60 Minutes is going to air a segment on Lance Armstrong on Wednesday, January 9th, at 10 pm Eastern. The CBS News website states that they will report that someone representing Lance offered USADA a $250,000 "donation" in 2004. Travis Tygart, USADA CEO, is quoted as saying "We had no hesitation in rejecting that offer."
I suppose the truth about Lance will trickle out for years to come...It definitely makes a good case study for anyone out there teaching about fraud, corruption and organized crime. It makes me wonder if Lance's real name ends in Gambino or Bonanno...Maybe Armstrongo...
It must be very strange to be LA these days. Thankfully few of us will ever get to fully appreciate what it is like to be "shunned" by our culture. In some cultures of the past it was synonymous with death and the "victims" of this practice invariably died for real due to severe depression and something else that is indescribable...almost an obligation, for lack of a better word.
ReplyDeleteLA has carved out a very unique place in history for himself. Perhaps I am young and just dont know of other examples but certainly the argument is there that he is now and may forever be the most disliked person in sports. He may have even adorned the very peak of fraud in sports. Much like "Hubbard Peak Oil" we have now hit peak fraud in many sectors of our society. Like our economy we are so super-saturated with fraud that we will never have the energy, resources or infrastructure to put that kind of effort into it ever again. (And you dont have to think about it very hard to realize that these things are all connected).
Fraud may end up being the absolute pinnacle of achievement in our civilization. I sincerely hope that we have more good in us but if this is the case then Enron, Gulf Wars, Jon Corzine/MF Global, FED, Bernie Madoff and Lance Armstrong will be among the core of the remembered.
So getting back to LA today. All this sudden media around a confession...Oprah... and now this about bribing USADA!!!??? Something tells me that this effort is not centered around LA wanting to enter a few triathlons. I think this is all about staying out of jail. Or his attorney has advised him that the game is now more about limitting jail time than avoiding jail time. Thes kinds of things tend to be punctuated in their progression rather than smooth and linear.
Everything now is a calculated risk. If he is willing to open himself up to a suit from every pissed off ex-super-fan with a yellow bracelet then there must be something more pressing below the surface.