Only a few days ago, we talked about the
never-ending pursuit of Lance Armstrong by US authorities, vis-a-vis his alleged
doping during key Tour de France years that contributed to his record-breaking
seven wins. In yet another blow to the US Justice Department's desire to make an
example of some high profile athletes who supposedly have used
performance-enhancing drugs, baseball giant Roger Clemens today walked out of
court a free man. This affair has had legs for five years of Clemens' life, and
this recent trial took eight weeks and as much as $3M USD of taxpayer money to
prosecute him: all for nought.
Clemens was cleared of
all six counts against him, on charges relating to supposed perjury in front of
Congress, wherein he stated that he had never used steroids or human growth
hormone. It is almost a mirror image of the Lance Armstrong situation, with one
or two ex-colleagues with a potential grudge or something to lose themselves
previously testifying that he did it, but on the stand, they either appear to
not remember all of the details, or admit that they may have been mistaken. In
Clemens' case, he was up against a personal strength trainer who claimed to have
personally injected him with growth hormone, and had even kept some needles and
material in an old crumpled up Miller Lite can, as proof. But even then, the
defense was able to raise serious doubts about the integrity of his trainer
Brian McNamee, which was not that brilliant given that he was accused of having
lied in another case. You just know that certain members of a typical jury are
going to think that some trainer that stored evidence of doping involving his
employer, a sports superstar, is unlikely to be a decent human being, operating
on any kind of ethical level. It's reminiscent of Monica Lewinsky storing the
semen-stained dress that she got as a gift from that old rogue, Bill Clinton. As
long as everything is going fine, it's in my closet and I will never use it,
but if a day comes when I can see that I might make millions out of it, or get
my fifteen minutes of fame, then all bets are off. The only word that comes to
mind is "sleazy", and it's not because it's needed as evidence later on that
makes the surreptitious collection and storage of it in the first place, a
decent thing to do. It stinks, from all angles.
The current score of
the sporting world against US authorities is remarkably high: even Barry Bonds,
considered a shoe-in for a doping charge, got away with one charge of
obstruction in his own perjury case, and was given no jail time. Both athletes
will now hit the Hall of Fame hurdle this winter, but I think that all agree
that the more staid ballot system is unlikely to fall so nicely in their favor,
and the shadow of considerable doubt over truthfulness is likely to darken their
names more than in the jury system. But you know, if you made vast amounts of
money during a sporting career filled with success and the adoration that came
with it, but where you did also resort to questionable activities (i.e.
cheating!) to get there? My feeling is that you should zip it, and stop moaning
about the Hall of Fame, and slink off out of the public eye, quietly and
gratefully. Greed is a terrible thing, especially among those who already have
it all.
I think the USADA (and
others) ought to digest all of this in great detail, and think about things for
a good long while, before continuing to pursue Lance Armstrong. They already are
on a losing streak, and it is clear that the evidence gathered has never been
good enough to guarantee conviction, so why waste even more money to go through
this another time, with a sporting hero-loving jury who only need to see any doubts raised to fall on the side of the athlete? While we might all still have
some private doubts, the system runs on "innocent until proven guilty", and if
Armstrong (or other) was such a catch, he would have been in jail already. As
frustrating as all of these cases seem to be to the US authorities, I think that they
should get their act together and drop cases like the Clemens and Armstrong
affairs when what they are holding is wafer-thin, and they end up with egg (and
not steroid-laced omelette) on their faces as well as a lot of wasted (taxpayer's) money in legal
bills. Find hard, solid, incontrovertible evidence, and prosecute, or if not,
don't embarrass the athlete(s), and worse, themselves under high level media scrutiny. All that one can conclude
is that if many sporting heroes are out there cheating, on a continual basis,
then the cheaters and the technology that facilitates it are still way ahead of the
authorities supposedly put in place to catch it. The latest score seems to be: Sport 4 USA 0. Please note that I
use the number "four" in a rare moment of conservativism! ;)
- Kevin Mc
No comments:
Post a Comment