He's A Complicated Man

The best story i've seen yet on Lance's Oprah interviews:

"The long road to redemption: Lance Armstrong realizes it's OK to be human"

Some people are wailing and screaming that he didn't seem contrite enough, or sad enough, or that it didn't seem as if he was hurt by the damage he did to others. I will never understand those people. Maybe these people are the same one's that were shocked when the doping report came out laying out how he had gotten away with it for sooooo many years. I call them fools.

Fools. Pure and simple. It has been clear for a very long time that Lance couldn't have accomplished what he did without cheating. Everyone with an open mind understood that. Forget that "he's never failed a test" nonsense — if you believed he was clean you were a fool. Instead of crying about how Lance is now handling himself as he comes clean, go stand in front of a mirror and look yourself in the eye and admit you're a fool. Admit that a hero, any hero, is more important to you than the truth. Admit that you consciously chose to bury the obvious simply so you could worship yet another sports star. Look yourself in the eyes and admit you're a fool. And vow never to do it again. They're outstanding athletes, not necessarily outstanding people. Not the same thing.

One more time for the record, i will always admire Lance as an athlete. He's a lying, cheating, obnoxious SOB, but he was a great athlete. Did he cheat? Yes, but so did all the others. I still believe that if noone had been cheating, and those seven Tour de Frances had been clean, then Lance would have won anyway. He was a great athlete, he had the best teams and management, he had the toughest training programs and toughest daily training regimes. I think he would have won anyhow. My hat is off to him for his skill as bicyclist.

But, he deserves everything that comes to him now. He cheated and should lose his titles, medals, and endorsements. He should be sued and have to repay those that gave him money. He should be sued and have to repay those that had to pay him over the years when he sued them. His feet should be held right over an open fire.

As long as companies encourage idol worship in order to sell their products, idols will appear. Pedastals will be built. And complicated, success driven, win at any cost human beings will climb on top. In my opinion, they aren't the real problems; the problems are the fools who choose to worship them at the cost of their integrity.

Cheats will always be among us. They only cause problems when the rest of society enables them.