The recent news that Lance Armstrong has been “sold out” by some of his fellow Tour de France racing buddies returns us to the nasty topic of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), integrity of competition, and whether the United States government has a continued obligation to hold athletes who dope accountable. Like many of you, I watched Sunday night’s “60 Minutes” interview with Tyler Hamilton. I don’t know how any of you felt, but I had some issues with Hamilton’s appearance and credibility while interviewed by Scott Pelley. Then again, I have some issues with the credibility of all of these cyclists when it comes to PEDs, testing and legitimacy of the sport. In my mind, they all used PEDs, whether it’s steroids or Erythropoietin (EPO). In my mind, they all doped and cheated for an unfair competitive edge. In my mind, they deliberately compromised their long-term health for short-term rewards in fame and riches. In my mind, no matter how many times former and current associates make or deny allegations, Lance Armstrong is among the guilty. No matter how many public protestations and “clean” urine or blood tests he claims, Lance Armstrong is no cleaner than any of the rest of these guys.
Isn’t it funny how Armstrong continuously boasts about how many tests he’s come up “clean” -- or never been caught? First, as someone who’s been involved in several litigations over the past few years, I can tell you that there’s a very subtle yet distinct difference between “innocent” and “not guilty.” We obviously learned about this difference back to the O.J. Simpson murder and wrongful death trials, so it shouldn’t shock any of you to hear me say that “not guilty” simply means someone’s lucky enough to have an attorney slick enough to find enough loopholes and technicalities within our judicial system to help a client get away with something. If you’re “innocent” that means you’re clean and didn’t do anything you’ve been charged with. But defendants don’t plead “innocent” in a court of law; they plead “not guilty.” It’s sort of like those old James Cagney films where his gangster (NOT gangsta) characters would declare, you ain’t got nothing on me!
The more we listen to Lance Armstrong defend himself against these pinheads willing to help serve him to the feds, the more I hear Jimmy Cagney’s voice and defiance towards anyone and everyone who thought they were going to get him in the movie. Like Al Capone, no one seems to be able to find enough evidence to make guilt stick on Armstrong, but just like that little tax evasion thing, you sense Armstrong’s gonna get it in the end. Somehow we expect one little thing to finally trip him up and expose him for using EPO and other PEDs, not to mention shedding light on how no single urine or blood test by anti-doping professionals exists with the proof needed to verify his cheating mindset.
This being all said, I now wish to come to the debate from a completely different reference point, that of a former football player, an academically trained scientist with biomedical research experience, and a two-time cancer survivor. Yesterday evening I joined into a Twitter debate and said, “Cheating wrong, period. Cheating worse for cancer patient. Cheapens the recovery. Misguided priorities.” Naturally, my tweet raised eyebrows and disagreement, which I was perfectly fine with. However, when you share thoughts 140 characters at a time, you need to expand and contextualize your words. My main point is that any use of PEDs is wrong, no matter the sport, athlete or circumstances, especially since no one physician has come forward in all these years to say Lance Armstrong was legally prescribed EPO as part of his cancer care all those years ago.
Therefore, despite the incredible battle Armstrong had to wage against an aggressive form of testicular cancer, his worldwide advocacy efforts to raise funds for cancer research, and his well-chronicled story of survival and return to championship-caliber form, his use of EPO (assuming he did use it) indeed cheapens his recovery from cancer. Why? Because I’m not convinced beating cancer was his primary goal, as obscene a suggestion as that might be.
Assuming you’re still reading, let’s think about it for a moment or two... Lance Armstrong, a world-class competitive cyclist, was battling a metastatic cancer most predicted could kill him, and at the same time, was training to be the same world-class competitive cyclist he was beforehand. Despite the toxic chemotherapy he endured in order to destroy the cancer throughout his body, Armstrong got stronger, returned to form relatively quickly, and has allegedly been cancer-free ever since. And... Despite all the different chemicals injected into his body and bloodstream, not once has he allegedly ever tested positive for even trace amounts of anything considered illegal or controlled by the strictest of FDA (Food and Drug Administration) or DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) regulations. Not only did Armstrong live strong, he lived clean.
