Suspended Saints, Harbaugh harassment, even a few blips of Clemens conspiracy still popping up, it seems like you can’t make it through a week lately without some kind of sports scandal. Commentators love the fodder provided, haters love the public embarrassment of a foe, and fans…well fans just love it because they won stuff.
Despite all of the fallout that follows these episodes, why would teams stop? Steroids, Spygate, Bountygate, or the recruiting scandal du jour all have a common thread: Winning. Whether it’s Ortiz and Manny breaking the Sox drought, the Patriots and Saints winning Super Bowls, or just any college that’s employed John Calipari, the up-front payoff is always been worth the punishment on the back end.
Opinions among fans vary about how bad this stuff really is, you can make the argument that taping practices or paying bounties does little to enhance a team’s chances of winning. The problem with that is, we’ll never truly know, and in sports where the tiniest advantage can make all the difference, they very well could’ve been the tipping point in any close game. Level of outrage typically breaks down along the lines of team support. Fans of teams on the wrong side of it bemoan missed opportunities and demonize their cheating rivals. The rivals? Well, they just shrug, rationalize it away with phrases like “the media is blowing this way out of proportion” and polish they’re championship trophies.
Not that I can blame them, winning is fun, and I think most of us are willing to employ a certain moral flexibility when it comes to what the guys wearing the home jerseys do to win games. The only up-close-and-personal experience I’ve had with cheating to a successful end was the 1996-97 Gopher basketball team, and it was awesome! Knowing what I know now, after dealing with the stripped banners and program sanctions, would I sign up for doing that all over again? In a Dinkytown minute, my friend.
So if the crime is worth the punishment, it can’t be disputed that cheating is good for the cheater. The rest of the world may get upset, but they’re likely just hypocrites, and could easily overlook a few ill-gotten victories if the shoe was on the other foot. Any fan answering honestly would have to admit as much, our concern is that the sausage is tasty, not how it was made. Perhaps this speaks to some sort of greater character flaw, but I don’t think so. As much as we like to treat sports like life and death, it isn’t, and I’ll still give mankind the benefit of the doubt on making the correct moral choices in the truly important spots. Even after seeing how easily so many of them can rationalize away one of their own getting caught red-handed.
This isn’t intended as a sanction of the activities, more an admission that ignorance is bliss when it comes to what’s happening behind the scenes with a sports team. If David Ortiz was still a Twin in 2004, and went crazy nuts in the postseason to help them win a World Series, would finding out he was juicing 5 years later wreck that memory? Is winning a Super Bowl worth some fines and a first-round pick? A few scholarships an acceptable price for a Final Four? Maybe it’s just all the losing talking, but at this point I could overlook quite a bit.
In fact I look forward to the day when John Calipari is standing behind a podium, being introduced as the new head coach of the University of Minnesota basketball team. Of course that would have to be several years from now, after he leaves Kentucky in disgrace, does a few year of basketball purgatory in the mid-majors, then leaps at the first desperate AD who comes sniffing around from a lousy major conference school (looking at you, Norwood). He’ll win us a title, it’ll get vacated, and afterward everyone will look around at each other and agree that the ride was worth the fall. (Yes, that was an oblique Whitney Houston reference, damn I’m versatile)
People keep saying things like “You can’t punish the fans for decisions that they had no say in”, but why not? The fans might not have been in the locker room while the plots were being hatched, but they certainly reaped the benefits of enjoying a winning team. Fines and suspensions initially seemed like enough of a deterrent, but after some reflection, one throwaway year is a token price to pay for a title. Perhaps I’m just a bitter fan of loser teams (who happen to be terrible at cheating) lashing out here, but until the fans themselves pay, through harsher franchise penalties, or even monetary sums, nothing is going to change.
Who cares about losing a linebacker for a year? Take away 3 first-round picks! Add a $10 surcharge to every ticket sold, with the proceeds to benefit player pensions or college scholarship funds! You can say John Q. Fan is not responsible, but I think he deserves to shoulder some of the cost, and pay in something to offset his own ill-gotten gains. Not to mention that it would be an equitable system, the diehard fan who enjoyed winning the most stands to lose the most when his team becomes a doormat. Meanwhile, bandwagon fan who just watched the playoffs can walk away and move on with his life.
Dan Cole on KFAN mentioned not allowing the Saints to use the franchise player tag for 5 years, since it’s obvious the idea of “protecting players” was not something they were at all concerned with. Much like a large loss of scholarships in college, that’s the sort of thing that would make a material difference, and affect the long-term fortunes of a team. Which is exactly what needs to happen if this stuff is ever going to stop.
There may be punishments, and barbs from rivals to be endured, but in reality, what harm are fans dealt? Other than a few notable instances, such as the SMU Death Penalty, any sanctions hurt for a year or two, and then it’s back to business as usual. Saints fans may be facing a lost season without the coaches and players they’ve lost, but would they trade the chance at a title in 2012 for the one they already own? Not a chance.
Cheating may not be okay, but it’s effective, which is why it’s not going anywhere. The only people who will end up hating you are opposing fans, and they already hated you in the first place. Something needs to change.
Well, you know, unless one of my teams finds a way to cheat their way to a title, then forget we had this conversation.
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