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Boys Behaving Badly

September 17, 2007 5:01 PM

BRISTOL, Connecticut

Cheating is bad. But losing is worse. That’s a common sentiment shared by many teams across the spectrum of professional sports these days.

Athletes once claimed they played for the love of the game. And we believed them. But, as tennis great Martina Navratilova once stated, “Whoever said ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost.”

These days, athletes have a win-at-all-costs mindset. So, why go to great lengths in order to attain superstardom status? Because victory comes hand in hand with fame, glory, and, most of all, endless financial incentives in the form of endorsements.

What effect does this do-or-die mentality have on the average fan?

I went to bed on Sunday night, pumped up, after my beloved New England Patriots crushed the New York Jets, giving them their first win of the season. Eight hours later, I felt a knot in my stomach, as I watched SportsCenter detail allegations that the Pats; winners of three Super Bowls in four years; had cheated by stealing secret signals from the opposing team via videotaping.

I was outraged. I felt betrayed. It was almost like a beloved boyfriend had cheated on me. This once-squeaky-clean team had committed the ultimate sin in sports. For the current season, they arguably have the strongest roster in the NFL. So, why did they feel the need to cheat?

The Patriots incident is only the latest in a long string of mishaps this past summer.

The sports section of the newspaper reads more like a crime blotter. Tennessee Titans cornerback PacMan Jones showered 40 strippers with dollar bills this past summer; sparking a triple shooting outside a Las Vegas nightclub. Charges against him are pending, and he is suspended for the entire season.

Instead of dogging the opposing defensive line, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was charged with committing heinous crimes against man’s best friend for his involvement in a dogfighting operation. He currently awaits sentencing.

And don’t forget the world of hoops, which was dominated by hoopla over the past few months. NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who gets paid to enforce rules on the court, had broken them off of it by gambling on different teams.

Are the Patriots the only team in the NFL to turn to illegal measures to win? Absolutely not. Is there cheating in other sports besides football? You better believe it.

From modern-day doping in sports like baseball, to the robust history of performance-enhancing drugs in cycling, nothing seems clean anymore.

Like it or not, cheating has been around since the dawn of sports. The question is, however, what is criminal activity, and what warrants fans to look the other way? You need only travel across the city of Boston for more examples.

In the 1970s, the late, great, Boston Celtics general manager Red Auerbach was legendary for shutting off the heat and hot water in the Boston Garden locker rooms of visiting teams during the frigid Boston winters.

And, during the 1981 Eastern Conference Finals, the Philadelphia 76ers allowed CBS to turn a camera inside their timeout huddles. So, the Celtics, knowing this type of intel was invaluable, sent a bellboy into their locker room before every timeout to watch the TV, in order to know what their opponents were planning. He would then run out and alert the team.

Are these incidents as bad as Barry Bonds being accused of steroid use? And is steroid considered as bad as points shaving?

This epidemic of boys behaving badly begs the question: what about the women?

Our American girls are going for gold oversees in China right now, competing in the Women’s World Cup of soccer; a group of talented athletes who reign superior in their sport, with no wrap sheet among them. They endure tough training camps, surviving off of stipends.

Endorsements are far and few between when it comes to women’s professional sports, and so, as badly as they want to win, it all may just be for the love of the game.

Imagine that!

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