The second half of Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey was certainly more emotional than the first, but was it any more revealing?
That is the question many people find themselves asking after part two of the interview aired last night on the Oprah Winfrey Network and in an online live stream too. Like many other media outlets, Juliet Macur and Ian Austen of the New York Times don't believe so.
Armstrong did cry while telling a story about his oldest son, but still came up short on many details that would be helpful for a couple of reasons. Lance refused to implicate anyone else involved in his scandal, whether it was a supplier or someone involved in another layer of the thick plot against the rules.
The cyclist formerly known as a seven-time Tour de France winner admitted one thing that caught me off guard: he never felt bad about cheating. It doesn't really surprise me that he would feel that way, but it only makes Lance come off as even more of an obsessed, ruthless winner by announcing it to the public. Although it may make his character more consistent, consistently breaking the rules isn't anything to be proud of, and he's not getting a gold star from anyone for never wavering.
If Armstrong truly wants forgiveness (or at least a shot at competing again, which seems much more likely), he shouldn't worry about what his personality traits are. He can argue all he wants about how beating people and things and odds were ground into him from his cancer treatments, but the path he has gone down has only hurt his reputation. If he's going to go back to competitive racing, he has to come back at least a little bit from the trail he's blazed.
Changing your personality isn't an easy thing to do. Often, it's like asking the clouds not to rain on you. However, Lance can change his approach to this specific situation without a total overhaul of how he acts, which is reason number one that he absolutely should have a more thorough confession.
He may not be willing to go out of his way to shed the Ricky Bobby mentality of "if you ain't first, you last," but simply saying a bit more than he planned and letting his interviewer run the show would go a long way toward swaying the public's opinion.
We don't know for sure exactly the impact it would have on the people in power banning Lance from competing, but if there's at least a shot, that means it's one worth taking, right Lance. After all, it seems that's the attitude you've had your whole career: do something no one thinks you can do.
You can watch Lance Armstrong's whole interview with Oprah Winfrey or select clips from either night right here.
The encore airing of the interview can be viewed Sunday, January 20, at 6:30 p.m. EST. For the TV information, click here.
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