Arguably the greatest pitcher of all time was being accused of cheating by using performance enhancing drugs.
Arguably one of the cleanest basketball programs in decades is now grilling its coach for the same allegations which placed his former employer on probation, in addition to himself as he forfeited a huge bonus as a punishment.
Arguably the greatest coach of our generation was accused of inappropriately video taping the opposing teams plays, which could have provided a much needed edge in competing for championships.
Money and fame. At the end of the day, this is what its about. If you aint cheating, you aint trying. Isn’t that what many talking media heads said and others thought? Isn’t that the mantra of the past decade?
I have friends who are not sports fans. In fact they hate everything about sports. They detest the sick money that passes from the hands of taxpayers who build modern Roman Coliseums for the billionaires to manage and reap the benefits, by allowing their millionaire employees to display their talents, natural or otherwise. The hater-aid bars are loaded with people who see that in a terrible economy, the worst run sports franchise in the NFL will make a profit. The non sports fan wags his finger in defiance in the attempt to make the sports fan take part ownership in the new era of “win by any all means necessary - right here and right now, if you aint cheating you aint trying, and inject that chemical in my butt so I can play; wait, you say instead you can rub flaxseed oil on me?”
America loves winners, and will pay any price to become part of one.
But America also loves celebrity and entertainment. So, this essay is dedicated to all those who giggle with glee as sport fans are calling talk radio asking “Say it aint so?” The difference between non sport fan and us sports fans is that there are more of them than there are of us. But they are no better than us.
The non sports fan loves seeing that folks are using drugs to get over in sports. I guess we can simply ignore that many of today’s singers, in some cases, the ones who have their “own labels”, used drug money to start their labels. Many recording artists used studios paid for with the proceeds from Pookie’s last high. Meanwhile, many entertainers could not walk on the stage without that “lil blow in the back room”. And lets not forget the other entertainers who used their natural assets, some which were enhanced after logging on to getabargainboobjob.com.
While athletes will get jealous when another player makes more cash or gets more awards, we also have those entertainers who exhibit bad behavior when they don’t win a video award. And of course the entertainers and athletes bounce from party to party, ingesting many adult libations and artificial stimuli in their never ending quest to be greater, or at least more noticed than the star-starlet on the left.
What the difference between the athlete and the entertainer? They both exceed their own boundaries, are worshipped better than God, paid more money then they probably can ever dream of, and spend just as recklessly. Many say there is a difference. I say, the only difference is that entertainers want to be athletes, and athletes want to be entertainers. The end is that they are the same person. They are rich, powerful, above the law, and give us haters something to talk about. After all, would you be reading this and I be writing this if they were all model citizens? And I admit I’m hating. I would love to spend a day being interviewed by the hottie reporterette, getting paid big paper to play a kids game, and to walk in a club and be able to say to the top shelf ladies; “I want you, I want you, but I really want her, so Ill have all yall.” And be able to take them all home and have them demonstrate their pole dancing technique while I simulate rain drops by tossing $100 dollar bills in the air from my duffel bag.
Sooner or later, while we are all tying to decipher who is responsible, we all must raise our hands as accessories to the fact. An actor cannot command $20 million a movie if he did not sell tickets based on just his name at the box office. A pitcher could not command $20 million for 5 months of work if we did not sell out stadiums. We will never change our priorities. We are addicted to winning and celebrity too much. What challenges my senses is when the goody-do-gooders start dogging out the people who get caught doing all these bad things. These so called watchdogs, guardians of the good, will step to a microphone near you and with staunch righteousness, say those resounding words;
“We are doing this to send a message to our children.”
Whatever.
What we really should honestly say is; you are a cheater only if you get caught.
I live in Phoenix, but was born in the "D" (Deetroit) Remember, while people from the D will trash the city, we wont tolerate it from other people. Its a D thang baby. My specialty is basketball, but Ill drop some knowledge on anything in the sports world. While I may make you laugh or throw a few tantrums and maybe get some wild responses from you, its my goal to make you think. That’s the fun thing about blogs.
Lastly, lets remember that this is just SPORTS. While we are passionate, lets not take it too seriously. This is not like what our troops are doing in securing our freedom. So lets remember that before we think that sports is a life and death situation.
With that said, thank you for the opportunity to entertain you. Now lets get to it.