Okay, allow me to challenge this wonderful and amazing story one point at a time:
1. When I was treated for cancer-like growths between 1991 and 1995, this included three years of taking Methotrexate, a pretty nasty and toxic anticancer drug that supposedly stays in your system for 3-5 times as long as you’re taking the drug. Why do such drugs work this way? Consider it analogous to fumigating homes for bedbugs. Not only do you want to kill off every single bedbug, you want to kill off every laid egg, as well as the eggs inside every living and potentially living bedbug. In other words, the goal is to kill off several generations (present and future) of bedbugs so you’ll never have this problem again. In the logic of killing cancer with chemotherapy, the goal is to kill all the current and potential future forms or variations of a cancer, so it doesn’t present a recurring illness. So, while I took Methotrexate for three years, the drug stayed in my system for approximately a decade after treatments ended, and thank goodness, I’ve been cancer, tumor, growth-free since 1996.
2. When drugs stay in your system for long periods of time, the human body naturally experiences some minor or major side-effects, and perhaps those side-effects prevent your body from functioning at peak level compared to your pre-illness days. Case in point, I recently underwent a urine drug screen as part of my pain management protocol, and my urine tested positive for trace levels of a narcotic pain drug I hadn’t taken for twenty months. There could be any number of explanations; the most likely is that my liver may not have been effectively detoxifying my body like it used to. If you’re on chronic pain management drugs for a few years, there’s a good chance it could impair your liver. I happen to now take a medication that flushes out my liver and helps improve the detoxification process, so perhaps in the near future my liver will be in better shape than recently. Even if a good chunk of my spine wasn’t held together by titanium hardware, and I wasn’t an orthopedist’s or neurologist’s nightmare, a medication-impaired liver more than stands in the way of me ever regaining the athletic form of my youth. It’s part of aging. I shouldn’t expect to ever regain the body I had thirty years ago and feel inspired to return to the football field.
3. If EPO is some kind of miracle drug that turns the clock back and restores one to a young and pre-cancer body and energy level, why haven’t we heard about it from the American Cancer Society and other cancer expert organizations? How do we know what secondary harm EPO might be doing to Armstrong’s body all these years? Remember Lyle Alzado and how youthful and buff he looked before a failed comeback with the Raiders in 1991-1992? Alzado said it was a new diet, exercise regimen, and perspective on life. Less than a year later he had inoperable brain cancer and blamed it on steroid abuse. It wasn’t much longer before Alzado was dead at 43. What if EPO helps restore your body and counteracts all the physical toll chemotherapy takes? If that was the case, why doesn’t the American Cancer Society, or any other major cancer advocacy organization, cancer researcher, cancer care facility, or medical association endorse the use of EPO in conjunction with chemotherapy or other cancer treatment protocols?
4. For approximately a decade, we’ve heard about cancer, recovery, revival and resurrection all through the mouth of Lance Armstrong and his inner circle of physicians, agents, trainers and friends, what we can essentially call “Team Lance.” We see tumors all over his body, then we don’t see them at all. We see an emaciated man struggling to survive, then we see a world-class athlete ready to reclaim his throne as Tour de France champion. We hear rumors of extra help, but no one can ever catch him doping. Through all of this, Team Lance regulates the story, the data and the message we’re all expected to hear and believe. As far as Team lance is concerned, we’re all supposed to believe Armstrong’s alive and well, forever cancer-free, clean as a whistle and a multi-time champion well beyond reproach. Sure, that’s what we’re being told, but what are we not being told at the same time? What ticking time bomb is eating away at Armstrong, potentially leading him to an early demise as Alzado’s? We’ll never know because Team Lance makes sure they’ll never tell. Those who dare to talk outside the circle all find themselves considerably outside the circle.
