Cheating in Professional Sport
This follows on from yesterdays post. I don’t want to appear like I have a vendetta against Rugby so in the interest of fairness I want to be as wide-ranging in my questioning. After a lot of research the top level of every sport is corrupt it seems. Please voice your opinions if you agree or disagree.
American Football How many 6′0 tall 280lb men have you seen in your life that weren’t obese. Not only that but these guys can run like sprinters and take hit after hit after hit. How does anyone not take drugs in the NFL? It’s a freakshow, how come the american public don’t pick up on this? A 4 game ban for Growth Hormone - Where is the deterrent?
A picture of Ben Johnson from Seoul 1988. Compare him to your average US Football Player/Rugby Player
Soccer How can we expect players to be clean given the huge stakes involved. C league professionals in the UK make as much money as top professionals in athletics or cycling. We’ve had Chelsea involved in Blood Spinning to cure injuries. While Arsene Wenger has stated that he’s had players not tested over a 6 period
Horse Racing WAKE UP! If there is one sport that has a hidden problem it is here. If people inject crap into themselves, they won’t have trouble doing it to an animal. There is so much money at stake. This is an industry. A top stallion can be worth up to $100m in stud fees. Horse Racing has a major drugs problem
Baseball A noted problem with steroids as seen in the Balco scandal. Long associated with match fixing and now the ethical practice of Tommy John surgery where players have seemingly superhuman elbows after surgery
Golf They don’t test because it is assumed to be a gentleman’s sport. Golfers have elective laser eye surgery for better than 20/20 vision, they take beta blockers to get rid of involuntary movements. When people cheat for a pittence in other sport, how do they not cheat when the rewards are hundreds of thousands per game?
Cycling Obvious problems with a definite drug culture in certain European countries. At least they test regularly. I find it amazing that people become disillusioned with cycling because they are trying to find the cheats. Wake up - it’s in every sport, don’t punish the ones who test
Athletics Long having such a problem mainly from Eastern European countries and recent years in the US. Why do american sprinters obliterate their opposition from the UK. It’s not a genetic advantage, it’s not a coaching advantage, yet they earn nearly all the money that is available on the circuit. To quote Tyree Washington “The question is - if the cheaters out there continue to raise the bar so high, then what money will be left for the clean athletes to make?”
Update There is a good discussion going on at the Guardian website on Steve Cram’s column on a similar topic
Posted 10.10.07