Major cheating scandals in professional sports

---

Major cheating scandals in professional sports are not for who cheats, but which professional teams or athletes get caught doing so. The New England Patriots are a prime example of the most recent major cheating scandal in professional sports. Tom Brady and the Patriots were caught and punished for deflating almost all of the footballs used for the AFC Championship against the Indianapolis Colts. D’Qwell Jackson, one of the starting linebackers for the Colts, got a hold of one of the Patriots’ game balls and realized that it was not up to par with the PSI standards of a regulation football. The game balls were tested for their PSI after the game and 11 of the 12 balls were significantly under the PSI standard.

When the NFL realized what had happened, they launched an investigation and handed down strict punishments against the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, including a four-game suspension against Tom Brady for his role in the Deflategate scandal. The Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, accepted the punishments against his team, hoping that Brady’s suspension will be redacted by the league. The suspension withheld after the appeal, and most of all Patriots’ supporters were not happy. With no evidence to be found against Tom Brady, these supporters saw bias against the Patriots when they were ruling this appeal. I believed Brady was guilty early on, but the NFL never fully proved its case. In fact, the investigation was so shoddy it changed the minds of people like me who were certain Brady had done it.

Before the 2015 season, Brady won his appeal against the suspension, so he was eligible to play the whole season, and the suspension would be revisited after the season was over. After the 2015 season, the NFL won its appeal to bring Brady’s suspension back. After many legal fights during the 2016 offseason, which almost included this case being taken to the Supreme Court, Tom Brady finally accepted his four-game suspension, which was to start at the beginning of the 2016 season. The Patriots ended up going 4-0 without Brady and ended up winning the Super Bowl against the Atlanta Falcons in overtime.

Many people believed that the Patriots were determined guilty because of their previous allegations held against them. In 2007, the Patriots were caught taping opponents practices and were fined and lost their first-round pick. They also have been accused of stealing opponents playbooks, sabotaging headsets, bugging opposing locker rooms, and signing players to gain intelligence on their former teams. Most people who think that the system is against the Patriots believe that NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, is behind the unfair punishments handed down to the Patriots and fans want a better system to determine these kinds of punishments upon teams and players. One alternative may be to allow former Commissioners or other NFL officers – who do not have as direct of a stake in the League’s profits but who have insider knowledge of the industry – to serve as arbitrators in such future disputes.

Even though the New England Patriots are one of the well-known teams for cheating scandals, they are not the only one to have dirt on their name. There have been many major cheating scandals in professional sports. Some of the major scandals in recent history, besides the Patriots’ Deflategate scandal, are Barry Bonds’ steroid scandal and how his downfall from baseball can affect his chances of getting into the MLB Hall of Fame, Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal and how Harding and her husband hired a hitman to take Kerrigan out of qualification for the Olympic Games, and the New Orleans Saints’ Bountygate scandal and how the pay-to-injury method hurt the organization for years to come.

Barry Bonds steroid scandal

Barry Bonds was a professional baseball player for the San Francisco Giants, whose successful career has been tampered by one of the biggest scandals in professional sports history. On September 5th, 2003, investigators searched Greg Anderson’s home, who was the current personal trainer for Barry Bonds, and seized documents showing that Bonds was using banned drugs. The grand jury investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) company and Barry Bonds’ illegal usage of steroids began immediately afterwards. Bonds received substances from Greg Anderson, his personal trainer, during the 2003 baseball season, but he was told that they were nutritional supplements.On February 12, 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the 42-count indictment against the BALCO founder, Victor Conte, BALCO vice president, James J. Valente, Bonds’ personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and East Bay track coach Remi Korchemny, for the illegal distribution of performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes, along with money-laundering. Through this investigation, Bonds denied any accusations of him using steroids given to him by BALCO.

In March 2011, Barry Bonds admits to using steroids through his professional baseball career. He also said he was misled by Greg Anderson that what he was taking was flaxseed oil and arthritis cream. Bonds and his legal team hoped that this steroid problem would go away. Mr. Williams and Mr. Fainaru-Wada suggest that the 2005 plea deal in the Balco case reflected a desire by the government to limit the case's impact: after United States Attorney Kevin Ryan dropped 40 of 42 counts, the authors say, Mr. Conte and Mr. Anderson received light sentences and averted a trial that might have required elite athletes to testify in public about drugs they had received.

