So Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah aired last night. I didn't watch it. For one thing, it was on The Oprah Network. I don't know if we get The Oprah Network, and, frankly, I don't care to find out. For another, there wasn't really any reason to watch it; I know the story already (I was pretty sure he cheated two years ago) , I didn't expect any big revelations. This interview struck me as much more sizzle than steak.
My own feeling on Armstrong is as follows. I don't really care about the PED use, for several reasons: I was never that into cycling in general, I never put much stock in the "Lance Armstrong is a hero" story, and I'm rapidly moving in a libertarian direction on PEDs -- let's just legalize and regulate them. Enforcement is causing more problems than it's solving, and the deleterious health effects of PEDs, if used in a medically supervised manner, are probably overstated. You could argue its not the actual PEDs that matters, but rather that he "cheated", but everybody was cheating. If you didn't cheat you literally couldn't keep up with the competition. Maybe that's not the world's greatest defense, but clearly not all cheating is equal. Surreptitiously rubbing some pine tar on a baseball isn't the same as hiring somebody to club your opponent in the knee. I put what Lance did much more in the former category than the latter.
I also don't really care about the lying, per se. If he was just lying to protect his own privacy and his own self-image, then whatever. Again, I would file this under kinda shady behavior, but not a mortal sin. But -- and this is the key -- Lance's lying wasn't just about protecting himself, it was also about harming others. He very aggressively went after people who linked him to PEDs -- people who, whatever their motives, mostly were telling the truth. He sued, he bullied, he showed almost no compunction in attempting to discredit innocent people, even if it meant ruining their careers and, not to be too dramatic about it, their lives. To me there is no justification for this. None. Not the money he raised for cancer research, not the people he's inspired. None. Frankly, it's borderline psychopathic behavior. At the very least it's megalomanaical, and it shows that Lance Armstrong simply isn't a very good person.
Now, one thing I wonder is what Lance should do from here. I have two suggestions: 1) He should stop being such a hypocritical, self-serving dick, 2) He should change his name to Lancelot Livestrong, that's an awesome name, and I think a "rebranding" would do him some good.
In other sporting news, this Manti Te'o story is more bizarre, if less nefarious, than the Lance Armstrong story. If you're not familiar with the Te'o fake girlfriend story you can read about it on Deadspin who broke the story. (As I heard Bald Bryan of the Adam Carolla Show point out, this could be a watershed moment in online journalism. Traditional mainstream media outlets completely missed the boat on this one. Many major news providers did stories on Te'o's supposed girlfriend, and yet the inconsistencies uncovered by Deadspin never came to light, even though they should have through some basic fact checking.) The big question is "What did Manti know and when? Is he a hoaxer or a victim?". It's all pretty confusing, but I think I've got this one figured out. Here's the narrative that makes the most sense to me base on what I've read so far.
At first, Te'o doesn't know his "girlfriend", Lennay Kekua, isn't real. It's a hoax perpetrated by this Ronaiah Tuiasosopo fellow (it's weird seeing that last name in this story as a Seattle sports fan), perhaps it's meant to be malicious, perhaps it's meant to be a practical joke. Either way, Te'o just thinks there's this girl who's kinda into him, and he's slightly intrigued, so he starts conversing with her via social media, establishing a connection. Then, for some reason, he really wants people to think this girl is his girlfriend (it's been floated that he's secretly gay, but I suspect he just liked the attention that came with her), so he starts embellishing their relationship a little bit, and then a little bit more, and then a little bit more. Essentially, he's faking a relationship with a fake girl whom he thinks is real. Pretty soon it gets to be huge news, and now either he's stuck and can't back out, or he's enjoying the attention, so it just goes on. At some point before Deadspin breaks the story, he finds out the truth, Kekua isn't real, but he's embarrassed and/or scared that he'll be found out, so he keeps up the charade until the whole thing completely blows up. This explains why many people with inside knowledge say he had no idea that Kekua wasn't real (he really didn't know), and why Notre Dame is so adamant about him being a "victim" (he is, in a way), but it also explains why there are so many red flags and inconsistencies in his actions and words (he didn't want it to come out that he fabricated the extent of his relationship with Kekua).
That's my guess on it anyway. We shall see.*
OK, that's all for this week. Until next time...
