King Kaufman on Salon wrote a piece a couple weeks ago about why Lance Armstrong didn't deserve to
be sportsman of the year. Of couse all kinds of "biking" idiots deluged him with letters. He did
make this observation.
"(the letter) Lance doesn't deserve to be Sports Person of the Year, eh? Why don't you try riding
100 miles a day, up and down mountains, every day for three weeks. Why don't you come riding with my
cycling club someday, huh, fat boy? Get a bike. Get off your couch for once, put down that brew.
Then maybe you'll understand something about sports.
(his reply)This is a really, really frequent comment. Do cycling people really divide the world into
two groups, cycling people and fat, lazy, beer-swilling slobs who never get off their couch? And
what difference would getting on a bike make? I don't play tennis, but I didn't notice a lot of
tennis fans impeaching my tennis knowledge or demanding that I learn to play before I write about
their sport.
I can't compete with any well-known athlete, male or female, in any sport. There, I said it. But
that means nothing in determining who's the Sports Person of the Year, any more than my being a
better writer than Lance Armstrong or Serena Williams, if true, would qualify me for the Nobel Prize
in literature."
I wondered why only cyclists made this type of comment a while ago too, the great Henry Chang
thought it's because every bike racing schmoe sees himself as a rung or two away from being pro,
wheras typical sportsfans don't have those delusions.
-Amit