5. What was Armstrong’s top priority and motivation when he began he journey from tumor-riddled man potentially facing his maker? Was his top priority to beat cancer and live the healthiest life possible until a ripe old age, or was it to ensure “Tour de France champion” was at the very beginning of his obituary, whenever the day came to write it? Think about it... If G-d came down from the heavens to you and told you the trade-off for beating an insidious disease was life to a ripe old age but with only five attributes you could include on your tombstone, what would they be? Would you want to be recalled as a good spouse, parent, friend, lover, community pillar, or someone of dignity and integrity, or would you want to be recalled for some superficial fame that really doesn’t define you as a person? Benjamin Franklin once said, “I’d rather people say ‘he lived a useful life’ rather than ‘he died rich.’” Maybe being remembered as the greatest cyclist ever matter more to Armstrong than what he stood for as a man. After all, Ted Williams wanted people to say, “there’s the greatest hitter of all time” whenever he walked down the street. Maybe if Teddy Ballgame saw life just a little bit beyond his exploits at Fenway Park his family wouldn’t have sold his dead body for deep freezing like a stripped-down Buick.
I can’t speak for Armstrong, just as I can’t be the moralist in this debate. I don’t know what it’s like to be a “champion” or the “best” in any arena of life. I’m just like the vast majority of folks on Earth, a run-of-the-mill, 44-regular, off-the-rack person. When I played football I played for horrendous teams and enjoyed just being part of the action and the lifetime of jokes I can share later on about the experience. I had no delusions about glory and trophies or busts bearing my face. I played to earn my scholarship, played for the love of contact, played for the love of being on the field, even when my time was when games were hopelessly out of reach (usually with us on the losing end), and didn’t really put up a fight when John McKay chased me off to graduate school. Football was a fun chapter of my young life, and I was already looking forward to the next chapter of life in academia and chemistry labs. By the time I became a cancer patient, my football career was already seven years in the past. My objective was to beat the cancer, and keep living a life I still saw evolving in front of me as a person of faith, integrity, knowledge and relationships. Even if it was remotely possible, there’s no way I would’ve gone to my doctors in 1991 and said, give me back the athletically powerful body I had in 1981. Chances are none of you would consider saying that either, but maybe that’s because none of us see our lives the way Armstrong saw and continues to see his.
Perhaps Armstrong made his deal with the Devil, and perhaps the bill for that deal will come due later on in a much crueler way than his first bout with cancer did. What will be our reaction then, regardless of what the feds and anti-doping experts find out? Will we be as conflicted as we are now, or will our response be more in-line with how we respond to the growing list of cheats who fall from grace?
We react as viscerally as we do, pro or con, because nothing is crystal clear with Armstrong. On one hand, he’s a cancer survivor, raised tons of money for cancer research, inspired an entire nation with Live Strong wrist bands, had a very public romance with Cheryl Crow, and above all, a multi-time Tour de France champion. On the other hand, he bailed out on Crow as soon as she was diagnosed with cancer, too many rumors continue to circle him like vultures in the desert, too many former associates are willing to talk, too many responses seem inadequate, claiming “you’ve never caught me” as opposed to “I’ve never put my body at risk,” too many questions simply won’t go away, too many sponsors seem skittish, and worst of all, too many folks are no longer buying what he’s selling. We wanted to believe the best about him, and many still do, but heroes can be tainted, and Armstrong may end up being just as human and flawed as the rest of us.
*********************
Are you a professional basketball player or major league baseball coach? Are you feeling cranky and tired of fans who say what’s on their minds at the arena or ballpark? Need to alleviate all that built-up stress from being in front of thousands with nowhere to hide? I got it! Why not shoot off a few sexuality slurs and take a load off your back?! Yep, this apparently is the new trend in MLB and the NBA. First Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell spewed invectives and threats toward a few fans in San Francisco, then the Lakers Kobe Bryant gave a referee a piece of his mind during a game, now Chicago Bulls forward Joakim Noah is $50,000 lighter in the pockets after calling a Miami Heat fan the “new F word.” I guess because Noah apologized during his post-game media session NBA Commissioner David Stern decided not to fine him the same $100,000 Bryant was fined. No matter how you look at it, it seems like the people we collectively pay millions to to entertain us over six-month seasons continue to fail as members of our community-at-large, members of what’s supposed to be a melting pot society, and role models for our nation’s youth.
