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Perhaps you remember the Nike commercial in which Lance Armstrong was shown confidently undergoing a drug test.
As a syringe extracted a blood sample from his arm, Armstrong defiantly said, “Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike busting my (butt) six hours a day. What are you on?”
Visions of that “Just do it” commercial came to mind Wednesday when Nike announced it was dumping Armstrong “due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade. …”
But shed no tears for “misled” Nike, which made millions of dollars off his Livestrong merchandise line. Or the other sponsors, who are also jumping off the bandwagon this week in the wake of the U S. Anti-Doping Agency’s voluminous revelations.
Save your sympathy instead for the legions of future cancer patients and others an unsullied Armstrong could have continued to lift and inspire.
Feel disappointment for those his foundation, which raised millions through sales of those rubbery yellow bracelets, might not be able to help in the future because of the mushrooming doping scandal.
They are the people who cling tightest to the image of Armstrong not only as a cancer survivor but as someone whose indomitable spirit allowed him to return stronger, better than ever and conquer the grueling Tour de France seven times.
The tragedy now isn’t in the yellow jerseys and seven titles Armstrong will likely end up surrendering, but in the numbers of people an untainted story could have further served as an affirming example.
“He was my idol for what he went through,” said Oceanic sportscaster Jim Leahey, himself a cancer survivor. “He gave me the faith to continue. I said to myself, ‘if he can do it with testicular cancer and win the Tour de France not just once but repeatedly, then, I can beat it. He was a beacon, an amazing force to lead us out of that darkness and back to normalcy again.”
Armstrong’s Livestrong foundation celebrates 15 years in the battle against cancer this weekend, but its important message is being muted by the scandal that swirls around him. So much so that Armstrong felt the urgency to resign his chairmanship Wednesday prior to Nike’s announcement.
It is one thing to masquerade as one of the “clean” ones in a dirty sport as so many in several fields of endeavor have lately. But it is another to hold oneself up as an inspirational superman with a message of hope when the championship credits are ill-gotten.
Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez and too many others in sport have duped us, too. But their duplicity is not nearly as egregious because they had not had the potential to do so much good. They sold us visions of fence-clearing home run power, not life-altering strength. They toyed with records, not with the hopes of the afflicted.
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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
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