The football games will be starting in a few hours as America tries to forget (turn a blind eye) that we are in the midst of multiple (countless, really) emergencies; each of which should be garnering our immediate and undivided attention; but alas, as I have already said, the games are about to start...
I tried this one one out on a friend the other day and I got the reaction I hoped for and wondered if my reverse strategy of pissing off the trumpsters on a larger scale was worth the effort. What I did with my friend was say I don’t watch any professional sports anymore, because I look at them all like I do professional wrestling and I don’t trust the results to be honest results.
Before he could respond, I went on to remind him, either the players are cheating, the officials are being paid off or (I saved this one for my Patriots fan friend) the equipment is being tampered with. Aside from Deflategate, we Boston sports fans are very familiar with cheating scandals so as a result we only need to say a phrase or two and then everybody knows exactly which sports scandal is being referred to.
If I say point shaving everyone remembers the time all those Boston area college basketball players were involved in that scheme where they would win (or even lose) by precise scores in order to make the point spread work out for the bookies. They were good enough to shoot and hit the rim and miss (toss a brick) as easily as shoot and score so it was pretty easy to disguise and lots of monies made. Until they all got caught, of course.
Steroids aren’t even hardly frowned on any more, but I took that opportunity remind my friend it wasn’t just Rodger Clemens, Bobby Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Brady Anderson and the rest of those MLB players that were (and still do, I am quite sure) take performance enhancing drugs; they are cheating just like Lance Armstrong the bicyclist was cheating. They were all exposed as cheaters and many of them may have been stripped of honors, awards and whatnot but Lyle Alzado paid the ultimate price with his very life.
Speaking of Sammy Sosa, he was not your ordinary cheater, he was also fond of using corked bats. But I guess that’s not much different than whatever it is in the sticky stuff Max Sherzer puts on his spitball. Gaylord Perry never did come clean with what he used, either.
The NBA had the whole Tim Donaghy scandal to contend with where he was betting on games when he was the referee. Which was not a lot different than Pete Rose betting on games when he was the manager of the Reds. It’s funny how the people who want to see Pete forgiven and enshrined in the Hall of Fame are the same ones that think Colin Kaepernick should be banned from football forever for taking a knee in protest of police brutality.
So when my friend tried to pooh-pooh my theory on all these sporting events being rigged I pointed out the fact that there lots of people in this country that don’t trust the results of elections, either. He being one of them, didn’t have a whole lot to say.
Enjoy the game! I am heading out for a walk.