wkw  08/03/2006 - 17:41  Sports

Originally posted at my Web site: WilliamKWolfrum.com:

As the doping scandal -- and it is a doping scandal -- of Floyd Landis enters the ludicrous stage, with Landis's lawyer now just randomly running excuses up the flagpole, it's time that we as sports fans admit defeat and accept the inevitable.

They're all doped up now. All of them. When the winner of the Tour de France takes drugs to win, he incriminates everyone. Because Floyd Landis doesn't have a "naturally high testosterone level." And dehydration didn't cause his testosterone level to scream "Cheater!"

"Maybe a combination of dehydration, maximum effort," Jose Maria Buxeda, Landis's lawyer said. The claim is so far removed from any reality known to doping situations, one can only interpret it as some type of code admitting guilt.

And it leaves us all screwed. Because now, until every athlete is checked after every performance, they are all guilty to sports fans.

Someone hits a 500-foot home run? It was because they were doped.

Score 82 points in an NBA game? Doped.

Knock out a string of contenders? It was the drugs.

It's not fair, of course. But perception is everything. Landis admitted such while screaming innocence. But it's way more than his reputation that has been fatally besmirched, it's the entire sporting world now.

Because enough is enough. They're all doped now.

--WKW