Floyd Landis breaks the camel’s back: All athletes are now doped
August 3, 2006 by William K. Wolfrum
As the doping scandal — and it is a doping scandal — of Floyd Landis enters the ludicrous stage, with Landis’s lawyer now just randomly running excuses up the flagpole, it’s time that we as sports fans admit defeat and accept the inevitable.
They’re all doped up now. All of them. When the winner of the Tour de France takes drugs to win, he incriminates everyone. Because Floyd Landis doesn’t have a “naturally high testosterone level.” And dehydration didn’t cause his testosterone level to scream “Cheater!”
“Maybe a combination of dehydration, maximum effort,” Jose Maria Buxeda, Landis’s lawyer said. The claim is so far removed from any reality known to doping situations, one can only interpret it as some type of code admitting guilt.
And it leaves us all screwed. Because now, until every athlete is checked after every performance, they are all guilty to sports fans.
Someone hits a 500-foot home run? It was because they were doped.
Score 82 points in an NBA game? Doped.
Knock out a string of contenders? It was the drugs.
It’s not fair, of course. But perception is everything. Landis admitted such while screaming innocence. But it’s way more than his reputation that has been fatally besmirched, it’s the entire sporting world now.
Because enough is enough. They’re all doped now.
–WKW
[...] Following the recent doping scandal of Floyd Landis, I was struck with one simple truth — all sports are thoroughly tarnished. [...]
Similarly, read a comment to my blawg entry suggesting that the problem is much larger than Floyd Landis:
http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2006/08/chris-king-asks-is-floyd-landis-really.html
Peace.
[...] In other news, deposed Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has announced that he will ride to the ends of the earth to clear his own name, or at least try to find out what lab tested Jones’ B Sample and give them a holler. [...]
[...] What’s most interesting is that there is no real proof McGwire juiced. Basically, Hall of Fame voters chose to go with what appeared to be “group common sense.” He looked and acted like he was on steroids and when faced with the U.S. Congress, McGwire was a coward who refused to confirm or deny everything. [...]
[...] I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but if one sport seems fatally besmirched from performance-enhancing drugs, it’s cycling. Don’t get me wrong, the doping in the NFL is probably much worse, but the NFL has a much broader, concentrated fan base, so it’s way easier to just ignore. [...]
[...] As for where steroids in baseball and sports rank on the list of issues Congress needs to deal with? Somewhere between mandating that kids can’t wear too loose of shorts and whether America’s Next Top Model should be officially recognized by America for her achievement. [...]