*********************
Am I the only one who wonders why Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis can’t think before he speaks? Here’s a man who faced capital murder charges after two people were killed in a melee following Super Bowl XXXIV, January 2000, in Atlanta, only to escape with obstruction of justice charges, telling ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio during an interview that the crime rate will increase if there’s no NFL season this fall. Lewis’ qualifier? People will be bored with nothing to do! Crime rate for who?! Is the NFL’s version of Inspector Clouseau referring to himself and fellow NFL players? Is he referring to the millions of fans who watch NFL games? Maybe an extended lockout might help reduce the testosterone levels of players and fans, reduce the instances of drunk driving, domestic violence, and trips to the emergency room? Maybe we’d see a decline in stupid behavior? Maybe we’ll see historic lows in the amount of body and face paint purchased from hardware stores? Could you imagine how this might affect sales for alcohol, hot dogs, barbeque grills and other supplies, such as big-screen televisions?
Maybe we might see a dramatic increase in book sales or visits to libraries? Maybe we might see an increase in guys going to the movies with their wives, girlfriends and/or families? Who knows? Museums on Sunday could become popular again. Leaves might be raked more regularly. The trash might be taken out more regularly. Maybe even the recycling will be sorted! Women might be able to talk more with their men, no longer doomed to play second-fiddle to the remote control. And you know what THAT can lead to... GARAGE SALES!
PLEASE! For the love of G-d... Settle this collective bargaining deal already! This nation’s balance of nature and order depends on it!
All kidding aside, perhaps Mr. Lewis might wish to consult Denver Broncos safety David Bruton on what to do when there’s down time from the NFL. Bruton’s been working as a $90/day substitute teacher in Ohio since the lockout started. Bruton, who graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in Political Science, has taught second graders, middle and high-school level social studies, and today he’s teaching a tenth-grade geometry class, telling ESPN’s First Take crew, “I had to re-learn all that math I haven’t taken since my freshman year at Notre Dame.”
While the NFL has canceled this year’s annual rookie symposium, not only did the league once again drop the ball on a vital and potentially profound career-shaping experience for young men entering a world of sudden riches, hyped-up expectations and the harsh realities of how fleeting fame and fortune can be, it denied itself the incredible opportunity to take the negative of the lockout and present a positive in the off-season activities of David Bruton. If you know me and regularly read my columns, you know the special regard I have for pursuing higher education and teaching as a vocation and intellectual journey. David Bruton breaks the mold of the standard moron football player with nothing better to do when not on the gridiron or weight room, and just like other wonderful young men like Myron Rolle and Andrew Luck, the NFL continues to screw up royally and invest its hype in the semi-literate, the semi-articulate, and the trouble-making and trouble-finding Neanderthals who get the most exposure for highlight show catches and hits, the kind of on-field play that fuels the off-field idiocy Ray Lewis cutely hints of to Sal Paolantonio. What a shame. What hypocrisy.
Kudos to Bruton for not only doing something productive and positive with his free time, but for demonstrating that professional football players can do something with a genuine college education. Most impressive to this former chemistry and physics professor is that Bruton shows that someone with an academic background outside of math and science CAN successfully utilize faded knowledge. In other words, for all you folks who like to say math wasn’t your thing, well, that’s no longer a valid excuse, courtesy of David Bruton!
*********************
Let me get this straight... Mets owner Fred Wilpon tells the New Yorker that there’s no way he’s paying out “Carl Crawford money” to pending free agent shortstop Jose Reyes, right fielder Carlos Beltran (another pending free agent) is about “65-70% of what he used to be” when he was a younger centerfielder, and third baseman David Wright isn’t a “superstar,” and everyone’s in a tizzy?! Yeah, this is hardly the kind of thing we’d ever expect from Freddy from Lafayette High, but the man’s under enormous stress from the Bernie Madoff mess, he’s disillusioned at how this year’s team will never remind anyone of the 1986 Mets, 25 years after winning an incredible and memorable World Series, and he likely feels like he’s over a financial barrel looking at how fragile the core of a very good team only five years ago seeks new contract security and riches, an investment any reasonable owner would have second, third and tenth thoughts about.
