Americans love our heroes. We do more than love them, we worship them.
There are the heroes of history – the Founding Fathers, the explorers, the brave folk who opened the West. They were bigger than life, all while still being human.
Yet history proves times and time again that our heroes were, in fact, mere mortals. The Founding Fathers were men of high ideals, yet at the same time they also were angry taxpayers. They believed everyone was created equal, unless you were a woman or a slave.
The explorers opened new paths and new lands. Courageous? Of course. Stealing land from people who already lived there? Oftentimes, yes
Times changed and communications made the world a smaller place. As we found ourselves with more leisure time, we found new heroes. We found them on the field of play. The twentieth century brought the professional athlete to the throne and over the past century, theyve gotten bigger, stronger and faster and our worship of them has increased right along with that.
And, as with all heroes, they turn out time and time again to be mere mortals ... and, worse than that, cheaters.
Why do we enroll our kids in sports programs? A good parent will say because we want them to learn to work as part of a team, to instill in them the virtues of sportsmanship. Maybe we let them suit up just to have fun and get some exercise. After all, isnt that the very nature of sport?
No. No. No. The point of competition is to win. Not to win honorably just to win.
In fact, it now seems the winning is secondary to just not getting caught cheating.
In our family, we count ourselves as members of Buckeye Nation. Saturday afternoons in the fall is high time to put on our scarlet and gray and O-H .. I-O ourselves silly. Husband actually went to THE Ohio State University. I didnt .. but gosh, how can you not love those guys?
My parents were Buckeye fans by virtue of living in Central Ohio, where not rooting for Ohio State was some kind of blasphemy (punishable, I assume, by deportation to Michigan).
We always considered ourselves on the side of the angels, especially in the last decade because, really, how could you not love Jim Tressel?
Except, we have all found out, Jim Tressel had to cheat to win. And for years he did and everyone who knew about it (and apparently that number is in the bejillions) just turned a blind eye because, for Heavens sake, the guy was 9-and-1 against Michigan! He held prayer meetings! He was a regular Father Flanagan! Hed take these poor boys of limited means and not only would he make them winners, hed make them men – good men.
And after months of speculation and one big Sports Illustrated cover story, the legend came to a sad, pathetic end.
And still, many refuse to believe and even more blame not Jim Tressel, but the makers of the rules he broke. Thats how much we adore him – or at least the him we thought he was.
And if that isnt enough to make you want to take up another hobby, consider Lance Armstrong. How can you NOT love Lance? Not only is he a mind-blowing athlete, hes a cancer survivor and hes all about good works.
Yet it is becoming increasingly apparent that Lance had a little help to win those races. How can it be that everybody in the cycling world has a Lance-was-doping story except Lance?
But we LOVE him. He does good works. And if he was doping, so were a lot of other guys – not to mention the screwed up labs and the officials pushing guys to go faster, win more. It couldnt be Lances fault.
These are our heroes, along with Pete Rose and Mark McGwire and Marion Jones. They all seemed so nice. They were winners.
Except they werent. They were cheaters. They knew the rules but thought the rules simply didnt apply to them.
A few days ago, I was cruising the cable stations and found a rebroadcast of Eight Men Out, the story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox Scandal. Look at that scandal now. Consider Shoeless Joe Jackson, an illiterate who never attended a team meeting about throwing the World Series, who only took money because a teammate threw it on his bed, who had the best stats of either team during the disputed series.
Hardly a criminal mastermind. More a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet, Jackson still isnt in the Hall of Fame. His ban from baseball still stands, reportedly because no athlete is bigger than the game.
Unless, of course, he doesnt get caught.
Wooster Weekly News columnist Tami Lange can be reached via e-mail at tam108@hotmail.com.
