Cheaters

No one knows for sure when it first started.

Perhaps it was when David fought Goliath and the referee forgot to check David’s supply of rocks to see if they were legal shapes and sizes. History just might have unfolded a little differently if the rock he flung with that slingshot was JUST a little closer to the standards that must have existed in the National Slingshot Association. You know, use a rock that’s a bit less deadly, dude. A guy could get killed.

Or maybe it was when Paris shot his arrow at Achilles’ heel and should have been penalized for shooting or targeting an opponent below the knees. Can you imagine the horrors of going to battle with someone, and, instead of fighting mano a mano like a man, you instead face an opponent that would stoop so low as to shoot an arrow at your foot?

And when Julius Caesar came by the Roman Senate to say a few “hi, how are ya’s” to his fellow colleagues, only to have Cassius, Brutus and the rest of those wacky conspirators proceed to stab, slash and hack poor Julius to death, one would think that THEY were guilty of some kind of penalty flag that should have been thrown. Maybe 15 yards for roughing the quarterback. Or SOME kind of unnecessary roughness. Or at least a four minute double minor for slashing.

I guess the point I’m making is that people have been cheating in all kinds of areas to gain advantages for themselves for years. Cheating in wars, battles, politics, you name them, and there’s a good chance somebody figured that they could maybe cheat the process and gain an advantage for themselves. I can see it in wars and battles, cause if you don’t do what it takes to survive, you’re gonna get killed out there.

But now it seems we have an epidemic of people, coaches and teams in sports that are trying to cheat to cheat their way to success. Great, huh?

Sports always seemed to be a “last bastion” of the idea of games competitively being played between two opponents with the notion of fair play always being the most important governing concept. The games all had rules to make sure they were played fairly. The games always had referees or umpires to try to make sure that no one was trying to cheat those rules. Both teams try their best. He who plays best wins.

Now there is a whole new coda that is trying to intrude on sports. A concept that is being echoed by macho sports fans, broadcasters, some players, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.”

When you think about that statement, it is very disheartening. The amounts of dollars that are involved in sports have never been higher. The stakes of the games being played have never been greater. There seems to be a declaration of war on the concept of fair play. Players and coaches all seem to think it is now okay to try to do every form of cheating necessary to win (just short of getting caught).

And so, the sports world’s unquenchable desire to “win at all costs” produces such things as the 1970’s East German track & field, swimming and any of their other steroid injected sports programs, the New England Patriots and their Spygate, bicycling’s Lance Armstrong saga, Major League Baseball’s Steroid Era, and a new entrant into the Cheaters Hall of Fame, the Russian Men’s and Women’s Track & Field teams, who have just been accused of systematically cheating on their drug testing so corruptly, they are in danger of being forced out of the next Summer Olympics in Rio.

The “if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying” desire to win at all costs appears to be growing stronger every day. More and more, it is becoming a battle of two players or teams doing everything possible to get away with all they can. Rules are just there to be skirted. Cheat on every play and hope the referees only call a few of the plays as penalties.

Are sports now turning into an arena where it is not he who plays best wins, but rather he who CHEATS best wins? Is it now becoming an arms race to determine who injects the most body enhancing fluids into their arms (without getting caught) and who then becomes the better team that way?

I guess the things we now see in terms of people, coaches and teams cheating in sports shouldn’t surprise us. They are, after all, battles of sorts that are being contested.

We don’t know who cheated in what battles that have been fought over the years. We only know who won and who lost. If you are wondering why the referees are calling so many penalties in the games you are watching, they are just trying to catch everybody that is trying to cheat.

We don’t know when cheating all began, but we do know it’s here now. You’ve heard of the line, “cheaters never prosper,” right? Well, they do if nobody’s there to call the penalties.

Coming soon to a ballpark or stadium near you. Cheaters.