Sports and Cheating
by Fr. Roger J. Landry - September 21, 2007
Sports will either be a school of virtue or a school of vice, and that's why the epidemic of cheating in professional sports is, and ought to be, a huge cultural concern.
Sports, at every level, is supposed to be a training ground for virtue, to mold the character of athletes, coaches and supporters so that they may learn lessons that may help them to achieve off-the-field as much as on. In few other venues are people able to learn as effectively the good habits of perseverance through difficulties, teamwork, striving to overcome obstacles, the importance of preparation and practice, and the courtesy and class we call good sportsmanship.
But the field, court, track, diamond, rink, pool and roadway can also cultivate vice, when results become more important than virtue, when winning becomes more important than winning fairly.
It has been hard to open a sports page recently without reading something to do with cheating and its consequences. We've encountered Bill Belichick and the clear contravention of the NFL's videotaping policy; Patriots' Safety Rodney Harrison and his suspension for taking an illegal substances; NBA referee Tim Donaghy and his expulsion for betting on games he was officiating; Barry Bonds and his tainted home run record, along with former heroes turned synthetic pseudo-supermen Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro; Floyd Landis' suspect yellow jersey and the expulsion of what seemed to be half this year's Tour de France participants for blood doping and other violations; WWE icon Chris Benoit and his steroid-induced murderous-suicidal rage; various college recruiting violations, Olympic scandals and much more. Professional boxing almost looks clean and honest by comparison.
There's an adage that if one is caught cheating on his taxes, it's probably not the first time he's cheated. Likewise, with cheating in sports, there's an undeniable connection to with the widespread cheating in our culture. We don't even have to turn to politicians for examples. In the past few years, we've seen several highly-respected historians and journalists caught plagiarizing, Fortune 500 corporations caught defrauding their stock holders, priests and parish bookkeepers ripping off their parishioners, students using cell phones to cheat on tests and the internet to submit other people's term papers, and spouses — according to recent surveys — being unfaithful to each other in record numbers. The dishonesty and lack of integrity involved in cheating seems to be growing, or at least growing in acceptance. It's hard to watch a report on cheating without hearing someone repeat the faddy aphorism, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying."
The recent epidemic of cheating in sports reveals ethical and anthropological dimensions that must be considered if we wish as a culture to eliminate it.
The ethical dimensions go far beyond the violation of a particular rule governing a sports league. It goes to one of the bedrock principles of ethics, whether in sports players, coaches and fans believe that a good end never justifies immoral means. In the cases of cheating above, we see that the cheaters think that the end of winning — or doing better in competition — validates the dishonest means one takes to get there. There are now such enormous financial rewards or losses hinging on sports outcomes that those of lesser character find far greater incentive.
The anthropological dimension refers mainly to the means one takes in violation of the ethical principle. Sports cheating today very often involves technological manipulation not just of the rules of the game — like with the Patriots' spygate — but also of oneself through performance-enhancing drugs. In former days the path to improvement came through practice, coaching, exercise and experience. Now for many it comes through injections, pills and creams. Rather than improving one's skills, one seeks to make himself "better, stronger and faster" through technology — like a modern six million dollar man, or, if you consider the financial incentives for many pro-athletes, a hundred million dollar man. This comes at a huge cost. The death of pro-football player Lyle Alzado and 11 recent professional wrestlers through steroid use is enough of a warning. But we also have to be conscious of the huge temptation it places on all those who, at whatever age, wish to be successful college or professional athletes who cannot compete on their own with artificially-enhanced peers.
It is good that the NFL, the International Olympic Commission, and the Tour de France organizers have begun to impose harsh penalties on cheating in sports. They are sending a clear message that cheaters are losers, and that if one chooses to cheat it will not be a means to winning, but possibly even losing a career.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
