Letters: Lance Armstrong flunks this test

Thanks, Lance.

Thanks for our kids and grandkids who dream of excelling honestly in athletics at any level. Thanks for showing all of us that the king of the cheaters, in a fringe sport made up of known cheaters, is no longer valued as an athlete or a person. We will find other ways to contribute to cancer research for both cures and treatment, while we celebrate another triumph in our kids’ dreams to compete and maybe win ... on a level field.

Tom Sloss

Fountain Valley

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This just in. In light of his recent admission, Lance Armstrong has now been named on 36% of the ballots from the BBWAA for the baseball Hall of Fame.

Steve Smullen

Canyon Lake

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L: Liar

A: Arrogant

N: Narcissistic

C: Cheater

E: Ego

Alex Andrade

Pasadena

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How ironic that Lance Armstrong has maneuvered himself to become a cancer upon cycling and the entire world of sport.

Steve Carey

Burbank

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With yet another doping confession by a sports icon, Lance Armstrong once again reminds us that the most successful athletes are the ones with the best chemists.

Roger Lawry

Ojai

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According to T.J. Simers, “This whole Armstrong mess is only a reminder that he is human....” It is much more than that. Lance Armstrong has a major character flaw, the lack of conscience to do the right thing. Instead, he chose to cheat against his fellow athletes and lie about it to the rest of us.

Simers is correct about one thing: For Armstrong to go on Oprah and confess means nothing. What are the lessons for the rest of us? Don’t cheat and don’t lie because you probably will get caught.

Paul L. Hovsepian

Sierra Madre

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Too bad about Lance Armstrong. But, hey, the U.S. still has cycling hero Floyd Landis, er, Tyler Hamilton, um, Levi Leipheimer, uh, George Hincapie, er, um, Greg LeMond?

Robert Ostrove

Ventura

Change at Troy

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Pat Haden on Kevin O’Neill: “It was hard for me to evaluate him until this year; it became evident to me that we needed new leadership.” This may sound like a broken record, but how long will it take, Mr. Haden, to evaluate your head football coach? Clearly, that program needs new leadership.

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

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I’m going to beat the rush and put the blame on Lane Kiffin now for the whole Manti Te’o fake girlfriend fiasco.

Bill Hokans

Santa Ana

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Oregon’s Chip Kelly has taken the Pete Carroll route to the NFL ... just ahead of the NCAA investigation into his football program.

Sol Bialeck

Van Nuys

Ben’s team

Your article on Ben Howland [“Gruff edges,” Jan. 15] left something rather large out of the picture and that is the number of players now playing in the NBA who played for him. It did mention Kevin Love and Tyler Honeycutt but neglected to mention Darren Collison, Arron Afflalo, Ryan Hollins, Luc Mbah a Moute, Jrue Holiday, Malcolm Lee, Trevor Ariza, Matt Barnes and, above all, Russell Westbrook, who are all playing today as successful professionals.

Howland is doing something right. He is a winner over the long term and that is what counts.

Lou Rosen

Pacific Palisades

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David Wharton’s article on UCLA’s Ben Howland disappointingly revives the debunked Sports Illustrated hatchet job on Howland that was based on anonymous supposed statements attributed to disgruntled ex-players and ex-employees who carefully withheld their names.

In fact, it must be noted that all of the negative issues raised by Wharton are either from “no-name” sources, or are nothing more than personal conjecture.

One either likes or doesn’t like Howland’s personality or coaching style, and that is a matter in the hands of UCLA administrators. Common decency requires that the rest of us desist from assassinating the man’s character as a cheap way to indicate displeasure.

Jack V. Fogarty

Los Angeles

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It was a great day to be a basketball fan in Los Angeles last Saturday. We could get two SEC games, two ACC games, Big 12, we’re covered. We could even get a really big game like Anderson at Lincoln Memorial. But if we’re Pac-12 fans, we’re locked out if we have DirecTV!

C’mon, DirecTV and the Pac-12, let’s be big league!

Dan Jackson

Corona

Playoffs

The ending of Sunday’s Atlanta-Seattle playoff game exposed Pete Carroll for what he is. After clearly asking for a last-second timeout to ice the Falcons kicker, he threw a tantrum at the official who granted it when the missed kick was negated by his strategy gone wrong. So what’s your deal, Pete?

Alan Abajian

Alta Loma

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Being a die-hard Cleveland Browns fan, it gave me the utmost satisfaction to see John Elway in misery after the Broncos lost Saturday. I hope Mr. Elway had a nice time on “The Drive” home.

Richard Katz

Los Angeles

Not buying it

It’s amazing to see that the NHL, Staples Center and the Kings organization are doing everything they can to entice the deprived hockey fan back to the arena. In some convoluted, idiotic way, it makes sense to these people to start the lockout-delayed season at Staples by charging face value of $155 for a nosebleed seat that normally costs less than $40 for any of the other 23 Kings home games.

Welcome back, hockey fans!

Mike Fedyk

Santa Barbara

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Dear NHL,

Too little, too late.

With disrespect and disgust,

The fans

Dick Terrill

Torrance

Last words

Is it true the Lakers are changing their team colors to purple and old?

Ian Kimbrey

Venice

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I keep trying to figure out how Donald Sterling is going to screw this up.

Brian Haueter

Ventura

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