After the 2007 baseball season, Giants owner Peter Magowan decided not to re-sign Barry Bonds for the following season, ending his career in San Francisco. Barry Bonds holds the MLB records for career home runs and home runs in a season, while also achieving 14 All-Star appearances, and seven NL MVP’s. Even though his name has been dragged through the dirt through many steroid allegations, Bonds is arguably one of the most accomplished baseball players to ever play in the major leagues.

Barry Bonds is the greatest baseball player of his era who ended his career being mistreated by his franchise, Major League Baseball, and the very union that set out to protect him. If you looked over all of his career achievements, you could say he was a lock to make the professional baseball Hall of Fame, but with the wake of his potential use of steroids throughout his career, many don’t know whether he should rightfully earn his spot in the Hall of Fame or not.

Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal

Another example of a major cheating scandal in professional sports is the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan figure skating scandal. On January, 6th, 1994, a man whacks Nancy Kerrigan on the right leg after she practiced at the Cobo Hall in Detroit for the U.S. Figure Skating Championship. The injury that Kerrigan received forced her to drop out of the U.S. National Championships and Tonya Harding went on to win the national championship. Despite the injury, the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) agreed to give a spot on the national team to Nancy Kerrigan.

The FBI launched an investigation after the attack on Nancy Kerrigan and found evidence showing Tonya Harding’s bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt, and Harding’s husband, Jeff Gillooly, talking about the hit with the hitman. The man that whacked Kerrigan on the leg was identified to be Shane Stant. Eckhardt ends up confessing to the FBI and all three are arrested and charged with the conspiracy to commit second-degree assault. They also found that Stant was paid $6,800 for injuring Kerrigan’s leg with a collapsible baton. The original plan was for Stant to slice Kerrigan’s achilles tendon, but he refused to cut anybody, and settled on him injuring her enough so that Kerrigan would not be able to skate. Nancy Kerrigan healed in time to compete in the 1994 Olympic Games and placed for the silver medal. At a press conference at the Multnomah County Athletic Club in Portland, Harding admits that she failed to tell authorities about what she knew about the attack but maintains that she did not have a role in it.

On March 16, 1994, Tonya Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution and was to be placed on three-year probation. She also was ordered to serve 500 hours of community service and to pay a $160,000 fine. Harding also was forced to withdraw from the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships. On June 30, 1994, Tonya Harding was stripped of her 1994 National Figure Skating title and was banned for life from the U.S. Figure Skating Association.

After being banned from figure skating, Harding went on to make her pro boxing debut in 2002. In June 2010, she went on to marry Joseph Jens Price, and at the age of 40, they would have their first child together, who they named Gordon, in February 2011. In 2017, the movie “I, Tonya” premiered telling the story behind Tonya Harding’s life and what led to one of the most well-known cheating scandals in the history of professional sports.

Saints' Bountygate scandal

The New Orleans Saints’ Bountygate scandal is one of the most well-known cheating scandals in professional sports over the past few years. This scandal was allegedly in operation from 2009, which was the year the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV, until 2011, when the NFL gained information that suggested that there was a “bounty” program in place. The incident was called “Bountygate” because members of the Saints franchise were accused of being paid bonuses for injuring opposing teams players.

Gregg Williams, who was the defensive coordinator in New Orleans at the time, developed this bounty program where he and the players pooled their money and were given cash awards to the players who injured specific players when they played against teams. The NFL found out about this system and that anywhere between 22 to 27 players on the Saints football team were involved in this program. The New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton was not only aware, but also involved in Gregg Williams’ bounty program and covered it up for three years.

Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, suspended Payton for the entirety of the 2012 football season. Goodell felt pressure to hand down hefty suspensions and fines against the Saints so that nothing like this would ever happen again under his watch in the league. Both Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson had sanctions imposed by the NFL overturned through the court system, and there's the belief that should Patriots quarterback Tom Brady face suspension for whatever role he had in Deflategate, he too will pursue legal action. Gregg Williams and assistant coach, Joe Vitt, were also issued hefty suspensions.

Several New Orleans defensive players, including Jonathan Vilma, linebacker, Anthony Hargrove, defensive lineman, Will Smith, defensive end, and Scott Fujita, linebacker, were issued suspensions that varied between one game to eight games. After Williams was suspended for the 2012 season, he was reinstated for the 2013 season and became the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams. Many people try to compare the cases between the Saints’ Bountygate scandal and the Patriots’ Deflategate scandal and debate whose punishment should be harsher. Troy Aikman said whatever the punishment is should be worse than what the Saints received in the Bountygate scandal.

