It is shark week on the Discovery Channel. Today is the scariest day, they cover great white sharks, tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks, entertainment attorneys, lawyers, politicians and lobbyists.
Ryan Seacrest is crushed about Paula Abdul not returning to "American Idol." She still has a silk black slip of his she hasn't returned.
San Diego Charger, Antonio Cromartie, was fined $2,500 for insulting the team's training camp food on "Twitter." His direct quote? "OMG. The BLT? WTF?"
Twitter got hacked and was down for several hours. Can you imagine, twenty years ago, if you told someone you were going to Twitter on your Palm Pilot? They'd tell you to stop that or you'll go blind.
Paula Abdul fired her old agent and her new agent turned down an offer of a 30% raise from "American Idol." "AI" then pulled the offer. If an agent's cut is normally 10%, isn't 10% of nothing still nothing?
Since you asked:
As much as it pains me to say it, when it comes to sports and steroids, we have passed through the looking glass to the other side. In track, football, baseball, in short order we have gone from shocked at the drug use to assuming they're cheating whether they test positive or not. And it is sad and it sucks.
For those who say, big deal, if everyone is using PEDs then the field is level, that is wrong. Forget the fact that, even if all are performing at a higher level, they are performing on a false level they could not obtain legally.
But it's not even. Some athletes benefit from performance enhancing drugs far more than others. A big strong guy is going to get a little bigger and stronger on steroids, but he isn't going to get anymore coordinated or skilled. Athletes only get so many gifts. But a talented and well-coordinated, but weak and skinny athlete, ala Bruce Jenner, is going to double and triple their production by gaining the strength that had alluded them via genetic predisposition.
Florence Griffith-Joyner and Ben Johnson went from in-the-pack 100 meter sprinters to dominating their races by ten yards in one year. Usain Bolt from Jamaica did the same thing. Nobody can tell me Usain Bolt* is clean. Everyone on his relay team got caught, but him. Why? Because they, the corrupt Jamaican officials, protected their gold medalist, that's why.
It's too bad because I can't enjoy an Albert Pujols home run without suspecting he is juiced. On my beloved Cubbies, Ryan "The Riot" Theriot has improved his power from zero home runs last year to 7, so now he falls under accusation and speculation.
But these athletes who are being so harshly and possibly unfairly judged now have nobody to blame but themselves. If they all insisted on their sport being 100% clean, they could have demanded it and made it happen. Cheating can't exist without non-cheaters turning a blind eye.
So now even the alleged non-cheaters are tarnished, that's how much cynicism exists in sports. In sports, cheating with drugs is now guilty until proven innocent.
*Why would anyone intentionally thrust both arms up in the air during the last ten meters of the Olympic 100 meters unless they were told not to risk added scrutiny by destroying the world record? I've run in way too many 100 meter races to know you don't ever intentionally slow yourself down. Ever. Bolt did not want to obliterate that record because he knew there would be serious consequences if he did.
Ryan Seacrest is crushed about Paula Abdul not returning to "American Idol." She still has a silk black slip of his she hasn't returned.
San Diego Charger, Antonio Cromartie, was fined $2,500 for insulting the team's training camp food on "Twitter." His direct quote? "OMG. The BLT? WTF?"
Twitter got hacked and was down for several hours. Can you imagine, twenty years ago, if you told someone you were going to Twitter on your Palm Pilot? They'd tell you to stop that or you'll go blind.
Paula Abdul fired her old agent and her new agent turned down an offer of a 30% raise from "American Idol." "AI" then pulled the offer. If an agent's cut is normally 10%, isn't 10% of nothing still nothing?
Since you asked:
As much as it pains me to say it, when it comes to sports and steroids, we have passed through the looking glass to the other side. In track, football, baseball, in short order we have gone from shocked at the drug use to assuming they're cheating whether they test positive or not. And it is sad and it sucks.
For those who say, big deal, if everyone is using PEDs then the field is level, that is wrong. Forget the fact that, even if all are performing at a higher level, they are performing on a false level they could not obtain legally.
But it's not even. Some athletes benefit from performance enhancing drugs far more than others. A big strong guy is going to get a little bigger and stronger on steroids, but he isn't going to get anymore coordinated or skilled. Athletes only get so many gifts. But a talented and well-coordinated, but weak and skinny athlete, ala Bruce Jenner, is going to double and triple their production by gaining the strength that had alluded them via genetic predisposition.
Florence Griffith-Joyner and Ben Johnson went from in-the-pack 100 meter sprinters to dominating their races by ten yards in one year. Usain Bolt from Jamaica did the same thing. Nobody can tell me Usain Bolt* is clean. Everyone on his relay team got caught, but him. Why? Because they, the corrupt Jamaican officials, protected their gold medalist, that's why.
It's too bad because I can't enjoy an Albert Pujols home run without suspecting he is juiced. On my beloved Cubbies, Ryan "The Riot" Theriot has improved his power from zero home runs last year to 7, so now he falls under accusation and speculation.
But these athletes who are being so harshly and possibly unfairly judged now have nobody to blame but themselves. If they all insisted on their sport being 100% clean, they could have demanded it and made it happen. Cheating can't exist without non-cheaters turning a blind eye.
So now even the alleged non-cheaters are tarnished, that's how much cynicism exists in sports. In sports, cheating with drugs is now guilty until proven innocent.
*Why would anyone intentionally thrust both arms up in the air during the last ten meters of the Olympic 100 meters unless they were told not to risk added scrutiny by destroying the world record? I've run in way too many 100 meter races to know you don't ever intentionally slow yourself down. Ever. Bolt did not want to obliterate that record because he knew there would be serious consequences if he did.
posted by Alex at
9:08 AM
<< Home