Post Lance and Manti

Over the past few days, we've read and heard plenty in regards to Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o.  So much, in fact, that some within the Twitterverse would wish they would simply vanish.  Not really vanish, but I think you get the point.  Not sure how you feel about either subject, but here goes mine...

With Te'o, I could honestly care less.  I mean I want to know the facts and all, but that's about it.  Maybe it's because I'm no longer the huge college football fan I once was.  I could also add that it's Notre Dame and that separates me even more here.  Even since Notre Dame Highlights quit airing on Sunday mornings on a local TV channel, I've not held any interest in them at all.

And the whole Brian Kelly thing still irks the crap out of me.

I'll admit it started out a little different with this.  I was curious at first.  When it quickly got to the point where sports talk radio became completely consumed with this story, I grew weary of the tale.

I did enjoy the Deadspin accounting of this.  It's not a short read by any means and it has almost 3.8 million hits as of the time of this post.  I did come away from that with an air of "what the..." that still remains.  I still had questions after reading it.  Hopefully, we could get another accounting of this.

Were you honestly expecting one from the University of Notre Dame?  Seriously, you were?  Foolish notion.  Two names and you Google them: Declan Sullivan and Lizzy Seeberg.  You'll be appalled and shocked at what you find and read.  Real deaths hushed, fake deaths promoted.

Everyone was quick to take a side on this.  Of course, that's common nowadays with the 24/7 news cycle.  No one was willing to wait to see what, if any, statement Te'o himself would make.  Well, the university made a statement backing Te'o, which was of no surprise.

We got that answer, kind of, last evening when ESPN's Jeremy Schaap had a sit-down with Te'o...and representative at side.

We finally get to hear Te'o explain himself, but we didn't get to hear Te'o explain himself.  I never expected a full-blown, bar the doors type of interview.  I didn't even expect something similar to Lance (as we'll see in a bit) or Tiger, but I wanted to see his reaction to questions.  I wanted to hear his voice give the account.

Wasn't happening.

Instead, we got an account of an interview.  Not saying I have a dislike for Schaap.  In fact, he is one of the WWL's personalities I do like.  We got his account and we are left to formulate our opinion from that telling.  That provides uneasiness to me.

That uneasiness will eventually go away like this girlfriend.

But Lance has given many an individual further reason to despise what he did.




Cycling doesn't have a huge following in the US.  There are still sweeping changes being made to the sport.  And like the major sports in the US, people still get caught cheating, as in breaking rules, as in doing PEDs.

This whole "everyone one else was doing it, so I wasn't cheating" thing is pure bunk.  I had a thought when Lance told his definition of cheating, at first, I though he was out of his mind.  Here's what Google says:

Act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, especially in a game or examination 

He was right...and wrong.

Is it me or did Lance omit the part about "act dishonestly" or just the word "dishonestly"?  Doing something you know good and well is not within the rules is acting dishonestly.

And it's not only that.  I don't care he used PEDs.  I care more for those individuals that he trampled over to get his way.  We've heard of a few of these people (the Andreu's, Emma O'Reilly, etc.) from the Oprah interview, but there is one voice that tried to help bring this to attention...and was clamped shut: the LeMond's, Greg and Kathy.

Surely you remember Greg Lemond?  You should as he is now the last American to win the Tour de France.

Want to know what Lance's bullying tactics have done to people like LeMond and his family?  Here's Kathy from an interview on SI.com by David Epstein:

SI: It's thought that Greg's brand with Trek would have been worth tens of millions if Armstrong had not pushed to have Trek drop Greg.
LeMond: Do you know what a loss that was for us? We lost our income. We lost our company. Greg lost his reputation.
SI: Do you think Greg will eventually take Armstrong's call?
LeMond: Why would he want to? I mean, if Lance will actually say to him, 'Yes, I hacked your e-mails. Yes, I had someone following you. Yes, we taped you.' He has hounded us and harassed us.

Being hounded and harassed cost the LeMonds, at a minimum, that $10 million.  That's a lot of scratch.  There could have been more endorsements down the line for Greg LeMond, but Lance decided it was not to be in "his world".  You should read the Kathy LeMond interview.  It does show the monster that lurked.

So many of us suspected Lance did PEDs that we could have cared less about this interview.  Be careful there.  Innuendo and rumors will get you nothing but more innuendo and rumors.  Facts are needed and the Lance confessed is the beginning.  Some will heal and forgive (although it's not something that can be instantaneous), others won't be as quick if they ever consider doing so anyway.

Imagine if baseball writers used such...

We know now why Lance did cheat (even though he doesn't feel he did.  Pshhh!) as cycling is still looking to change its image from being "a dirty sport".  Or as some still state, the world's dirtiest sport.  There's still a ton of bucks at stake from sponsors.

We also know why Armstrong is "coming clean" with this.  He says it's for his children.  How does one explain to his child what a egomaniacal, back-stomping ass he used to be?  How does he explain that he cost people their livelihood in order to simply maintain his own?  How does he explain the postal system's slowness?  How does he explain those Radio Shack commercials?

I know the whole thing about Livestrong and how Armstrong was extremely instrumental in the foundation raising so much money.  They now know they were duped, hoaxed.  But keep one thing to keep in mind here: Armstrong is still a cancer survivor.   Never heard a soul dispute that fact.  He may have done all those incorrigible deeds, but he still overcame a lot.

He's now getting his comeuppance for being a jerk...and that's a major sugar-coating, admittedly.

For Te'o, he's prepping for the NFL draft.  The question has been if his stock will slide because of this.  Leadership is now bring called into question.  His workouts and shuttle and 40 times will be a greater determining factor, not this hoax of which he is presumably a victim.  If it is later revealed he took part in this hoax, then we can talk about a slide.

That and his performance in the BCS title game.

Two stories engulfed us for a couple of days.  Each with the slightest of similarity with us being hoaxed and duped in some manner.  Each heading toward a different ending.  Lance's days in the sun are now gone.  Those days are seemingly ahead for Te'o.