Something similar between the Saints’ Bountygate scandal and the Patriots’ Deflategate scandal is that people outside of the league believe that too much power is held by the commissioner when handing down punishments to teams and players during investigations. Although the central conflict in Bountygate revolved around the limits and extent of Commissioner power in contrast with player rights, and less directly around the investigative and adjudicatory powers of the Commissioner, the administration of investigative and adjudicatory powers put Goodell and the NFL in this proverbial hole because such powers provide individual players and the players union the opportunity to challenge the League and Goodell’s findings, especially in the disciplinary area where Article 46 vests great power without providing detailed procedure.

Cheating in Professional Sports

Cheating is an attempt to gain an advantage by violating the shared interpretation of the basic rules (the ethos) of the parties engaged without being caught and held responsible for it. No matter how high the stakes are, professional sports always contain someone who finds ways to gain unfair advantages over opponents.

Although cheating is unethical, teams and players still do it in professional sports, and sometimes they get away with it. The get-ahead-at-any-cost culture that is encouraged in sports—and the corresponding blurring of the line between improper conduct (cheating) and proper conduct on the edge of the rules (gamesmanship)—combined with the availability of governing bodies and commissioners to more effectively deter and sanction activity that is improper, renders these governing bodies and commissioners—and not the courts—the appropriate avenues for resolving sports-related trade-secret issues that primarily affect the integrity of the game.

Many teams are remembered for their triumphant victories when they win championships, but teams' legacies in professional sports, like the New England Patriots, will always be tarnished for attempting to cheat.

References

Ahn, Steve J. THE “INDUSTRIAL LAW OF THE (NFL) SHOP”: HOW ARBITRATION ADVANTAGES PLAYED OUT IN THE “DEFLATEGATE” CONTROVERSY. 1 July 2016, eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=82b3814d-f272-4f06-9fb2-f4b8cad9bd95%40sessionmgr103.

Boland, Robert. Stop Digging: The Pitfalls of the NFL’s Investigatory Procedures. 1 Jan. 2016, eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=8c617e59-e359-42ef-9a30-bc7dd92c4967%40pdc-v-sessmgr01.

Freeman, Mike. Mike Freeman's 10-Point Stance: Cheating Accusations Complicate Patriots' Legacy. Bleacher Report, 31 Jan. 2018, bleacherreport.com/articles/2756377-mike-freemans-10-point-stance-cheating-accusations-complicate-pariots-legacy.

Hall of Fame Quarterback Troy Aikman Says the Patriots Punishment for 'Deflate-Gate' Should Exceed Saints Bounty-Gate Punishment. The Advocate, 23 Jan. 2015, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news/153082E91A3A5EE8.

Horovitz, Samuel J. If You Ain't Cheating You Ain't Trying: "Spygate" and the Legal Implications of Trying Too Hard. 1 Jan. 2009, eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=d06e9aca-39a3-47dc-ae9c-f7bf4acf5a5d%40sessionmgr4008.

Kakutani, Michiko. Barry Bonds and Baseball's Steroids Scandal. The New York Times, 23 Mar. 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/books/barry-bonds-and-baseballs-steroids-scandal.html.

Torrente, Anthony. THE DARK SIDE OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL: THE FALL OF BARRY BONDS. 1 Jan. 2012, eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=500805d7-1ee4-4959-8bf1-44f4e63d4fe8%40sessionmgr102.

Truong, Peggy. A Definitive Timeline of the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan Figure Skating Scandal. Cosmopolitan, 16 Jan. 2018, www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a15172746/tonya-harding-nancy-kerrigan-timeline-scandal-hit/.

Šukys, Saulius. ATHLETES’ JUSTIFICATION OF CHEATING IN SPORT: RELATIONSHIP WITH MORAL DISENGAGEMENT IN SPORT AND PERSONAL FACTORS. 1 Nov. 2013, eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=f4cc5fc3-93c9-4224-a81c-3d662adc6000%40sessionmgr4007.

Wilson, Ryan. “Gregg Williams on Bountygate: It Was 'Nothing That Hadn't Been Done before'.” CBSSports.com, 29 July 2015, www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/gregg-williams-on-bountygate-it-was-nothing-that-hadnt-been-done-before/.

External links

• www.example.com

This article "Major cheating scandals in professional sports" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Major cheating scandals in professional sports. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---