*Update: Te'o admits to having "tailored" his relationship with Kekua, giving support to my theory.
My own feeling on Armstrong is as follows. I don't really care about the PED use, for several reasons: I was never that into cycling in general, I never put much stock in the "Lance Armstrong is a hero" story, and I'm rapidly moving in a libertarian direction on PEDs -- let's just legalize and regulate them. Enforcement is causing more problems than it's solving, and the deleterious health effects of PEDs, if used in a medically supervised manner, are probably overstated. You could argue its not the actual PEDs that matters, but rather that he "cheated", but everybody was cheating. If you didn't cheat you literally couldn't keep up with the competition. Maybe that's not the world's greatest defense, but clearly not all cheating is equal. Surreptitiously rubbing some pine tar on a baseball isn't the same as hiring somebody to club your opponent in the knee. I put what Lance did much more in the former category than the latter.
I also don't really care about the lying, per se. If he was just lying to protect his own privacy and his own self-image, then whatever. Again, I would file this under kinda shady behavior, but not a mortal sin. But -- and this is the key -- Lance's lying wasn't just about protecting himself, it was also about harming others. He very aggressively went after people who linked him to PEDs -- people who, whatever their motives, mostly were telling the truth. He sued, he bullied, he showed almost no compunction in attempting to discredit innocent people, even if it meant ruining their careers and, not to be too dramatic about it, their lives. To me there is no justification for this. None. Not the money he raised for cancer research, not the people he's inspired. None. Frankly, it's borderline psychopathic behavior. At the very least it's megalomanaical, and it shows that Lance Armstrong simply isn't a very good person.
Now, one thing I wonder is what Lance should do from here. I have two suggestions: 1) He should stop being such a hypocritical, self-serving dick, 2) He should change his name to Lancelot Livestrong, that's an awesome name, and I think a "rebranding" would do him some good.
[Lancelot Livestrong and his former handmaiden and lover Sheryleth Crow.]
In other sporting news, this Manti Te'o story is more bizarre, if less nefarious, than the Lance Armstrong story. If you're not familiar with the Te'o fake girlfriend story you can read about it on Deadspin who broke the story. (As I heard Bald Bryan of the Adam Carolla Show point out, this could be a watershed moment in online journalism. Traditional mainstream media outlets completely missed the boat on this one. Many major news providers did stories on Te'o's supposed girlfriend, and yet the inconsistencies uncovered by Deadspin never came to light, even though they should have through some basic fact checking.) The big question is "What did Manti know and when? Is he a hoaxer or a victim?". It's all pretty confusing, but I think I've got this one figured out. Here's the narrative that makes the most sense to me base on what I've read so far.
[Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o]
At first, Te'o doesn't know his "girlfriend", Lennay Kekua, isn't real. It's a hoax perpetrated by this Ronaiah Tuiasosopo fellow (it's weird seeing that last name in this story as a Seattle sports fan), perhaps it's meant to be malicious, perhaps it's meant to be a practical joke. Either way, Te'o just thinks there's this girl who's kinda into him, and he's slightly intrigued, so he starts conversing with her via social media, establishing a connection. Then, for some reason, he really wants people to think this girl is his girlfriend (it's been floated that he's secretly gay, but I suspect he just liked the attention that came with her), so he starts embellishing their relationship a little bit, and then a little bit more, and then a little bit more. Essentially, he's faking a relationship with a fake girl whom he thinks is real. Pretty soon it gets to be huge news, and now either he's stuck and can't back out, or he's enjoying the attention, so it just goes on. At some point before Deadspin breaks the story, he finds out the truth, Kekua isn't real, but he's embarrassed and/or scared that he'll be found out, so he keeps up the charade until the whole thing completely blows up. This explains why many people with inside knowledge say he had no idea that Kekua wasn't real (he really didn't know), and why Notre Dame is so adamant about him being a "victim" (he is, in a way), but it also explains why there are so many red flags and inconsistencies in his actions and words (he didn't want it to come out that he fabricated the extent of his relationship with Kekua).
That's my guess on it anyway. We shall see.*
OK, that's all for this week. Until next time...
*Update: Te'o admits to having "tailored" his relationship with Kekua, giving support to my theory.
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