Two headlines competed for 'Least Surprising Development' this week:
1. Skier Bode Miller made a controversial remark to the media.
2. Isaiah Rider was arrested for kidnapping.
As you all know, Bode became semi-famous a few weeks ago when he remarked that it's pretty hard to ski 'wasted' in an interview with '60 Minutes.' Isaiah Rider achieved comparable infamy when he, in spite of being crowned the 1994 NBA Slam Dunk Champion, managed to rack up countless drug violations throughout the course of his rocky professional career. One of his more humorous detractors once offered these words of advice: 'You're supposed to smoke the defender and shoot the 'J''not the other way around.'
Bode's latest comments'this time, his thoughts on steroids'showed he can't seem to get off the subject of substances, while Rider continues to look like he just can't get off substances.
But I need not reefer'excuse me, refer'to Rider anymore in this column. I was determined to throw his name around a couple times, and that whole substance corollary I had going with Bode was merely a bonus.
I digress. By now you're probably a little tired of Miller's mouth, but you can't be surprised that the press'yet again'ate up everything that came out of it. Writers and media personalities say they don't like him. They don't like how he declares his disdain for the media and then manipulates it to make himself relevant. They don't like his hypocrisy.
But is he hypocritical? Or does he know that the media is?
What columnists write about Bode: 'How can you say you hate the media when you used us to get your name out there and promote your career? I hate you, Bode Miller.'
What Bode would say if he had a competent public relations guy: 'How can you say you hate me when you use me too? You just got paid for that column you wrote about how much you hate me, didn't you? You're welcome for the fodder.'
And that would be that. Writers would devote some space to thanking Bode for being out-spoken so that they don't have to manufacture their 87 millionth puff piece on Michelle Kwan (Thank you, Bode).
Miller pushes the envelope. Writers mail it in. Of course, I mean that in every sense.
Now I'm not saying hypocrisy doesn't have a place in the world, because it certainly does. But if you're going to accuse someone of being a hypocrite, then at least admit it if you're one too. We're all hypocrites. I once made fun of Ray Nixon for excessively celebrating after dunking on'even though it was more like 'beside''a 6'0' white kid (me) in a pick-up game at the SERF, yet at this fall's Cardinal-Herald flag football game, I thumped my chest after scoring both of my touchdowns in the Cardinal's 35-7 rout. Much like Nixon, I was in the presence of notably inferior athletes but still couldn't refrain from drawing attention to my pedestrian achievement.
Did I mention the score was 35-7? Okay, good. Back to Bode.
His admission'that he likes his potent potables'instantly made him oh-so-quotable. And all of tha sudden, the buzz around Bode skiing buzzed had grown. He has since apologized for glorifying libations on the slopes but has weighed in on the issue of steroids in sports.
'Right now, if you want to cheat, you can: Barry Bonds and those guys are just knowingly cheating, but there's all sorts of loopholes,' Miller said in an interview with Rolling Stone. 'If you say it has to be 'knowingly,' you do what Lance (Armstrong) and all those guys do, where every morning their doctor gives them a box of pills and they don't ask anything, they just take the pills.'
Uh-oh. The drunk has a point. Olympic officials are scrambling for a muzzle as we speak. First, he incriminates himself and then tries to incriminate others. Icons, in fact.
Interestingly enough, he's onto something. He's absolutely right to be suspicious of steroid testing. The problem is nobody wants to hear it. At this point, he may not seem like the most credible expert on the subject, but I'm not even sure that matters. Jose Canseco didn't seem credible before his book was published, but now it looks as if he might become the most famous whistle-blower since Forrest Gump put an end to Watergate.
Don't get me wrong; I don't think Bode is this brilliant, calculating public figure with an agenda to end steroid use (his name is Bode, how smart could he be?). I just think he made a great point and people dismissed the suspicion solely'and wrongfully'because of its source. A source that isn't as stupid as people may think.
The media can and will continue to echo its initial sentiment: 'Why should we believe that boozehound Bode Miller? He'll say anything.'
And they're right. He will say anything. Even the truth.
