On cheating, winning and losing, and the American way.
If one narrative has dominated the last decade in American (and
international) sports, it’s been our righteous indignation about performance-enhancing
drugs. From the outrage over McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Clemens, and the Mitchell Report in
baseball to the numerous suspensions in football (for everything from
steroids and HGH to the current
spate of Adderall suspensions), from the many stages of the Lance
Armstrong saga to the seemingly constant
announcements of Olympians suspended for PEDs, very few of our signature
sporting events or prominent figures have been exempted from our suspicions. Given
the apparently rampant
PED use among college and high school athletes, I certainly understand why
we’re so collectively worried about the problem, and concerned with catching
and punishing professional athletes who contribute to it.
As is so often the case, however, when you start to historicize the problem
things get a good bit more complicated. The most common such comparison is to
baseball in the 1970s, when it seems a sizeable percentage
of players were on “greenies” (amphetamines) and neither the sport nor the
fanbase apparently cared for many years. But beyond such specific and certainly
complicating comparisons, I would also argue that the culture of American sports
has long (if not always) been defined by the mentality
of doing whatever it takes to win. Outraged 21st century fans
like to nostalgically contrast the PED era with a golden age of sportsmanship
and fair play and the like, but I’m not sure there’s ever been a moment when
winning wasn’t everything, just the only thing. Pitchers,
including some of the most prominent and successful in every era, have been
doctoring the baseball for as long as there’s been baseball. College
football’s history of cheating—from recruiting to eligibility, and of
course on the field as well—has long been a part of the sport’s dominant
narratives. As
this article notes, the concept of basketball plays evolved directly
alongside ways to get away with cheating. And the list goes on and on.
Even more broadly and historically, I think it’s far from a coincidence
that American
professional and organized sports mostly began during and just after the late
19th century era known as the Gilded Age. After all, the self-made
men and/or robber
barons (depending on your perspective) who came to define that era’s
successes and/or excesses (ditto) did so by taking advantage of every
opportunity and/or cheating the system (likewise). As reflected in the recent
debate over whether multi-millionaires like Mitt Romney who maximize their income
tax deductions and loopholes embody or undermine the American Way, we haven’t
moved too far away from those Gilded Age models. So is cheating to win a
defining American choice, in and outside of our sports worlds? It would seem to
be—but debates over and outraged responses to such choices also go way back.
The more things change…
Next gridiron-inspired topic tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Thoughts on PEDs or these other
issues? Other football and America stories or themes you’d highlight?
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