Is any sport legit anymore?
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by DRE-LO
Well, this is sure not the way I wanted to make my ArmchairGM comeback after a very trying {to say the least} summer. Right now, I'm a disgruntled sports fan that has no choice but to wonder out loud about the legitmacy of the three major sports in this country as well as any sport in general. It's a position that I'm sure many fans on this website and others are going through right now as this latest controversy with the New England Patriots is heading at full speed towards being a scandal. There is a purity in the game of football that has me and millions of others on the couch at 1:00 every Sunday along with foam fingers and beer. Not to mention the countless fantasy football drafts and trades as well as Pick em leagues. In all of these endeavors, you don't even entertain the thought of a tainted outcome by coaches, players or referees.
Now you have to.
Can you imagine how Patriot fans feel today? This is the team that wore that Darth Vader label with pride and gave their fans bragging rights over all comers. The biggest bragging right was that rival fans had no case and no merit for that label being thrown at them in the first place and that they were seemingly the model franchise in the NFL as the Spurs are to the NBA.
No more.
The New England Patriots were the ones dipping their fingers into the steamy bowl of deception with their videotaping tactics of other teams. And now the big questions: How long has this been going on? Was this going on during their three Super Bowl runs? The damning question: Are their Super Bowls legit at all?
I'd like to think they are. I want to think they are and for the time being as well as my own convenience, I'll just assume that they are. But that seed of doubt will now rear it's ugly head from now on every time we look at the legacy of the Patriots from here on in. Having this controversy stem from the supposed "model franchise" cuts at the very core of the NFL.
It's similar to how the Tim Donaghy scandal cut at the very core of the NBA by forcing every loyal diehard NBA fan to question the legitimacy of every game he officiated as well as all games in general. I bet you a little bit more attention will be paid to the concerns of coaches next time thay are fined subsequently by the NBA for putting officials on blast.
Rasheed Wallace may have been on to something after all.
And of course, you have the steroid era which is quickly unfolding as 30 players including the shortly beloved comeback kid Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals busted for HGH and other performance enhancing drugs. Bud Selig's insistence on sitting on his ass and reaping the benefits of baseball's resurgence with the initial home run chase with McGwire/Sosa while he knew initially about steroids leaves me no choice but to put the heap of the blame on him. Then as Barry Bonds hit the record-tying home run, he sits back with his arms folded trying to play the victim in all of this.
Hypocrisy 101.
I, for one, will not let that little seed of doubt affect my diehard passion and love for sports and neither should anyone else. But I'd be hard-pressed not to admit that the purity of sports has been greatly affected by these scandals and leaves us to ask the hard questions.
Questions that we may not have the answer to.
