The Front Row with TIM DAHLBERG Oct. 19, 2012
The end came quietly, with a pair of early morning statements that said more about the guilt of Lance Armstrong than a thousand pages of evidence.
Dumped by Nike. Out as chairman of his Livestrong foundation.
And finally done scamming everyone with one of the greatest con jobs of the century.
"Everybody wants to know what I'm on," Armstrong says in a 2001 Nike commercial. "What am I on?"
EPO maybe? Steroids? Blood transfusions? Testosterone?
It's all spelled out in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that finally took Armstrong down, exposing him as a doper extraordinaire and the biggest fraud you'll find on two wheels. Someone finally stood up to the bully and called his bluff, and now the dominos are falling fast.
So fast that before the day was done, Armstrong had been abandoned by another major sponsor. Anheuser-Busch said it wouldn't re-sign Armstrong, though both the beer company and Nike said they would continue to support his foundation. Other smaller sponsors followed.
That it took this long is a testament to how elaborate Armstrong's doping schemes were and how adamant his denials were framed. That it finally happened is thanks to the tenacity of Travis Tygart and others at the doping agency who wouldn't quit even when federal prosecutors had given up their pursuit.
The seven Tour de France titles will be the next to go, because even the inept people who run international cycling must now realize it is the only way to restore even a sliver of legitimacy to the drug-addled sport. Nobody still believes Armstrong won riding clean, as if anyone believes anything about cycling anymore.
Shed a few tears and ask for forgiveness. Talk about living the rest of your life doing whatever you can to make amends.
It won't restore Armstrong's reputation. That's gone.
But it might be the only way some of the good he's done survives.
Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg.