I don't normally think much about professional athletes, but people are currently all "aTwitter" over the accusations made against Lance Armstrong by another banned and discredited competitor. Tyler Hamilton's interview on 60 minutes comes during yet another book tour by somebody desperate to replace a 7 figure income he lost when he was ousted for using banned substances. The guy has to make a living some way and I don't begrudge him taking advantage of the opportunity. But what does it really mean?
Journalists, especially TV journalists, are in the same position daily that Hamilton is now. They must find content which will engage an audience long enough to make Bristol Myers, S.C. Johnson or some other corporation purchase ad space to help pay their 7 figure salaries-one cannot forget that fact. Athletes on the other hand are entertainers who, like animals in the circus, amaze and thrill us with their inhuman prowess doing difficult things. Athletes get more money for providing the vicarious experience us poor working folk crave. Every athletic competition has it's rules and method for enforcing those rules. The only thing important is whether the rules are followed at the time of the competition, not what somebody said he saw years later.
If there is a problem with the enforcement of the rules we should be looking at the agency responsible, not the competitors, they are just entertainers making a living.
Lance Armstrong completed a herculean accomplishment according to the rules. His record eclipsed the record of Eddie Mercx. Bob Pettit's NBA scoring record was eclipsed by Wilt Chamberlain, whose was beaten by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose will be beaten by somebody in the future. Jack Nicklaus' record dwarfed the previous golfers, his will be beaten by Tiger Woods whose will be improved upon in the future. So go sports; they contain entertaining but transient accomplishments.
In the end, I see an overpaid suppository salesman attempting to glean "truth" from a bookseller about something which has no importance at all.
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