I tuned in last night like many others, to see if I could forgive a man who used to command much of my respect. Lance Armstrong had a great chance last night to own it all. Oprah gave him the platform to take the bull by the horns and fess up to everything he was guilty of. That’s what I expected of him last night and I think that’s what Oprah expected. Sadly, Armstrong let us all down.
He admitted to using banned substances for every single Tour De France victory and for the first 15 minutes of the interview it seemed like this was going well. Then Armstrong took a weird turn, telling Oprah he never pressured a single teammate to do the things he was doing because he “never outright told them to use PEDs.” Oprah tried to make a point that Armstrong was the leader of his team and since he was so open about his steroid use, when he told a teammate that he wanted them to step up and do better, this pressure to take PEDs was implied. Oprah’s point was met by an argument over semantics. Armstrong conceded that he was supposed to lead by example but then pushed the fact that he never said the words “do steroids” so he was not guilty of pressuring anyone.
That was not the only time Armstrong claimed innocence based on semantics. Oprah asked him while he was doping, if he realized he was cheating. He answered with a clear and firm “no.” Oprah was blown away so she pushed the topic. “How could you not realize you we’re cheating?” Oprah asked. Armstrong then explained that he had looked up the definition of cheating and that it was defined as gaining an unfair advantage over an opponent or foe. He said that he never did that. Armstrong’s argument is that everyone else was on performance enhancing drugs so he never gained an unfair advantage.
Lance Armstrong struck me as a cheating spouse who was only owning up to what they were caught doing instead of owning the whole situation. I didn’t see his confession as genuine. Maybe it was just a sad attempt to stay relevant but he has attacked so many people for accusing him of things he really did that if he is not going to own everything and apologize to every person he sued, this whole interview is moot.
The topic of his ex teammate’s wife came up. Betsy Andreu had told people that she heard Armstrong tell a doctor that he had done a whole list of banned substances. Armstrong not only sued her for this but he called her a “crazy whore.” Andreu was under the impression Armstrong called her a “crazy fat whore.” Armstrong made a point of saying that he did call her a crazy whore but that he never called her fat. So I guess that makes it all better.
Armstrong didn’t lose all my respect by doing all the things he did. He lost my respect last night when he somehow confessed but still took almost no responsibility for what he did. He claimed it was all on him but everything he said last night leads me to believe that he still doesn’t see anything wrong with what he did.
Before I end this post, I’ll leave you with this final point. Mark McGwire used steroids to prolong a career of high production. A career where his home run and RBI totals were always high as long as he was healthy. Roger Clemens is without a doubt, one of the best pitchers to ever grace the mound. He used steroids when he saw his career starting to decline. He used them to keep an already very successful career going. Lance Armstrong would have been a nobody if he didn’t take PED’s. That’s the difference between him and every other great athlete that cheated. He built his career on lies.
