Oh, Floyd

Well, his name is Floyd. So, that can't have been easy. He grew up in PA, the son of devout Mennonites, who presumably covered right and wrong in his upbringing. But sometimes you get a rebel.

After two+ years of vehemently denying that he'd ever used performance-enhancing drugs, and angrily protesting the stripping of his 2006 Tour de France win, bicyclist Floyd Landis now says yes, he used drugs of various kinds throughout his entire career. Oops.

But while he's going down, he's going to name names, and drag whoever he can down with him. I confess that I'm baffled by these stories. Lance Armstrong is a target for everyone - I'm not surprised the finger is pointed at him. And though he's possibly the most tested athlete in history, and I'm a huge fan of his good works, I've been let down before by people I trusted that well. So, I'm too jaded to say absolutely about anything. There is a little part of me that is girded for disappointed.

But. Floyd. Seriously? Can we get back to you for a minute? You are confessing to serious infractions during the whole of your career. If you think you've succeeded in deflecting attention from this, let me assure you that you haven't. Maybe "nobody likes a tattletale" isn't in the Mennonite curriculum. But just once, I wish someone who finally comes clean about something like this will do it right. I would like some evidence that they've learned something about themselves, that the transition from Liar to Truthteller would come with some humility and some understanding, and not seem just like the next step in the PR plan. Now what? He'll do lecture tours? Tell me something new, Floyd. Tell me about how this happened. It's not enough to say "I must be flawed" and leave it at that. What happened? How did it go wrong, and how did it feel to perpetuate it? How about now, that you can't say you ever won anything fairly? Was it worth it? Granted, I'm the type that really looks for the answers to questions like this, I'm still going to need more than "but so did he." Take your lumps like a big boy.

"Disgraced American cyclist Floyd Landis..." continues pretty much the way he's always gone.

Angry much,
Jenny