where did all the integrity go?

With sports producing record high ratings and unprecedented levels of revenue, things would seem to be going pretty well. Unfortunatly, they are not. In the past, when an incredible sports milestone was achieved it was seen as heroic and inspirational. Today, when a record is broken or an underdog emerges, the first explanation always involves doping, or cheating, or fixing.

There are examples from every sport, from the former NBA referee Tim Donaghy who is serving jail time for his role in fixing games, to the Tour de France, which has lost every ounce of credibily and prestige that it once had with a laundry list of failed drug tests.

Because sports have evolved into a billion dollar industry, there is a lot more at stake. When talent is recognized at an early age, the child immediatly becomes a financial investment to either earn a college scholarship, or to go pro and make millions, when realistically very few will achieve either one. These children are put on a pedestal from such an early age that the sport they are so good at no longer is being used as a tool to teach lessons about life, competition, and hard work. Rather, the child is given preferential treatment that becomes normal for him or her. An example is O.J. Mayo, an NBA rookie from USC. He was allegedly given more than $30,000, free electronics, food, clothes, and who knows what else while in high school and at USC by a man attemting to cash in on a kid who would one day get rich in the NBA.

There are examples in every sport, of integrity being thrown aside to cash in on a lucritive industry. While these things are not unprecedented, the frequency and creativity of cheaters seems to be at an all time high. From the steroid era in baseball, Spygate and Mike Vick in football, to Davydenko allegedly fixing tennis matches, the intergrity of professional sports has given way to a financially driven enterprise concerned more with revenue than the athletes that produce it.