It is the best of lives; it is the worst of lives.
Elite athletes are honoured, pampered, paid obscene amounts of money and forgiven everything from felonies to mild indiscretions.
Yet, many end up consumed by their own fame, betrayed by their wealth and shunned by a society that regarded them with love and admiration.
Professional sports may be one of the most misunderstood occupations in the world. The public sees the mansions, the bling, the fancy cars. What it doesn’t feel is the insecurity of a profession that averages just 2 1/2 to four seasons before someone younger, faster or stronger comes along. It doesn’t see the scam artists who suck away salaries and it doesn’t see the egotism and sense of entitlement that can lead a Tiger Woods, Mark McGwire or Marion Jones and Floyd Landis to believe that the rules that govern society do not apply to them.
As a result, this decade has seen epic scandals, from steroids to blood doping to plain dopes.
1. THE CHEATERS CLUB: The steroid scandal destroyed Jones and Tim Montgomery, who were stripped of Olympic medals, and it will make baseball’s glitter boys from Barry Bonds to Mark McGwire the equivalent of the 20th century’s Black Sox. Steroids have put the integrity of sport in question worldwide.
In March 2005 the U.S. Congress investigated baseball and the only honest guy in the room turned out to be Jose Canseco. Sammy Sosa forgot how to speak English. McGwire just forgot everything. Roger Clemens, the best pitcher of his era, and Bonds, baseball’s home-run king, saw their reputations sullied. “It’s no secret what’s going on in baseball,” Ken Caminiti told Sports Illustrated six years after he was named the 1996 National League MVP. “At least half the guys are using steroids.”
America’s national pastime had become its national disgrace.
2. SALT LAKE FIDDLE: The Games mascot should’ve been a guy with a couple hundred watches for sale wearing a trenchcoat and whispering: “Psst. Wanna deal?” Everything was for sale, including the medals. IOC members were forced to resign after they accepted “gifts” in return for voting Salt Lake City the Games. Canada’s Becky Scott got cheated out of a gold medal by two doped-up Russian cross country skiers. A judging fix initially cost Canadian pairs skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier gold. Didier Gaihague, president of the French Skating Federation, and judge Marie Reine Le Gougne were suspended. The French were so appalled that within two years they’d re-elected Gaihague as president. Not to mention, rules to prevent similar fraud have been relaxed. Let the, (wink, wink) games begin!
3. MURDER INC.: Sports can be murder. Ask Mike Danton and Ray Lewis. Danton, a former NHLer served more than five years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder — either his agent, David Frost, or Danton’s father, depending whom you believed.
Meantime, Frost was accused by former junior players and their girlfriends of sexual improprieties. Frost was eventually acquitted but became largely a pariah within the hockey establishment.
Following a Super Bowl celebration in 2000 a fight broke out between Lewis and rapper Chino Nino’s entourage. Two men died of stab wounds. Witnesses who were to prove Lewis’ guilt changed testimony. Nobody was ever convicted and Lewis eventually reached civil settlements with families of both victims.
4. WHISTLE BLOWER: NBA referee Tim Donaghy went to jail after he provided professional gamblers with inside information in 2007 and manipulated and bet on games he officiated. NBA commissioner David Stern branded him an “isolated criminal.”
Rick Tocchet had to take a leave of absence from the NHL for taking bets, including some from Wayne Gretzky’s wife, Janet. There was no evidence Gretzky bet on sports, but it rocked the foundations of the NHL. In Germany, soccer referee Robert Hoyzer received a two-year prison sentence for taking payments to manipulate matches.
5. PILLOW FIGHTING: Tiger Woods crashed his SUV and a lot of women fell out of the trunk. His wife was not amused. Neither are sponsors. In Woods case perception and reality might1ve been at odds for some time. After all, when someone hangs with Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, it’s not likely they’re going to Sunday school.
Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino got the estranged wife of an aide pregnant, which led to an abortion, which led to demands for a $10-million payoff. In 2003, Lakers star Kobe Bryant was arrested for the alleged sexual assault of a 19-year-old health spa worker. Charges eventually were dropped when the woman refused to testify. Former Steeler Richard Seigler was busted as a pimp in 2007.
