Monday, July 23, 2007

Sports Scandals

It's a tough time to be a sports fan.

I recently read "Game of Shadows" and came away convinced that the integrity of many sports have been compromised deeply. But, I didn't have to read "Game of Shadows" to be disillusioned. I could just read the sports section.

I have long defended sports as suffering the same ailments as our world as a whole. Percentages, I figured, would show that sports stars were no more likely than anyone to be convicted of a crime. That may remain true, but the allure of success has led to some troubling actions that compromise the integrity of competition.

That is where I get disillusioned as a fan.

Percentages and overall trends aside, the list of current problems in the sports world is longer than any time I can remember.

CYCLING
Cycling is essentially a mess overall. Last year's Tour de France winner still hasn't been cleared of doping and his fate might not be decided until a new champion is crowned. Almost all of the best 10 riders from years past have been forced out of competition from a scandal involving a Spanish doctor distributing blood doping agents. All of this keeps chiseling away the faith I had put in Lance Armstrong.

My one argument was that he was the most tested athlete ever. Now, I know that all he had to do was use something they don't test for. It's simply not hard to beat a test, as evidenced by the confession of a former Champion (Riis). Passing a test doesn't mean you are clean. I really hope Lance was clean, but how does one explain his dominance over all those "cheaters."

I hope, but I can no longer believe whole heartedly.

FOOTBALL
Pacman Jones just got suspended for a season for his and his posse's involvement in a shooting that left a man paralyzed... The Cincinnati Bengals had something like 10 arrests in 12 months... Michael Vick was caught in a huge dogfighting ring.

I also believe there will inevitably be a steroids scandal in the one sport in which steroids make the most sense. I mean, only in football does one have to be HUGE just to compete. High school offensive linemen were 240 pounds when my dad played football. Today, high school lines can average 300 pounds. I'm sure some of that is from nutrition and the general upward trend of size in humans, but that's dramatic for only a generation.

Sometimes, if it seems amazing that a human body can weigh 240 pounds and run as fast as a 4.5 40 yard dash, it might just be artificial. I'm waiting for this scandal. It's coming. I love football, but it may NEED some sort of cleansing. It would be naive to think they are all just naturally that big.

BASEBALL
Where do I start?... the 1998 resurgence led by Sammy and Mark is now under a cloud... The evidence from "Game of Shadows" is so convincing, I can't believe Bonds is allowed to walk to the plate... The Commissioner isn't showing up to watch the most cherished record in baseball be broken... That same commissioner has allowed this steroid scandal to balloon to what it has become... It is possible that the once sacred statistics will be deemed so tainted as to be meaningless... The Jason Grimsley and Jason Giambi steroid revelations continue to unfold and may lead to many more being proven as cheats...

This sport is under a cloud because it appears that the owners and league offices almost encouraged the use of steroids to rescue the sport from the 1994 strike. And, steroids weren't even banned until after 2000.

The players push Bud Selig around and his response was initially that a 10 game suspension would be the punishment. It took the threat of Congressional intervention to get baseball to move the penalty for first time use to 50 games.

OLYMPICS
Game of Shadows basically lays it out: We are the new East Germans... Steroids have become such a cloud over our Olympic athletes (Marion Jones, Montgomery, Gatlin to name a few) that I can't get excited for this event.

Unfortunately, it appears that some Olympic records may actually have been impossible while clean. The 2004 games saw many alleged users back out with "injuries" and the winning times were very low compared to other years. Not coincidentally, that is when a test for THG had been found.

The difficulty is in proof. This is because all those athletes initially passed all drug tests. Once the test catches up (temporarily) it is too tough to know how many past champions just got out before the test. It is discouraging.

BASKETBALL
The worst of all of the scandals mentioned is the current NBA referee scandal. The referee has been allegedly caught influencing the outcome of games because of gambling troubles.

At least with steroids they still had to perform (possibly against other users). This scandal involved the official literally creating an outcome. This is horrible. And, NBA officials control outcomes more than officials in ANY other league.

