1. There's now a giant asterisk besides the 2017 and 2018 Major League Baseball Champions. And another besides all those teams on steroids in the 1990s and 2000s (I'm looking at you: Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, Cubs, Giants).
si.com/mlb/2020/01/13…
si.com/mlb/2020/01/13…
2. The dominant team of the last 20 years in the NFL has cheated, cheated... and even kicked off their dynasty by cheating. They videotaped the Rams' walkthrough before that Super Bowl; they knew everything St Louis had planned. Yet they've been allowed to keep all those titles.
3. Manchester City are financially doped up to the eyeballs, and funded by a hideous regime as some dystopian soft power exercise. Yet that doesn't matter to their fans - because only winning counts, right?
4. English rugby's Champions, Saracens, didn't just violate the salary cap. They were light years over it. Yet they got to keep their title, will probably stay up... so what's the real punishment here?
5. South African rugby's record on steroid use is absolutely appalling. Many people believe that's the real reason for their monstrously powerful packs at the RWC.
6. British cycling has, very plainly, achieved what it has not because of 'marginal gains', but because of drugs.
6. British cycling has, very plainly, achieved what it has not because of 'marginal gains', but because of drugs.
7. Dr Eufemiano Fuentes worked with cyclists, footballers and tennis players. Many people believe that the great Barcelona and Spain teams, and possibly even a rather well known Spanish tennis player, were implicated in blood doping. Will the truth ever emerge?
8. Not that doping in football is unusual. It's just comical how nothing is ever done about it. The great Juventus side of the 1990s was doping, as well as trying to fix matches through Luciano Moggi. The 1954 German World Cup winners were doped beyond belief.
A good number of their players - who threw up at the end of the match - died remarkably prematurely. Can't think why. 🙄
Sport is supposed to be a life-affirming escape. Watching supermen doing incredible things. How much of what we see can we actually believe?
Sport is supposed to be a life-affirming escape. Watching supermen doing incredible things. How much of what we see can we actually believe?
The message top level sport continually sends is: cheats prosper. All the time. Only winning counts; nothing else matters, and anything goes in the pursuit of it.
Including, in the NFL, death: which the authorities covered up for decades.
Including, in the NFL, death: which the authorities covered up for decades.
I don't know how much of this is a parable of capitalism, or one on simple human nature. Most kids growing up push and push at boundaries to see what they can get away with. In sport, the search for 'marginal gains' seems to cross over into cheating all the time.
Then think of the fans. Think of how they abuse the referee and his assistants, abuse the opponents, are desperate to get any advantage possible for their team: which appeals for everything, even if it knows it's just cheated. Fans and players don't care about fairness either.
Nor do managers: who'll defend the indefensible in public as long as it means their team sticks together. As long as it distracts the media into a 'talking point' and helps their team win.
Is sport about competing, or about winning? If it's the latter, where is the line?
Is sport about competing, or about winning? If it's the latter, where is the line?
In 2018, we were treated to the hilarious spectacle of the Australian cricket team finally hoist by their own moralising, condescending petard. The fuss this generated in Australia was something to behold: despite their heroes having bullied and sledged to victory for decades.
The Australian public turned a blind eye to that. Only winning mattered... until some weird invisible line was crossed, and it was suddenly open season.
But the sad thing about sports fans is: we ALL turn a blind eye. All the time.
But the sad thing about sports fans is: we ALL turn a blind eye. All the time.
Woe betide a journalist or pundit if they actually call out cheating or dubious behaviour from our team or club. "It's a conspiracy! They're jealous! They're terrified of the threat we pose!" Exhibit A: Man City fans after the FA Cup Final.
It's pathetic. And completely human.
It's pathetic. And completely human.
Of course, if there's a drugs scandal involving someone from another country, it's time to get on our high horses. With a straight face, how British Olympic sport can hector Russian Olympic sport in the way it has is totally beyond me. I don't button up at the back, Mr Brailsford
But the truth is, no-one knows where the line is. Stealing signs has been part of baseball practically ever since its inception. So mechanical stealing of signs is OK, but technological stealing of signs is the work of Satan? None of it really makes any sense.
Human beings are easily corruptible. And the more it helps them win, the more they'll do it. It's just increasingly hard to feel childlike, innocent joy when this is endemic across so much of professional sport... and when those who don't cheat, lose.
