American Doping

Just as Lance Armstrong finally confesses to using performance enhancing drugs while racing, I wonder how he was able to get away with it for so long.

The New Yorker published an article about Armstrong delineating his physical traits that make him better than others in the sport (a longer femur is one example).  Now he is completely disgraced and this issue should shed light on paid athletes as a whole.

When the Roger Clemens hearing was occurring, Rod suggested that the sports industry should just accept that performance enhancing drugs is part of the process now and note that info when an athlete is inducted into the hall of fame.  The bottom line seems to be that everyone is doing it.  A sad state of affairs for this country.

I guess I am confused about all of this.  There are tests to determine if an athlete is using performance enhancing drugs -- why are so many getting away with using them then?  The shit comes down in the form of Congressional hearings, or, in the case of Lance Armstrong, in the form of law suits.  So, if you're a big guy, you pay the price.  But there are others who are equally guilty.  What repercussions result for the trainers who covered it up?  Why did the whistle blowers take so long to blow the whistle?

This country needs to take a chill.  Sports should be a good thing.  Sure it would be wonderful to have the talent to play professional ball, but that shouldn't be the reason we let kids go to the ball park.  The stakes shouldn't be so high.  Little league games should be fun for all, not just the kids who are good.  In fact, we need to give all kids a chance.  Some of the big name athletes in football have equal talent in another sport.  Those people are different from the rest.  They should be admired.  But when society demands that all athletes be as talented, then we create our own disaster.

I believe Lance Armstrong, despite his current mess, is still a very talented bike racer.  He may even be the best.  As a result of our society demanding more, more, more, we have but one more example of American greed.  Doping is dumb.