Bad sports, good sports: Floyd Landis is a cheater and should be treated as such

Posted on May 24th, 2010 by Alan Spoll

The sordid story of Floyd Landis took a revealing turn this week. After years of denying the doping allegations that caused him to be stripped of his Tour de France win from 2006, Landis has now admitted having cheated throughout his career. On top of the admission, Landis has taken this opportunity to accuse a number of other riders of the same thing, including seven-time champ Lance Armstrong.

I am not one of those people who rants against whistle-blowers and calls them “rats.” That seems so childish to me, like a kid being mad at another kid for telling on him, rather than owning up to what he actually did wrong. Still, what Landis is doing here just seems dirty. I have no idea if Armstrong cheated. If he did, I hope he is caught and held accountable. I do know, though, that Landis’ allegations help give credence to other unsubstantiated rumors that have dogged Armstrong over the last few years. In a sport where there has been so much cheating, it is very easy to believe those rumors. I personally will treat Landis’ claims exactly how they should be treated: as the rantings of a proven liar and cheater. Is there anyone less credible than this guy? The police regularly use the testimony of criminals to catch other criminals. However, the criminals in those cases have something to gain. They are being given a break on their own charges in return for reporting on others. In this case, all Landis has to gain is to possibly deflect some attention from his own misdeeds. Even if that works, as it likely will, Landis has admitted cheating and is broadly reviled, so this behavior appears to be nothing more than a pathetic attempt at some kind of vengeance.

I am certainly not unique in my disdain for cheating. As a lover of sports, there is not much worse than when an athlete makes a mockery of his sport by swindling the public into believing that he should actually be given credit for his performance when that performance was due to something that is against the rules of the game. I love sports because they are real. If I didn’t need them to be real, I would just watch professional wrestling. Cheating, whether it be via performance enhancing drugs, game fixing, or any other method simply cause the game to no longer be real. When we can’t trust what we are seeing, we might just as well not bother to watch.

I, like Lance Armstrong and many others, would just like Floyd Landis to go away. The sooner the better.

Bad sports, continued:

2) Zac Herold, a 17-year-old soccer player who was drafted in the 2nd round of the MLS draft, will never get to have the career that up until recently appeared to be opening up before him. A recently diagnosed heart condition has forced him to retire before he even got started.

3) Here’s something you don’t see every day: an NBA ref not only arguing with a fan, but actually tossing the ball at him. Sure, he didn’t throw if very hard, but still… probably not something he really wanted to do.

That’s right… it’s another All Bad Sports week:

4) Former and current Chicago Bears players were tossing verbal barbs at each other this week. Former Bears great Gale Sayres, in answer to some questions being posed to him about the current state of the team, made some negative statements about the recent performance of quarterback Jay Cutler and head coach Lovie Smith. He also mentioned linebacker Brian Urlacher’s age and injury history. Urlacher decided to take offense to the statements, and shot back with comments questioning Sayre’s right to his opinion. Other former players and coaches have since chimed in, mostly supporting Sayres.

5) Danica Patrick may be the most popular driver in the IndyCar series, but you couldn’t tell on Saturday. After some statements she made blaming her team for her poor performance during qualifying for the Indy 500, the crowd, who had listened to the interview over the track’s P.A. system, booed her heartily. Unless she wants her popularity to resemble that of NASCAR’s Kyle Busch, rather than Dale Earnhardt Jr., she might want to learn the driver-speak that so many of her fellow drivers have mastered where they never really say anything.

6) You knew I had to mention this one, didn’t you? Drama queen Brett Favre told the University of Mississippi baseball team that he will return to the NFL for another season if the team makes it back to the College World Series this year. Now we can experience loads of sure-to-be-fascinating reports on the teams’s progress, as the sports world is certain to be all over this one.

Bonus: OK, this isn’t sports related at all, but my favorite television show of all time ended last night, and I wanted to mention it here. Lost, you will be greatly missed.

Bad Sports, Good Sports appears every Monday

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Alan Spoll

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02