Armstrong's confessions come at a time where Livestrong needed him to rid the ugly shadow that has been cast upon anything and everything Armstrong has touched, including the charity that he helped start in 1997. For all the great work that Armstrong and his crew did and the hope they brought to people across the globe inflicted with cancer, he risked undermining everything the charity has worked to become had he not offered some kind of confession in the light of mounds of evidence that point towards his guilt.
No Shock
At this point anyone who has followed his story is about as shocked to learn this "truth" as people were on Sunday to hear about Jodie Foster. No one is surprised about this...at least when it comes to the general public who wasn't brainwashed by Armstrong's rise to glory.
To people who had to deal with cancer or know someone close who has dealt with cancer, Armstrong's association with the Livestrong charity is the only thing they care about. The only thing. And that's somewhat understandable.
Don't get me wrong, no one should be against anything that has to do with charity. Anyone donating time and/or money to charity is doing a great deed. That doesn't mean people who are associated with them, particularly high profile people like Lance Armstrong, can be absolved of the label "Complete Asshole" if they engage in the acts of what a "Complete Asshole" represents.
Complete A-Hole
Where does this label come from? For me, it has nothing to do with the cheating. In every sport we watch, many top-level athletes cheat. After a certain age, I've gotten numb to any news that involves an athlete getting caught with some performance-enhancing drug or testing positive with steroids. As fans, we've gotten used to the cheating athletes being outed in Congressional Reports, in some cases still denying it even when the mountain of proof against them would seem like too much for any rational human being to avoid a confession of some sorts.
Armstrong was a cheat, yes. But what has me dislike him to the highest levels of the douchebag scale was the way he threatened anyone and everyone who dared implicate him with the cycling doping scandals.
Here is an excerpt from a story published last week, in which a former cyclist and his wife were threatened for many years by Armstrong and his associates (for full article, click here):
Together with then-fiance Frankie, she (Betsy Andreu) visited Armstrong as he received treatment for testicular cancer in 1996 and was party to a conversation he had with two doctors while she was in the room.
According to Betsy Andreu, Armstrong admitted then that he had been taking EPO, testosterone, growth hormone, cortisone and steroids to improve his cycling.
David Walsh, a journalist, became aware of that incident via an off the record statement from Betsy Andreu in 2003, but Armstrong quickly got word that she had revealed his secret.
He responded by starting an intimidation campaign that lasted years.
When Andreu refused to sign a statement in support of Armstrong and discrediting Walsh, the American began a media smear campaign against Andreu.
Armstrong’s former physical therapist Emma O’Reilly was another who tried to expose the cyclist who labelled her a “prostitute” and an “alcoholic”.
As rumours of drug use continued to swirl around Armstrong in 2008, Betsy Andreu meanwhile was left a sinister voicemail from a friend and former business associate of Armstrong.
“I hope somebody breaks a baseball bat over your head,” it said.
“I also hope that one day you have adversity in your life and you have some type of tragedy that will definitely make an impact on you.”
There are stories like this documented by many of the cyclists who outed Armstrong as a drug-user and were subsequently threatened by him. It was bad enough he cheated and lied. That much is easy enough for sports fans to deal with - we're used to it. In fact, the average person, if they really thought about it, can look back at something or someone in their lives that they've cheated on or lied to/about.
But when it comes to threats, especially to dozens of people and over a prolonged period of time, that's where I draw the line. Instead of recognizing the guy as a humanitarian of epic proportions for his charitable works, I remember him for being a selfish arrogant prick who would do whatever he could and run over anyone he could to succeed, and then threaten anyone who dared question what he was doing.
If we left it at just the cheating, and hell, maybe even a small fib here or there, I don't think I'd have this ill will towards him. But the threats that came from him and his camp just add a notch in his asshole belt. It's a shame that a man, on one hand, helped so many cancer patients with hope and inspiration, while with the other hand was damning and undoing the work of what the first hand accomplished.
If you want to continue to like him for the humanitarian he is, remember this: a true humanitarian would never resort to threatening anyone for any reason.
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