after year, but no test ever proved that Armstrong had cheated. Floyd Landis declared when he and Armstrong were teammates, Armstrong was using drugs, but given Landis' own issues, his charges were not given much weight.

Now, SI is releasing a story concerning the grand jury's work in Armstrong's case. Like the Barry Bonds federal case, lots of damaging info is leaking out about this case.

Lance Armstrong has built an image has been forged by beating cancer, winning races and dating rock stars. Can his image survive what's going to happen in court?