Does it hurt to hear such words from Wilpon? Sure, but is it because the truth may hurt, or is it because we never thought Wilpon would ever take a page out of the Yankees playbook for how to publicly assess stars in the process of passing their prime? Fred Wilpon deserves a lot better than how the federal court system and its appointed trustee, Irving Picard, have treated him. Say what you want about the Mets and the way things have soured since Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, but this is not the way the team CEO of over thirty years should have to function while his world is repeatedly turned upside-down by things very outside of his control.
*********************
Even if the baseball season doesn’t seem to be going the way some folks want, you have to smile at how the Mets continue to hang tough after a 5-13 start, how the AL East may be a five-team race all summer long, how the Texas Rangers survived 36 games without last year’s MVP Josh Hamilton, how the San Francisco Giants are showing last year’s World Series title might not have been a fluke, and how the Cleveland Indians continue to have MLB’s best record. Yes, you heard me... the Cleveland Indians continue to have MLB’s best record!
*********************
Speaking of David Wright, could all the pontificators of gloom and doom hold off saying anything until Wright comes back from Los Angeles and his scheduled consult with noted back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins? Watkins has a very solid reputation working with professional athletes who endure considerable spinal trauma during competition. If Wright, at only 27-years old, indeed has a spondylolysis after landing on grass during a baseball game, he’s more than entitled to a second opinion from one of the best. Spondylolyses are not to be taken lightly. Ignore one in a 27-year old athlete’s back for several years, and Wright could be staring at a spondylolisthesis, or instability between vertebrae, when he’s in his forties, requiring the kind of extensive fusion surgery I needed a few years ago.
But think about it... Wright lands on grass and the result is a stress fracture between lumbar vertebrae, and we all accept it as cause and effect.
So how is it that GEICO, my former auto insurance company, a company I’m suing in federal court, spends three years insisting that the impact of a Ford pick-up truck, driven approximately 15 miles per hour into the back of my Toyota Corolla (stopped at a Yield sign), crushing the back of my Corolla, could not possibly cause a spondylolysis between vertebrae adjacent to my previously surgically-fused ones? Better yet, how is it that the driver’s auto insurance company, AAA Mid-Atlantic, a company I’m suing in state court, spends three years insisting the same thing, despite the driver’s sworn testimony that he plowed his truck right into the back of my car, declaring his full liability, and AAA Mid-Atlantic declaring my car completely totaled?
That’s two auto insurance companies claiming to know more about orthopedics and Newtonian physics, and willing to fight tooth and nail in court in order to avoid paying out for medical damages. Maybe we should all question whether Wright really hurt himself on that awkward play at third base against the Astros five weeks ago? Maybe Wright slipped in a shower, or hurt it during locker room horseplay, or late-night hijinx in a Manhattan club? No... We’d never consider raising such doubts, because Wright’s one of the legit stars and the face of the Mets. We never question his integrity, especially when we try to understand how a perennial All-Star is hitting so dreadfully at this point of the season. Yes, I believe the injury’s legit and the explanation both logical and probable. So why would two auto insurance companies challenge the veracity or cause of my injuries? Because they believe they and their staff lawyers can get away with it, and who ever stands up on behalf of regular folks like us? If David Wright can’t walk or play baseball again, that’s a major loss to to an organization that invested millions into him. If I can’t walk or enjoy my livelihood again, whose real loss is that? It’s not like any of us are worth that many millions to our employers or financial backers, right?
I don’t begrudge Wright or any athlete their worth or due, but who wrote the rules that makes their well-being more important than anyone else’s? Let’s face it... David Wright could be one major injury or surgery away from becoming a regular folk, just like you and me... Then what would we say about his obtaining a second opinion in Los Angeles?
Just a thought.
*********************
Last thought: Please try to keep former Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter in yours while he seeks treatment at Duke University for four recently-diagnosed small brain tumors.
No comments:
Post a Comment