Defining this sports age in one word...Cheaters.

This is from my blog, Sports Agent News. If all of the links don't work (if they don't, i'm sorry, but i wrote the post on my blog first) then go to the blog and click on them there. I don't think for this article that they are too important though, i'm sure most of you already know some of these stories anyway.

20 years from now, when the great sports prognosticators of this generation think about the spirit of this sports age, one word will come to mind...Cheaters (cheating in the form of illegal drug usage, sorry Patriots!). I'd like to think that a different word or words would be used, but no...Cheaters. That's the right word. Back in the 90's? When I was still an impressionable youth? I looked at sports like this...

"...that's why you believe in heroes"

Now, granted, I may have been a little naive back then because I was young, but how could I have been so far off base? Don't believe me? Lets take a walk down memory lane shall we?

Ben Johnson. Remember him? Johnson was a Canadian sprinter who had a very public rivalry with American sprinter Carl Lewis. Their battles came to a head in the 1988 Olympics, when Johnson beat Lewis for the gold medal while running a then world record 9.79 seconds. Three days later, it was determined that Johnson " had the steroid stanozolol in his urine. The IAAF stepped in, stripped Johnson of his gold medal, and annulled his world record.

Baseball and the summer of 1998. Remember that? That was special right? That summer when ~~Bud Selig decided to completely turn a blind eye to steroids~~ McGuire (70 HR) and Sosa (66 HR) broke Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs? The funniest part about the summer of '98 is that, every time I watched ESPN, the commentators would also say something like "Wow, look at all of these home runs, its almost like the ball is juiced!" I of course wondered how you could juice a ball, but I was pretty sure that you could "juice" players. Ashame no one ever decided to look into that point (until 8 years later, when baseball wasn't just 4 years removed from a strike shortened season, when it was trying to regain its fan base and needed a feel-good story for the public to jump on). Sure, no one can prove Sosa and McGuire were juicing then, but isn't it funny that since then, whenever anyone asks the two about steroids, Sosa can't speak English, and McGuire wants to "focus on the future and not look at the past?"

...lets fast forward now, to the most recent steroid controversy, American sprinter Marion Jones. After years of denying any usage of performance enhancing drugs ("I have never, ever used performance enhancing drugs", Jones declared back in 2004), yet being connected with many convicted drug offenders (former husband C.J. Hunter, coach Trevor Graham, and boyfriend Tim Montgomery), many people thought it was only a matter of time before damning evidence came out against Jones. As it turns out, she beat everyone to the punch. Last week, Jones " admitted to using performance enhancing drugs as she announced her retirement in front of federal district court in New York. It is now merely a matter of time before she is stripped of her five Olympic medals; only one of the prices she will pay for her cheating.

That is sports in my generation...cheaters. Did everyone cheat? of course not. Were there cheaters in other generations? obviously. But, like I said earlier, when looking to sum up sports in the last 20 years, cheating is the word that comes to mind. Anytime a record was broken (ala Johnson), someone was doping. Anytime an athlete did something superhuman (ala Marion Jones), performance enhancing drugs were involved. Anytime there was a feel good story that brought people to sports (baseball in '98), there was probably something fishy going on. This sports generation has helped to shape the way people will look at sports for the rest of time. This generation has more people worried about "how to test for HGH" than playoff pushes, or "whether or not our drug policy is strong enough" instead of enjoying the highlights. This is my generation. A generation of cheaters.

EDITORS NOTE: For the sake of not writing for the next 5 days, I've left out many memorable cheaters (depending on what you believe). Tim Montgomery, (track & field), Justin Gatlin (track & field), Barry Bonds (baseball), Rick Ankiel (baseball), Troy Glaus (baseball), Scott Schoeneweis (baseball), Jay Gibbons (baseball), Jason Giambi (baseball), Jason Grimsley (baseball), Rafael Palmerio (baseball), Rodney Harrison (football), Shawn Merriman (football), Travis Henry (football), Chris Benoit (wrestling), Floyd Landis (cycling), Shane Mosley (boxing). I'm sure there are many more that I'm just forgetting at the moment, or that I haven't had the pleasure of hearing...Yes, I do still want to go into field of sports representation, but I will also be very cautious about who I represent.

ESPN: Source: Schoeneweis received 'roids, Lefty denies it

ESPN: Gibbons meets with officials to discuss banned drug shipments

Wikipedia: Tim Montgomery

Wikipedia: Justin Gatlin

Deadspin: Confusing Rope-a-doping With Plain Ol' Doping

Wikipedia: Ben Johnson

ESPN: Track star Jones pleads guilty to lying to federal investigators about steroid usage

Sports Agent News: Spygate...honestly, its a little out of hand

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