( CNN ) -- They are always the last to understand . It 's weird , is n't it , the way our greatest cheaters and liars go so far and so hard in their efforts to win and dominate and overcome that , en route , they fail to see the inevitable downfall that awaits ? Back in the early 2000s , when I was a baseball writer at Sports Illustrated , Barry Bonds treated everyone —teammates , coaches , opponents , fans , writers — as if they were specks of crud beneath his ( regularly manicured ) fingernails . He camped out in front of a wall of four lockers , had his own clubhouse videographer , his own clubhouse physical therapist , his own perky publicists . He was the greatest home run hitter who ever lived : a slugger who , well into his late 30s , was bashing 450-foot shots over the deepest of outfield walls . Then — Balco . And Game of Shadows . And flaxseed oil . And embarrassing testimony . Where is Barry Bonds today ? Answer : Who the hell cares ? His website is down . His cards can be had , straight up , in exchange for two Kirk McCaskills and a Sil Campusano . He will never be hired to work in the game , as either a broadcaster or coach . His records — in the minds of most fans — do n't count . He is invisible . Worse than invisible . He is insignificant . News : Lance Armstrong banned from world Ironman events over doping probe . Which leads us to Lance Armstrong . In case you missed the news , Wednesday morning the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency filed new charges against the seven-time Tour de France winner , threatening to strip the cycling legend of his triumphs . According to the agency , blood samples taken from Armstrong in 2009 and 2010 are `` fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions . '' The agency also accuses Armstrong of using and promoting the use of EPO ( a blood booster ) , blood transfusions , testosterone , HGH and anti-inflammatory steroids . In an interview with CBS ' `` 60 Minutes , '' Tyler Hamilton , Armstrong 's former teammate , said he witnessed the star using EPO on multiple occasions . Armstrong , of course , denies all the charges . I do n't believe him . He says he is clean and innocent -- just as Barry Bonds was clean and innocent , just as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and Marion Jones and Shawne Merriman and every other too-good-to-possibly-be-true athletic freak was clean and innocent , too . He is a victim of the media . A victim of jealousy . A victim of haters . A victim of sport inconsistencies . Why , he 's passed 350 tests and , even if the testing system is a complete joke , well , hey , he passed . Ludicrous . What Lance Armstrong is allegedly doing -- what all athletes in his shoes seem to do — is beyond damaging . Across the world , millions of people believe in Armstrong 's narrative . They love his wins , yes , but what drives them and inspires them is the way he faced cancer and battled back from a near-death experience . Young children in pediatric care have been relayed his story , have been told that one day , if you stay strong and fight and believe , you , too , can be just like Lance Armstrong . Sigh . Surely , somewhere along the way , Armstrong apparently convinced himself that there was no other way . As the common athletic thinking goes : If everyone else is cheating , I need to cheat , too . That logic , now pervasive throughout all levels of sport , has turned our athletic endeavors into fraudulent clown shows . For every Bonds and McGwire and Roger Clemens , there were clean ballplayers being robbed of their greatness . I 'll never forget a conversation I once had with Sal Fasano , a journeyman catcher who spent his nine-team , 11-year big league career desperately trying to hold on to a job . We were chatting about all the catchers who were named in the Mitchell Report ; all the men who loaded up , then stole the positions he was battling for . `` There 's an idea that everyone cheats , '' Fasano said . `` Well , I do n't , and I never have . For me , it 's about integrity . That 's what counts . '' Like Barry Bonds , Lance Armstrong is the last to know where he is headed . We are already beginning to speak of him as we do Alf and Emmanuel Lewis and Small Wonder on one of those `` I Love the '80s '' shows . We 'll look back at his cycling reign and shrug , because it will be merely an illusion , an ugly period when people cheated to win , then faced a lifetime of banishment . News : Lance Armstrong responds to agency 's doping allegations . We will laugh . Then we will shrug . Then — nothingness . Lance Armstrong will be invisible . As he should be . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jeff Pearlman .
Robert Pearlman : Great sports ##men are always the last to anticipate their downfall . For example : Barry Bonds was high - living , inaccessible , ruined by a doping scandal , he says . He says Lance Armstrong now charged in corruption , could be stripped of cycling triumphs . Pearlman : Armstrong , he hurt others , other athletes ; they are soon banished , forgotten .