is this jackie's legacy?

Some athletes transcend their sport. Some become heroes for their on-field accomplishments. Some swim, ride, throw, or hit their way into our hearts. Some smoke pot. Some use performance enhancing steroids. Some break our hearts and leave us wondering why we loved them in the first place. And sometimes they are the same athletes. Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, Michael Vick, and Barry Bonds are such athletes, but there is one clear distinction. Armstrong and Phelps achieved feats no one ever thought possible and are still revered, their transgressions forgiven. Bonds and Vick broke records in their respective sports, but each now finds himself mired in ongoing investigations into their own offenses. What separates these four athletes? The same thing that Jackie Robinson battled in 1947: racial discrimination.

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times. No one had ever won more than five until he peddled his way into history. Armstrong not only beat cyclists but also beat cancer and is now respected as one of the foremost figures in the fight to find a cure to the disease that almost kept him from his cycling destiny. However, few recall when Armstrong was accused of doping. In 2006 friends of Armstrong testified that he had answered in the affirmative when asked if he had ever used performance enhancing drugs. Only the word of colleagues tainted Armstrong's name. But the public and press were able to forgive him because as the Washington Post said, he gives us hope:

That's the compact we have with Lance Armstrong that we don't have with Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds or Jose Canseco. Those guys are massive and superhuman. What could we possibly have in common with them? We're invested psychologically in Lance Armstrong in ways we can never be invested in them. They're about power. He's about hope. He gives us hope against our darkest fear, the fear of death. That's why so many of us hope Lance Armstrong doesn't cheat, even as we fully expect the others to.

The Post refers to other athletes in which the public can't find common ground. One of them is Barry Bonds. Bonds has set and now holds the records that filled the dreams of every little leaguer who picked up a bat and wished to be Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron. He is the career and single season leader in home runs (762 and 73, respectively). He also has won more MVP awards, seven, than any other player and at one time won four in a row. Bonds, now, is known not for his famous hitting, but for the infamous BALCO steroids case. Bonds' inclusion in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame is jeopardized as his legacy becomes more and more soiled in steroid controversy. Bonds' key accuser was a former trainer who claimed to have supplied the slugger with steroids. Bonds claimed if he had, it was without his knowledge. In 2007, Bonds was charged with perjury stemming from the BALCO case.

This leaves us with just two men. Both record setting athletes, both cast in a shadow of performance enhancing doubt. One is white and continues to successfully market his Livestrong clothing line and give the nation "hope," while the other is black and faces charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and may not be enshrined in his sport's pantheon.

Steroids are not the only drug prevalent among athletes. Marijuana use is not only illegal in sports, but against the law. Two athletes named Michael have been compared recently because of their marijuana use. Michael Phelps is a 14-time Olympic gold medalist, including eight in the 2008 Beijing games. Michael Vick was the first player selected in the 2001 NFL draft and holds many NFL records for rushing by a Quarterback. Each has been caught or tested positive for smoking weed, and both have been suspended by their sport's governing bodies, though one remains a forgiven role-model and the other has gone on to further criminal charges and jail time.

Phelps has now been twice forgiven for his "youthful transgressions". The first was an underage DUI after the 2004 Olympics and now he was photographed diving into a bong and not a pool. Phelps, however, has retained some of his lucrative endorsements and has been suspended for only three months, which does not come close to the next summer Olympics in 2012. Writers like ESPN's Pat Forde claim that they feel let down by his actions, but that it is something that can help teach their kids a lesson about athletes, "This is a perfect opportunity to teach kids that people put on pedestals sometimes fall off. That heroes have foibles. That foibles are understandable, even if they're not laudable." It is widely believed this will not effect his involvement in the 2012 summer games.


Michael Vick, however, has reached the lowest low of them all. Beyond his positive tests for marijuana use, he has been tried and convicted of funding a dogfighting syndicate. Vick has clearly joined the likes of OJ Simpson and Ray Lewis, though even those players were acquitted of the charges they faced. Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons, Vick's NFL team, has said Vick "betrayed the trust of many people," which of course he did. But is dogfighting that much more reprehensible than drunk driving? Dogfighting is sure to kill dogs, but drunk driving leads to an even higher cost, doesn't it?

Vick now faces up to five years in prison for his violation and Phelps will probably end up in the next movie starring Seth Rogan and James Franco. Again, what separates these two men? Skin-color.

America has reached a new plateau of racial equality. Barack Obama has shown that the United States can look beyond race when electing its highest office. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech has been referred to as having come to fruition. But as two black athletes struggle to maintain their reputations through controversy, and two white athletes remain in the public's hearts following transgressions, I ask have we really come that far from the days of Jackie Robinson's courage? Is Dr. King's dream a reality? Not yet. But it will be someday, and the 44th President of the United States is just the beginning.