“It goes back to that Top Gun culture where sports is like a war. All that counts is winning. None of the rules in normal society apply,” says Angela Schneider, dean in the faculty of health sciences at the University of Western Ontario. “You have puck bunnies, you have groupies and in some cases it’s like the gladiatorial days ... players start to regard women as spoils of war.”
6. TOUR DE FARCE: In 2006 Floyd Landis was stripped of his Tour de France championship when tests showed excessive amounts of testosterone. Landis maintained his innocence. In 2007, two riders, including pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov, were disqualified for doping offences. Later, race leader Michael Rasmussen was removed from the Tour amid questions surrounding his involvement in doping.
7. DOG EAT DOG WORLD: Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is convicted of running a dog fighting operation and sentenced to 23 months. Animal rights groups were outraged. Underperforming dogs were killed by hanging or electrocuted by being thrown into swimming pools attached to car battery cables. Investigators found claw and bite marks of the frightened animals in their death throes on the sides of the metal pool.
8. SHOT GUN OFFENCES: The NFL is the wild west of sports. Former Titans quarterback Steve McNair was shot and killed by a girlfriend. Plaxico Burris shot himself with an illegal gun and went to jail. In 2006, one of the Bengals’ Chris Henry’s four arrests was for carrying a concealed weapon. Pacman Jones, when he wasn’t beating up women, capped off a night of nightclubbing when someone in his entourage fired a gun into a crowd wounding three people. When police went to Tank Johnson’s home they found a weapons stash that included two assault rifles. Maybe he was just getting ready in case Pacman decided to invade his living room.
9. DANNY COME LATELY: Danny Almonte was the star of the 2001 Little League World Series, pitching a perfect game, a no-hitter and receiving a key to the city of New York. A week later it was revealed he was two years older than he claimed. His team was forced to forfeit its games and his father and coach were banned from Little League. So much for sports being a character builder.
10. SPYGATE: The Patriots cheated by taping opposition practices and knew the plays they’d run. Unlike Nixon, coach Bill Belichick wasn’t impeached and nobody took away their Super Bowl rings. Evidently cheaters never prosper — except in the NFL.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
11. Saskatchewan GM Eric Tillman is charged with sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl.
12. September, 2005. Windsor Spitfires’ Steve Downie cross-checks and then breaks three of teammate Akim Aliu’s teeth during a practice. Downie was suspended for five games. Observation: Aliu was suspended for one game — evidently for getting his head in the way of Downie’s fist.
13. Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerini Thanou withdraw from the 2004 Games in Athens after failing to take a drug test. Observation: After beating back threats of terrorism, construction delays and lapsed security, that it should be their own heroes who sabotage Greek pride is the ultimate of ironies.
14. Luciano Moggi resigns as director of Italian soccer giant Juventus, accused of meddling with officials and influence-peddling in the transfer and sale of players.
15. A Spanish basketball team wins gold in the intellectual disability tournament at the 2000 Paralympic Games. The medals had to be returned when 10 of the 12 players had no disability. “We were encouraged to pretend to be stupid,” player Carlos Ribagorda said. Observation: Talk about dumb and dumber.
16. Spanish men’s and women’s basketball teams posing for an advertising photo for the Beijing Games pull eyes down with hands, pretending to look Chinese. Observation: One question: Is there something in the water in Spain?
17. Chinese officials admit deceiving the public at the Olympic opening ceremony: The picture-perfect schoolgirl who sang as the Chinese flag entered the stadium was performing to another less-photogenic girl’s voice.
18. Renault team orders driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to intentionally crash his car at the F-1 Singapore Grand Prix in 2008.
19. In 2003, Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy is murdered by team-mate Carlton Dotson. Coach Dave Bliss instructs players to lie to NCAA investigators that Dennehy dealt drugs.
20. In 2001-2003, Graham James, banned by the Canadian Hockey Association for life after his involvement in the sexual assault of junior players is hired in Spain to coach several teams, including the national team.
