In already jaded world, the ultimate 'say it ain't so'

Please let this be a mistake. Please let it be some sort of chemical hocus-pocus, some genome screwup, some lab worker who became distracted by an upcoming Cancun vacation and failed to focus on the job of properly examining the blood chemistry of one Floyd Landis. The recent and great American hero.

A positive test is a black eye for Floyd Landis and the United States. (Getty Images)

In some ways, a high profile professional cyclist flunking a drug test is about as shocking as a member of the Rolling Stones saying he is no longer a virgin. They cheat in cycling, they prick their bottoms with needles and flood their bodies with so many RPM generating substances that if too many riders in the Tour de France exhaled at once, their breaths could accelerate global warming.

Or start a brush fire.

One day, a cyclist is going to give a urine sample and the container is going to melt. The results are going to come back: Clydesdale.

We know all of this. We know the sport is one test tube away from becoming the WWE and is the dirtiest one of all. We know many cyclists dabble in drugs and violate rules by toiling in technologies designed to create supermen. Only instead of capes, they don yellow jerseys.

But Landis? Wasn't he supposed to be different? Wasn't he the anti-Lance Armstrong? There weren't supposed to be steroid rumors swirling around Landis as there have been around Armstrong. There was not supposed to be a smoking needle, err, gun.

There is a chance a plausible explanation exists for the suspect testosterone levels allegedly discovered in the Landis sample. He might be completely innocent. His second sample could be clean. He could also be the victim of bullied blood work. The French and others have been accused by American cyclists of being sophisticated saboteurs. Armstrong has had numerous run-ins with their various cycling bodies and pernicious French media. The French, we are told, would love to be riggers of the Petri dish. They hate American cyclists so much that when one tests positive for some illicit substance, the moment is treated like Bastille Day.

Please let it be that. Please let it be some legitimate mistake or conspiracy. Because how many more times can our Tour de France champions, or even our NFL and baseball heroes, go through performance enhancing drug scandals before we all become so cynical we don't care if our athletes cheat?

Or have we long passed that point?

That's why this story is so important, and why it's so vital for Landis to be clean. An American Tour champion using steroids and being caught is huge news, but an American sporting star, yet another one, caught in the web of doping is even bigger.

Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, any number of NFL players, track superstars.

Andro, testosterone, nandrolone, Celine Dion.

Accomplishments followed by suspicion, home run chases dogged by rumors, ripped abs mocked as made in a lab.

On and on the drug war proceeds, each scandal tearing away at our love of sports and faith in their transparency.

Where did all the fairytales go?

If Landis did indeed cheat, it would show an almost unprecedented level of arrogance. More than Bonds, even. With all of the doping scandals to hit cycling and knowing that he would be watched closely by an army of testers, any cheating by Landis would surely lead to him being snagged. Especially since science can easily catch athletes who use testosterone as their method of shirking the rules.

He has been quite the story this smiling, warm face with legs of iron and a degenerative hip that seemed so fragile there were questions about whether Landis could even ride a bike, let alone maneuver up treacherous mountainsides and sprint at speeds that would send a shiver up most of our spines.

Unless Landis is completely cleared he will be seen in the same light as notorious cheaters such as Ben Johnson and Canseco. It would be a total disaster.

And yet another terrible day in sports.