So it appears that Floyd Landis is guilty of doping — and remember he was put in contention in the Tour de France largely by the suspension of so many of the top cyclists. Then there’s Zidane’s head butt, the Major League steroid scandal, John Daley’s excesses, Kobe Bryant’s recklessness, Oklahoma University’s quarterback taking money without work in his summer job, and on and on.
Do you think maybe we’ve made the rewards and deferential treatment too great for athletes? Have we placed on them both an excessive need to excel and a feeling of personal invulnerability — I’m so special that I don’t have to play by all your rules? I can get away with murder.
It’s too bad. Athletes at the highest levels deserve our admiration. Their success from god-given ability, learned skill, hard work and determination really do make them special. But maybe, just maybe, we need for the cameras to turn away a little more often, the money to be a little less, the penalties for cheating a little more.
We need for our champions to be heroes, not chumps.