Live Strong and then go down a coward

Lance, Lance, Lance. You just iced the cake on what has been a week for the books in the world of sport and athletic competition. I assumed that all of the performance enhancing and steroid stuff had started to fade into the background and that we would only occasionally be annoyed by a random snippet here or there of some low level minor league baseball player being suspended for his dalliances. Well, boy was I wrong? Two fairly large MLB stars later, and now the trophy of the anti-dopers, Lance Armstrong. I should preface this with a simple and plain fact. I've never liked the guy. Had to give him his props for the seven tour de' France titles and of course applaud all he was able to do to raise awareness and countless millions for cancer research and all of its various charitible off-shoots. The most notable of which is/was his own, the Live Strong foundation, backed by the mother ship, Nike. I mean, who amongst us hasnt adorned one of those cutest ever yellow arm bands? All that being said, there has just always been something about the man that has rubbed me the wrong way. All athletes, or at least nearly all of them who reach the stratospheric levels that Lance did, do so with at least a smidge of cockiness and/or arrogance. I get it, and I"m sure I will succumb to the same fate when I become the preeminent blogger/novelist dujour and am raking in billions and billions for my sought after words. See what I did there? But....Lance just came across to me a little more pompous and a bit too cocky and standoffish and I labeled him early on as one more jackass of an athlete whose head gets a bit too large. Now I know why his head was getting so large. He was pumping it and the rest of his body full of the finest and most elaborate enhancers that all of that cancer money could purchase? Make no....and I mean ZERO mistake about it folks. He did it. He did it and he did it alot. I know, I know. I've already seen all of the posts and the all of the pleas, backing Lance Armstrong. We need heroes. And, when our heroes are proven fallible or mere mortals, we as good red-blooded Americans defend them to the end, any and all contrary evidence be damned. The man hasnt failed a drug test. On the surface that sounds like a pretty good starting point for a defense. Until you hear of all the masking agents that are even more exotic than the PED's themselves. There is literally no one other than Lance himself who has not fingered him. Fellow competitors, teammates, trainers, experts in the field, doctors....all of them saying emphatically and many with very little to gain. He is guilty as the day is long. And, it matters not that it occurred in a sport that has been and probably still is ripe and rampant with abuse. He built his name, he built his reputation, he built a nations trust and love all based on an image of a warrior wounded. What started out as whisps of smoke, mere whispers of wrong-doing, eventually were fanned into roaring blazes of undeniable lies. I know the die-hards will back him to the end, and certainly won't be swayed by the rantings of a non-descript blogger from the midwest. Any last shred of hope that Lance is innocent were snuffed out by the man himself yesterday. The day of reckoning came. The kingdom of Lance was obliterated with one fell swoop. The seven tour titles? Gone. Eradicated. His future in the sport? Gone. He can and never will be allowed to coach, to train, or even to have one of those feelgood "Im coming out of retirement" race thingys. His name? Tainted, to be kind. His legions? Seeping by the hour. And, when confronted with all of this, how does our champion, our warrior react? Does he rise up and stick his fists in the air and vow to fight, to clear his name and to restore the faith and adoration of all of his fans? Does he demand justice and scream till his lungs are empty of breath? Uh....no. Instead, he says he's done. Done? Ask yourself if confronted by something similar, albeit on a much less grand scale, would you fight for your name? Would you never ever aquiesce to the mounting avalanche? See you Lance. I for one won't miss you on the red carpet of the MTV music awards and the ESPY's. Can't say the same for all of those touched by your foundation. Do you think Finish Line will give me a refund on one of those faded yellow bracelets?