FIB-STRONG: Lance Armstrong was waving the U.S. flag after winning his seventh straight Tour de France in 2005, but now he’s waving the white flag and possibly ready to come clean about long-rumored PED use. (
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It’s one of those great mysteries of life, up there with drive-up bank ATMs with instructions in Braille and pineapple on pizza.
From Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton, from Pete Rose to Barry Bonds, Bud Selig and Donald Fehr to Bernie Madoff and Joe Paterno. And now to Lance Armstrong:
What makes people in their positions think they can keep the lids sealed? Is it arrogance, perceived power or just hopeful long-range, lifelong thinking?
Why, how, where and when did they begin to believe that what others beside them and besides them knew — or had to know — would stay bound and gagged ’til death do they part? When did they begin to figure the inevitable doesn’t apply to them?
The question fascinates me; perhaps you, too.
In Armstrong’s case, scores of teammates and coaches knew.
In the 1980s, world-class cycling had become such a doping-reliant sport/business that by 1999, Armstrong’s first Tour de France win — prior to which a teammate allegedly cautioned him a syringe bruise could be seen on his upper arm — it already had reached the scandalized, guilty-until-proven-innocent (world) stage.
And if you didn’t cycle (drugs, blood, testosterone), you didn’t bi-cycle.
Unless one counts money or ego, there can’t be a good reason why Armstrong, swearing his innocence, integrity and cleanliness, chose to call everyone else a liar. The first thing you do when you find yourself in too deep is stop digging, no?
But perhaps he grew smug in his lies. After all, in 2006 he won a $1.5 libel settlement from a London newspaper now suing for its money back.
Here’s hoping Oprah Winfrey, today reportedly scheduled to tape an “honest” interview with Armstrong, pursues that line of questioning, and hard:
Not “What made you do it?” but, “What made you think you could get away with it?”
Divided results during Divisional weekend
It Was a fascinating football weekend. For starters, on Saturday we were able to enjoy seven-plus consecutive hours of the Harbaugh Brothers griping to the officials. Man, they don’t stop. More to come.
Side story missed by CBS was that Ravens’ punter/holder Sam Koch, after fighting off a block, nearly ran down the Broncos’ Trindon Holliday on his punt return to make it 7-0. Fastest punter/holder I ever saw. Keep it in mind.
The greatest show on turf has ended, at least for the season. There are few things more entertaining than watching and listening as Peyton Manning calls and hand-signs signals at the line of scrimmage. CBS did well showing that, then getting back to a wide view for the snap.
As Saturday’s two games proved, the passage of time is making it more difficult for analysts to recall or say that what’s now stopping the game for replay reviews — microscopic, slo-mo examinations — was, prior to the rule, plainly considered a TD or a catch or a fumble or a whatever. And for 60 years.
Yesterday, a Fox graphic showed some of Falcons WR Julio Jones’ 2012 stats — all “career highs.” His career is two seasons old.
Finally figured it out. Those aren’t the plays scribbled all over Colin Kaepernick’s arms; one arm carries baked goods recipes, the other has bus schedules. But how can he read them when they appear upside down? Good thing they just wash off.
As seen several times yesterday during the Seahawks-Falcons game on Fox and on CBS, Saturday, during the Ravens-Broncos matchup, TV continues to show players’ demonstrations of excessive self-regard in slow-motion. Must be for the kids who might have missed all the trash-talking.
How many points — 35? 38? 41? — over the weekend, came in the same drives during which a tackle was missed because the defender tried to wipe out the ball-carrier rather than tackle him?
Occupational hazard: We’re losing the good things CBS’s Phil Simms has to say to his excessive, overly excited talking. Yesterday, during the Texans-Patriots game, Simms’ specialty — short, applicable observations — had to compete with trite explanations and burdensome descriptions of the obvious (the importance of Houston staying close, overthrown passes, et. al.). Come back to us!
* Letter of the Week, from reader Phil Carlucci: “What makes the universally positive treatment (and Roger Goodell’s field-hug) of Ray Lewis even more puzzling is the pleasure that many people have taken in the struggles of Tim Tebow, someone who hasn’t done much wrong other than being a popular college player and a humanitarian.”
No hard and fast NFL rule
NFL Rules, including its replay rule, are now so many and so screwy and so subject to changes and subjective applications that expert TV analysts are moved to explain them as they don’t exist.
On Saturday, a non-interference call against Ravens’ DB Cary Williams, who appeared to have tripped Denver WR Demaryius Thomas while pursuing the ball, was explained on CBS by Dan Dierdorf as a matter of “incidental and accidental contact.”
Fascinating. That would mean accidental violations are called for all kinds of things — off-sides, illegal motion, too many men on the field, grabbing the facemask, blocks in the back — but not for pass interference.
By now, it’s OK for analysts, when addressing the adjudication of football games, to say the honest things, such as “I don’t know,” “Who knows?” and, in those most exasperating moments, “Who the hell knows, anymore?”
But beyond that, Dierdorf did make it clear he, too, has caught “the disease.”
Yep, that receiver didn’t jump for the ball, he “elevated” for it. Then there was, “This is playoff football and you do not want to put the ball on the ground.”
* Any Stat, Any Time Graphic of the Week: During Villanova-Syracuse game on SNY, the crawl at the bottom noted this about the Dallas Mavericks’ hot streak: “Won last 1.”
* Gosh there’s a lot of postgame Knicks analysis from Alan Hahn and Wally Szczerbiak on MSG, given that the team’s wins and losses are predicated on 3-point shooting. The Knicks lead the NBA with an average of 29 3-point shots per game. They’ve attempted 1,060, the most in the East, by 215 over the Hawks.
* Asked to call a few minutes of a hockey game for a feature on NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams,” Doc Emrick chose a girl’s rec game in Troy, Mich. Then — although hardly surprising — without a hint of condescension and prepped with correct name pronunciations, he did what he does.