Of Cheaters and Liars

Lance Armstrong riding to victory at L'Alpe d'Huez. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are plenty of people in our daily life who have abused the public's trust at one time or another, and don't feel the need to apologize for it:  politicians, religious figures, business leaders, and so on.  Now you can add sports figures to the list.

When Lance Met Oprah

Lance Armstrong, the disgraced cycling champion, admitted to Oprah Winfrey on national television that yes, he did take all those performance-enhancing substances that helped him to win many a Tour de France.

The much-hyped interview accomplished a couple of things:  (A) It helped Armstrong state his case and why he did what he did in the closest forum he could get without having to swear under oath, and (B) it brought eyeballs and free publicity to the former Queen of Daytime Talk's struggling Oprah Winfrey Network, so much so that she extended the interview over two nights.

Armstrong is by no means out of the woods.  He still faces charges based on what he said--or didn't say--on TV.  He just lost his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.  And even if what he did say is the truth, does anyone believe him now after he has hurt and intimidated so many people?

Imaginary Lover

Now we know why, in the same BCS Championship football game where ESPN's Brent Musburger made an idiot of himself over a beauty queen in the stands who happened to be Alabama quarterback  A.J. McCarron's woman, Manti Te'o and his Notre Dame teammates played a lousy game against the Crimson Tide.

It turns out that Te'o's "heartwarming" tale, which the sports media had bought hook, line and sinker, of a girlfriend of his who died of a fatal disease was starting to unravel.  There was no girlfriend, living or dead.  Te'o claims he had been the victim of an elaborate hoax, in which he had been set up by some supposed pals of his.

Not to play amateur psychologist, but maybe there's something going on in Te'o's life that neither he nor Notre Dame cares to talk about.  Is he part of the hoax?  Are there issues about his sexuality that caused him to create a girlfriend?  Are there aspects of this case that might interest the NCAA, local authorities and the federal government?

Whatever the case, the least of Te'o's problems is how high he'd go in the upcoming NFL draft.  Now he has to wonder if there's any future in football at all for him.

An Empty Hall

The Baseball Hall of Fame faced a dilemma.  When the time came to elect new members, should they include those whose career numbers didn't come naturally?  We're speaking, of course, about Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens and others who stand accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, and are now eligible for admission into Cooperstown.

The baseball writers who were charged with making this decision ended up making a statement of their own this year.  Rather than elect members with questionable methods of how to achieve greatness, they chose to admit no one.  Not even former players whose careers pre-dated the Steroid Era.

So the likes of Bonds, Sosa, Clemens, et al, will have to wait another year to get inducted.  Or maybe they'll end up like Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson, who never got into the Hall at all.