“Kenyan marathon star Rita Jeptoo receives two-year ban for doping” is the headline I saw this morning. “Okay,” I thought to myself, and continued reading half a dozen headlines about the looming super bowl squeezed around the occasional NBA or NHL or PGA highlight. The Jeptoo headline didn’t faze me, but not because marathon running is tedious and pointless, though I think it is. It didn’t impact me not because competitive running ranks #31 on my list of other sports I have more interest in,* but it’s true. The marathon winning doper was glossed over because cheating has become such a staple of our society (although admittedly I can’t comment on previous generations and iterations of culture and their tendencies to cheat) that I’m no longer appalled or outraged or even mildly surprised when the ‘news’ comes out. The reason that I’m not appalled or outraged or mildly surprised is because I just kind of assume that’s the case. And that is the bigger story.
We are just over 48 hours away from kickoff of the largest sporting event in the country and as of writing this, two of the top ten sports headlines focused on the possibility of a participating team purposely deflating the game footballs as to attain an advantage over their opponent in a cold and wet matchup two weeks ago. The hometown quarterback was able to grip and sling the balls easier, leading to a 38-point dismantling because apparently the NFL never thought it was an issue to have each team bring their own 12 balls to use during the game. Seems like something that folks would want to address, but I don’t run a league so who am I to comment? I agree that it likely did not have a significant outcome on the game, in-hand from the first drive, and I agree that if they did in fact cheat that it’s something that should punished, but I am concerned with the idea that everyone immediately thought that the Patriots must have done this on purpose. Given the questionable and shady history of the New England-based team, it seemed completely plausible that they would find a way to underinflate the game balls without the referees knowing to ensure their spot in the most prolific American sporting event.
Baseball had its lowest full-season run total in almost 40 years (1976) and new commissioner Rob Manfred is interested in ‘injecting additional offense in the game.’ Those of us who watch the game know that we are not far removed from what will forever be known as the steroid era, a time of immense offense when hat sizes grew like flowers in the spring and balls were hit farther than port-o-potty lines at Lollapalooza. PED’s effect on the current game is felt less on the field and more in the media, where decade-removed all-stars continue to pop up on the hall of fame ballots, a not-so-important-to-me-but-very-important-to-baseball-fans-worldwide aspect of the sport that commands more headlines than it ever deserved. We know the major players in the steroids conversation, but a name that I never associated with the enhancements is now blacklisted. “There’s no point in arguing that Mike Piazza belongs in the Hall of Fame. It’s not even a worthwhile debate. By any statistical measure, Piazza should be a lock for Cooperstown…” explains 25-year veteran writer for Newsday, David Lennon, a man I know nothing about but figured his article articulated a commonly shared opinion that coincidentally supported my theory. And my theory is that we just figured if you’re from that era, your numbers are fantastic, AND you are built like a man playing the wrong sport, you must have been using drugs. Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio made the cut this year, but they don’t look the part so they don’t get the penalty.This topic is not relegated to sports. If I had to guess, Politics is full of successful folks that people assume cheated to get ahead, Monica Lewinsky-style. CEOs, bank heads, public school officials, your boss; name the industry, and I bet you can think of a few people that you think bent the rules to get ahead. And as a society, we don’t seem to care. We’ve become so desensitized to cheaters that we assume anyone that has success has cheated, and then we don’t care. Cheating is both a common topic of conversation and a common ignorance. We like to call out some cheaters that we don’t agree with, but draw the line behind others. It happens so much that the impact is becoming smaller and smaller, opening the window for more cheating. It’s a self-fulfilling pile of shit. The more we cheat, the less we care, the more we cheat, the less we care, and so-on.
I know my cheating record isn’t completely unblemished, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, select, start for starters, but I hope people don’t look at any of my success and think that I somehow beat the system to get ahead. I can’t say if the Patriots or Piazza or anyone is guilty of cheating because I don’t know the circumstances, but the mere fact that it wouldn’t surprise me if they were means a lot about who we are the choices we make. We've cheapened success by cheating to get there, a mark we all have to bare.
* 1. Baseball; 2. Football; 3. Basketball; 4. Hockey; 5. Soccer; 6. Golf; 7. Volleyball; 8. Lacrosse; 9. Tennis; 10. Rugby; 11.Snowboarding; 12. Cricket; 13. UFC; 14. Skateboarding; 15. Wrestling; 16. Diving; 17. Swimming; 18. Gymnastics; 19. Racket Ball; 20. Handball; 21. Pickle Ball; 22. Jai Lai; 23. Polo; 24. Water Polo; 25. Bowling; 26. Skiing; 27. Curling; 28. Badminton; 29. Frisbee; 30. NASCAR; 31. Running
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