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12:25PM EST November 12. 2012 – Lance Armstrong let his Twitter followers — still 3.8 million strong — know he was back in Austin this weekend and had someone take a picture to show how he was spending a lazy Saturday afternoon.
“Back in Austin and just layin’ around,” he wrote in the tweet[1]. He attached a picture of himself laying on a couch in a room that just happened to have seven yellow Tour de France jerseys on the wall. Purely random, I’m sure.
It’s not a #humblebrag as much as it’s a #shoveitinyourfacebrag. It’s cocky, it’s condescending and it’s not going to help Armstrong’s battered public image. Contrition, not defiance, is the way to go.
That couch just happened to be in the row with Armstrong’s seven tainted yellow jerseys(Photo: Mobli)
Armstrong was banned for life last month by the International Cycling Union and stripped of those seven Tour wins. (The jerseys, apparently, can stay.)
Look, I’m on Lance Armstrong’s side, as much as one can be on the side of a suspected/known cheater. His cycling wins may have been a sham (just like victories by most athletes in the sport) but his work for cancer research, awareness and patients has been inspirational. Would it have been better if Armstrong stayed clean, became a middling cyclist and Livestrong never existed? I don’t see how any logical person could make that argument. Shades of gray cloud the picture, of course, but I still think his net contribution to our world is greater than his flaws.
Regardless, Armstrong stepped down Monday from the Livestrong board. He founded the charity in 1997.
If pictures like this are any indication, Armstrong has moved past denial into the anger phase of his coping. Next he’ll be trying to buy Tour titles off Miguel Indurain, followed by his growing a beard phase and then he’ll accept his actions, sit down for an interview with Oprah and get back into the good graces of the American public. It doesn’t feel like it now, but it’ll happen one day.
