One of sports great conflicts is cheating. Whether it’s a player, team or league, those in sports see cheating as that gray area between right and wrong. In actuality, it’s always wrong, but has become acceptable through any of a number of human rationalizations.
I’ve found one constant theme when it comes to cheating in sports as well as in life. That theme is greed. That greed is usually for money or financial gain, glory or adulation. Success, or the perception of success, will drive even the most moral person to consider cheating. Over the years, I’ve had one constant human observation. The less you have, the less you cheat. Cheating seems to come with prosperity. Why else would already multi-millionaires in business cheat to make a few more dollars? The news is full of stories of the “titans of business” who are going to jail for cheating. Martha Stewart and Bernie Ebbers are two of many with more to follow. In simpler, less financially rich, economic environments, people are willing to accept their lives and live within the boundaries of their life. They are at peace with it. Studies have shown that with less pressure, those people live longer. Money may make the world go round, but it doesn’t necessarily give one a long, peaceful life.
In sports, greed is still the driving force for cheating, and for all the same reasons. But, there are some different dynamics added. One is the short shelf life of an athlete. In pro sports, an athlete has only a small amount of time to maximize their financial earning power. No matter what the sport, the average time in pro sports is around four years. Four years to make as much as you can with the hope of either extending your career, and earning power, or making enough in four years to give you financial security for the rest of your life. Failure to do either means the athlete has to get a job like everyone else. A scenario that scares the hell out of most athletes who only know how to do one thing, play their sport.
Other dynamics fueling an athletes’ consideration or decision to cheat is the pressure to perform. It’s both external and self-induced. Externally, it comes from coaches, managers, and front offices saying to the athlete you need to get bigger (steroids) or get faster (performance enhancing) to stay on the team, compete or to win. Internally, it’s driven primarily by an athlete’s fear of failure, and his desire to enjoy, if only for that winning moment, the feeling of success and all the advantages (money, glory, adulation) that comes with winning and success. Both are powerful forces that can make even the strongest willed person and athlete cheat.
There is one other rationalization. It’s the one that probably pushes an athlete over the line in that decision as to whether to cheat or not. Everyone else is doing it. It’s along the lines of people cheating on their taxes. Well, everyone else does, so why shouldn’t I. If an athlete looks around and sees fellow teammates, and those he plays against, getting stronger, faster and better, and they know steroids are probably behind it, then it’s an easy step for that athlete to cross over the line and join the other athletes of his sport who are cheating as well. The rationalization being, I’m just doing what everyone else in my sport is doing.
If you take greed, pressure and the rationalization that everyone else is doing it, what you have is the “perfect storm” for making the decision to cheat. In the end, congressional hearings, league investigations and media reports aren’t going to stop cheating. There’s no legislation, pill or punishment that will eradicate it. It’s simply a part of the human makeup. In sports, where we glorify the winner and not the good competitor, where the winner receives the financial rewards, and where the star player becomes the role model and hero, the force to cheat and reach that success is too great to overcome in most cases. In the final analysis, it comes down to the athlete and their decision to cheat or not. In the end, the real winners are those who make the right decision. A decision they’ll be able to live with and will forever let them enjoy their athlete career and performances. Whether they were winners or attained great wealth from their playing careers is secondary to the peace of mind and personal happiness they will have for how they played the game.
I’m Ron Barr.
Ron Barr is an Emmy award winning writer and the host of the nationally and internationally syndicated sports talk show, Sports Byline USA.
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