I am a HUGE basketball fan and was most depressed by this discovery. Unfortunately, it did not come as a shock since the NBA has long been the "iffiest" league when it came to calls.

We accepted that superstars would get calls. Fans almost became numb to it and just expected the unexpected. This one hurts me the most.

CONCLUSION
Unfortunately, the cheaters always seem one step ahead of the law. That seems like it will continue because no one will use a drug that can result in a positive test. It's unfortunate, but sports seem so infiltrated by drugs, gambling and cheating of various kinds that there is no way to ever eradicate it. But that is no reason to stop trying.

I will always be skeptical of these outcomes from now on. Sigh.

Unfortunately in life, we must accept a certain amount of dishonesty, corruption and deception in our world. It's hard to finally realize that... just hard to accept.

I will elaborate on this point in a future post about what I have seen in law. Specifically, how those who understand law can use law to abuse it. That topic will have to wait for another time and another post.

NEXT POSTS
I have a hard time holding myself back from commenting in detail about the current executive privilege being claimed, but I am open to other topics anyone wishes to put forward. Just post a comment with your suggestions.

... but I assure you, eventually the extreme executive privilege claim will be dealt with.
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3 comments:

Chris said...

The unfortunate thing is none of this is new to sports. People have been trying to find ways of getting ahead from day one in sports. The Black Sox scandal, Pete Rose, the idea of fixing horses, corked bats, and banned substances will always be around. When it comes to sports, I think we can let the few rotten eggs spoil it for everyone, or we can enjoy the game being played, cheer for our favorite players (hopefully men and women with integreity) and choose to emphasize the positives that sport and competition can teach us. Unfortunately we don't hear in the media of the stories of athletes who work hard in the weight room 7 days a week. We don't hear about the athlete who spends his only off day working at a childrens hospital, or different charity. We instead hear only about the bad and forget why we loved sports in the first place.

July 24, 2007 at 8:39 AM
Unknown said...

Yo-seph.

Man, I completely hate the entanglement between sports and money in general. This combination, without a doubt, is the root of all of the corruption in professional sports today.

I can't even bring myself to watch any part of an NBA game anymore. Their regular season is too long and more or less a joke because a too many teams make it into the playoffs and all of a sudden the teams finally play with some intensity. But even the playoff games are sad display of what I remember as being the game of basketball.

Nowadays, about the only pro sport that I still watch is the NFL, and that's only because we do the Fantasy Football League. Fantasy Football brings another enjoyment level to the game ... it's like there is a game within a game. Without that I think that I would probably just follow how the Broncos are doing. That's rather sad.

It's all about the entertainment value which just boils down to how many dollars can be made. It's just another industry which has made a hip-hopracy out of the fun games we grew up with and once loved.

Looking back at my involvement in sports I am really glad that there are still colleges out there, like my alma mater Christopher Newport University, where athletes can continue to compete beyond the high school level. Personally, I was not a Division I caliber pole vaulter but since CNU is a state funded Division III school they are not allowed to give out athletic scholarships. This enabled me to vault in college because I didn't need to worry about trying to keep an athletic scholarship and easily drop the activity when I needed to focus on my school work so I could graduate.

I'm all for the fun level in sports and just playing because you love the game, the competition, and not because it becomes your job, your livelihood. I know there are plenty of arguments for the other side of the fence but I hate where something that was once pure has been taken ... and I only see it getting worse as time goes on.

July 24, 2007 at 12:36 PM
Chris said...

Wally,
I agree to an extent, but there is corruption at all levels of sport anymore that come when people forget sportsmanship and forget that we play these GAMES for enjoyment. Every year more and more colleges go through suspensions because they don't follow the rules and start treating thier athletes like they are above the rules. We see high school athletes using steroids and other supplements trying to get an edge. We even see parents fighting refs and other parents because they think thier kid was not given an even shake. There have even been people killed in these situations. There is something deeper then money that causes these scandals, and it's a deterioration of sportsmanship and healthy competition in this country. It's no longer about how you play the game, and having fun. Instead it is now win at all costs.

July 28, 2007 at 9:54 AM

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