Well, the cat is out of the bag: Lance Armstrong, an American hero for riding a bike and fighting cancer, a genuine survival story...used performance-enhancing drugs (usually we call them "steroids," but there's a whole mess of things that fall under the PED banner nowadays). The news is shocking...if you have suffered repeated blows to the head and are living under the delusion that anyone is what they seem.
Hero worship comes naturally in sports, and when I was younger I idolized guys (mostly baseball players) who seemed like amazing athletes. And they were, until it was revealed that they boozed around, cheated on their wives, treated fans like crap, and hung around Billy Martin too much. But it wasn't just Mickey Mantle (whose life story is Greek tragedy personified) that started me thinking I need to wean myself off the hero drug; it was me.
Looking at someone else to be better than you just because they can hit a ball out of the park is pretty messed up, when you're honest about it. And thinking that someone of Barry Bonds' talent (yes, the jackass is talented, before steroids came into the conversation) is worse than you because they cheated to get where they are is not much better. I've gone through all the stages on steroids, from genuine shock to a numbed, almost default cynicism that of course, everyone is juicing. Athletics is based not on a level playing field, but on the idea of winning. Ricky Bobby isn't ridiculous in the sports world; he's a prophet. And using any advantage that you can to win, well, that's just part of the sport. Sorry if you thought good grades, praying to God, and drinking your milk were the only things you needed to do to hit the longball.
Idolization of anyone is human nature (why do you think the Greeks and Romans had so many gods, or why all three major modern-day religions have one Supreme Being who's Superman times ten?), and we're never gonna rid ourselves of the desire to have someone represent our ideals. Lance Armstrong did do good; there are probably a lot of people around today who wouldn't be here if he hadn't created more awareness of what cancer does to people. But he's human, just like the Mick or anyone else we put on a pedastal just so that they can be knocked down. Maybe that's why reality shows are huge now; no one wants to be Honey Boo Boo, they just want to laugh at her and feel better about themselves.
The point is, I feel the same conflict about this latest PED dope as any sports fan would: on the one hand, I don't begrudge him the idea of cheating, because to be honest it probably would occur to me as well (though I'd hope I could resist the temptation), but I also think he deserves some degree of shaming, because he led people on with what amounted to a lie about his ability. Steroids probably don't make you better at hitting a ball or riding a bike, but they do make you endure those grueling physical activities better. They wouldn't be taken by everybody and their mother if they didn't work. But it's not kosher.
One thing is certain, though: it's real easy to jump on the moral high ground after the fact. For every revelation about a sports star's steroid use, the same nattering nabobs that glorify said star when there's no indication that he is a doper jumps on that star with "shock and horror." Please, you guys knew all along, you just didn't write about it because you'd lose the access, you'd lose the ability to ride that gravy train ("My Week with Lance!"), and the ability to pad out your own resume as a hagiographic toady. Major League Baseball knew from the beginning that steroids were being used, but homers equalled butts in the seats. If cocaine made ballplayers seem stronger and better able to hit home runs or score touchdowns, you'd see piles of the stuff given out at "Fan Night."
Let's just admit that we don't know these people any better than we do, and try and keep that in mind the next time we're sold on "the Next Big Thing" in sports or any field of entertainment. Because odds are, we're being sold a bill of goods that doesn't deliver.
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