Blah…Blah…Shut this guy up!

The big news was announced recently that the USADA hearing with Floyd Landis will not be held until May.  Thus, it appears he will not race the Tour de France as by the time the hearing takes place, the decision comes down, the appeals are finished, the Tour will be over. 

 There is so much out there it is hard to know what is accurate.  Is Floyd still the Tour de France Champion?  Is the USADA causing delays?  Is Landis’ side causing delays?

There is something that the public just doesn’t seem to get about this whole thing.  The USADA is an enforcement agency.  It is not the job of the USADA to determine the guilt or innocence of an athlete.  It is the job of the USADA to prosecute all viable cases.  Do they have a viable case in the Landis’ case?  Who knows?  Landis’ side will obviously tell you no; however, there are two sides to  every story and we only know one side.  We don’t know the USADA’s side because they will not tell us their side.  Why?  They have ethics.  They are following their own rules not to comment on pending cases.  This just gives Landis’ camp, and his supporters, fuel for the fire.  While PowerPoint presentations are being made, revised, and sent all around the world via the internet, the USADA must patiently wait for a hearing date.  These same people supporting Landis will be the first to fire off on Dick Pound when he violates his own rules and runs at the mouth.

Do I think Landis is guilty?  No.  I do know this though, I have only heard one side of the story.  I also know that the USADA would not be pursuing this case if they did not thing their case was viable.  The power to prosecute is almost as important as the power not to prosecute.  All prosecuting agencies know this and don’t take their jobs lightly.  So, unless the USADA is a bunch of unethical cheats, which I would say they are not, they must believe their case is enough to prove Landis guilty.  If anyone thinks they are prosecuting Landis for any other reason than this, they have never worked in a prosecutors office.

I am sure people work at the USADA because they are sports fans.  They don’t want a national hero like Landis to be guilty.  However, they have been charged with the unenviable task of not being judge and jury, but a prosecutor.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Cycling, Sports-General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.