Saturday, February 20, 2010

Sports - Cesspool of Corruption

The “Tiger Woods Saga” has captured the public’s attention again, this time on 19 February when he held a meeting euphemistically called a press conference at which he made a 14-minute statement expressing what he probably could have said in five minutes or less, to wit, that he was sorry for what he’s done, informed everyone to leave his family alone, and apologized all around. It was just a long statement, with no questions. He would have been an idiot if he had allowed for that.

The networks carried this performance live and the local paper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, placed the matter on Page One above the fold the next day but not in the sports section, where it would normally have been printed. When Woods’ world fell apart in November 2009 as a result of various and assorted whores coming out of the woodwork to speak of their hank-panky with him, the media indicated that Woods was sex-addicted, an obvious understatement.

According to Michael Herkov, Ph.D., sexual addiction is “best described as a progressive intimacy disorder characterized by compulsive sexual thoughts and acts. Like all addictions, its negative impact on the addict and on family members increases as the disorder progresses. Over time, the addict usually has to intensify the addictive behavior to achieve the same results.” In other words, Woods was allegedly hooked on having sex with women not his wife like other folks get hooked on drugs not legally prescribed.

Woods indicated that his sex-addiction therapy is not over (already spent weeks undergoing it) and that he would continue it the next day, returning to golf at some time not yet decided. Like some sort of blank-staring zombie, his wife was not at his side to “stand by her man;” however, his mother was in the audience, something he might have spared her. Perhaps, however, she insisted on being there to show support, not surprisingly.

Woods mentioned something instructive, to wit, that parents had pointed him out to their children as a role model. This brings up the fact that neither a parent nor anyone else should look into the world of sports for role models, at least in the institutionalized part of it. This doesn’t mean that most athletes are not good people. It simply means that in organized high-profile sports entities, integrity is not to be assumed. High-profile athletes are constantly in the news not only because of their great skills but also because of their even more intensive misdeeds, whether social or by way of gaining that “edge” in the game, otherwise known as cheating.

In the world of sports-sex, one thinks of the boast of NBA star Wilt Chamberlain, arguably the greatest basketball player ever, who boasted in his book written around 1991 that he had slept with 20,000 (yeah, TWENTY THOUSAND) women. At that time, he was age 55, so assuming he began making his conquests at age 15 maybe that works out to an average of about 500 gals a year, making Woods’ efforts almost nil by comparison. Then, there’s Magic Johnson, another great NBA player who managed to sleep-around himself into an HIV/AIDS debacle to bring home to his family. Wealthy guys with filthy habits!

Then, there’s Donte Stallworth, Cleveland Browns player who killed a pedestrian last year while DUI the morning after he had just earned a $4.5 million bonus. He served 24 days but settled with the victim’s family. Footballer Michael Vick didn’t get off so easily. He killed and tortured dogs and went to the Big House. In baseball, a former senator investigated the major leagues and found all sorts of steroid use, some users still holding records gained dishonestly. Think Bonds, Palmeiro, Canseco, McGwire, Rodriguez, Sosa et al.

Pete Rose, the most prolific hitter in baseball history was caught gambling on – yep – baseball games. The Chicago White (Black) Sox got caught fixing World Series games in 1919. The University of Kentucky basketball team did the same in the late 1940s. Single-player sports such as tennis, golf and boxing invite all kinds of fixing, with boxing being the most notorious. This is not even to mention referees. NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on games he officiated, claiming that the mob threatened his family. And then there’s the lurid corruption that tainted the Salt Lake City Olympic Games in 2002 – disgusting!

One could go on and on but suffice it to say that there probably is no more corrupt activity today than is found in organized sports, especially on the college (dishonest recruiting and under-the-table goodies to alleged amateurs) and professional levels. It stinks and the “role models” should be found elsewhere, notwithstanding that the “good guys” outnumber the “bad guys” by a long shot. The good guys, however, are not usually the ones who get the most attention, ergo, the role-modeling. Willie Nelson would probably put it this way: “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be point-guards!”

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

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