Baseball, basketball, football, and cycling have all recently
suffered sensational scandals that are leaving fans questioning,
officials on the offensive, and athletes in the shadows. Barry
Bonds with the surrounding hype and steroid controversy, Michael
Vick and his alleged dog fighting and torture ties, NBA official
Tim Dognahy caught gambling and having ties to mid-level mobsters,
and the Tour de France infected with steroid-abusing cyclists are
all helping to perpetuate an environment of unequality and
uneasiness in the sporting world.
Baseball, basketball, football, and cycling have all recently suffered sensational scandals that are leaving fans questioning, officials on the offensive, and athletes in the shadows.
Barry Bonds with the surrounding hype and steroid controversy, Michael Vick and his alleged dog fighting and torture ties, NBA official Tim Dognahy caught gambling and having ties to mid-level mobsters, and the Tour de France infected with steroid-abusing cyclists are all helping to perpetuate an environment of unequality and uneasiness in the sporting world.
While mandatory drug tests are in place throughout the wide world of professional sports, athletes are finding ways around them (hint: “the creme”), and it seems that athletes have become so money hungry they will do anything (hint: dogfighting) to make an extra buck.
I then had to ask myself: Is society a reflection of sports, or are sports a reflection of society?
If Bonds goes into the record books with an asterisk for allegedly using steroids, then Babe Ruth deserves an asterisk next to his name also because when he was the home run king, blacks weren’t even allowed to play on the same field as whites.
Sports were a reflection of society in the early 1900s and, while the rules surely have changed, the reflection remains.
The sports stars of today are on dope, and it seems the public is comprised of dopes.
Most adults know that Bonds is about to break the all-time homerun record, but few know that the Dow Jones dropped 4 percent to its lowest average in four years last week.
Everyone likes to sound in the know commenting on how Lindsey Lohan went back to jail for violating parole and possesing cocaine, but few (my age) even know who Sandy Berger, the former National Security Advisor to then-president Bill Clinton, is, let alone the fact that Berger stole classified documents (supposedley revealing anti-terrorism policies and actions during the Clinton administration) from the National Archives in Washington by stuffing them in his underwear and socks.
As the millenium has thus far proven to be a turbulent time with tsunamis, floods, and the chic mass hysteria over global warming, the sporting world has definitely kept pace with it’s own boat-rocking waves.
What becomes alarming is the obvious spotlight our beloved sports stars shine under, and how clearly the youth perceive them.
Looking back at my childhood heroes I can enjoy pure memories of Joe Montana, Steve Young and Jerry Rice, Ricky Henderson, Dave Stewart and umm, Mark McGwire.
OK so McGwire retired after breaking the single season homerun record amid swirling steriod allegations, but that was just the beginning, the the of the seroid iceberg.
At that time, 1996, the internet was “big,” and24 -hour cable news networks were blossoming but the media hadn’t quite grown into the fourth branch of government that it is today.
Back then we saw sports as sports, and athletes as athletes.
There was no MTV Cribs, so we didn’t get that inside look at just how much money athletes made, and athletes didn’t persue rap careers off of the field or court, well, except for Deon Sanders.
ESPN was arround, but there was no ESPN News yet.
All in all, we we not as exposed to the personal lives of our sports hereos as children seem to be today.
I’m not saying that all athletes are bad people who lead unhealthy lives, but I am saying that the public, and the children, are more easily exposed to the cheaters, gamblers and criminals in sports.
As a kid, when it came to sports I looked up to my older brother more than anyone.
He was an All-League football player and he was the coolest person in the world to me.
I wanted to be just like him.
If more kids today looked up to their relatives and friends, it is my opinion they would turn out to be better people.
I’m not trying to give parenting advice, and I know that kids will always look up to the professional sports stars as long as their parents do, but there needs to be a return to family values, and a rekinding of love for the game as opposed to the player.
