Race and Cheating
Posted by: Bradley McDonald
Black Coaches
The big sports news earlier this week was the firing of Tyrone Willingham, the coach at Notre Dame for the past three years. Willingham was the first black coach at Notre Dame and one of only five in Division One football at the beginning of this season. Plenty of other coaches have been fired this year (Ron Zook, for one, was also fired after three years), but three of the five black coaches were a part of that number and this is why Willingham's firing has been such big news.
Most people realize that Notre Dame is not the problem with this race issue. If Notre Dame's decisions were racially motivated, they would have never hired Willingham in the first place. The big football schools like Notre Dame and Florida simply choose not to wait around for a coach to improve the program once it's headed in the wrong direction. Call it greedy, but winning is the bottom line.
I do believe there is some kind of issue, since there are now only two black coaches in Division One, but correcting it will be more difficult than just saying "colleges have to hire more black coaches". But until it is corrected, the race issue will come up every time a black coach is fired.
Steroids
The story of Willingham's firing is now taking a back seat to talk of steroids in Major League Baseball. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Jason Giambi, a first baseman with the Yankees, admitted to using steroids for three years in a court testimony. A day after this was reported, the newspaper claims that in the same court case, Barry Bonds admitted to using supplements that contained steroids but said he didn't know they were steroids.
It was quite evident to anyone who followed baseball that Bonds used something to bulk up between the 1999 and 2000 seasons and I don't think it was Wheaties. I also don't think that Bonds all of a sudden got motivated to work out to get that big after his 14th season in the league. Check out these pictures between the 1999 and 2000 seasons that show the difference. It's no coincidence that his 73 home run year (which was double his career home run per year average) came after 2000.
It's disgusting to me that these players are so greedy that they'll try anything to get better than they are. Bonds was a great player in the pre-steroid years, but he just wasn't satisfied with that. Even if Bonds didn't know they were steroids, why did he accept a questionable substance when he already had hit 400 home runs and made millions? No matter what he does now, those numbers will always be tarnished.
The people that this will affect most are the ones who don't even know what steroids are. The young kids who live and die with their heroes are the ones I feel sorry for. They just know their "idol" has cheated and deceived them. It's a sad day for baseball.
Black Coaches
The big sports news earlier this week was the firing of Tyrone Willingham, the coach at Notre Dame for the past three years. Willingham was the first black coach at Notre Dame and one of only five in Division One football at the beginning of this season. Plenty of other coaches have been fired this year (Ron Zook, for one, was also fired after three years), but three of the five black coaches were a part of that number and this is why Willingham's firing has been such big news.
Most people realize that Notre Dame is not the problem with this race issue. If Notre Dame's decisions were racially motivated, they would have never hired Willingham in the first place. The big football schools like Notre Dame and Florida simply choose not to wait around for a coach to improve the program once it's headed in the wrong direction. Call it greedy, but winning is the bottom line.
I do believe there is some kind of issue, since there are now only two black coaches in Division One, but correcting it will be more difficult than just saying "colleges have to hire more black coaches". But until it is corrected, the race issue will come up every time a black coach is fired.
Steroids
The story of Willingham's firing is now taking a back seat to talk of steroids in Major League Baseball. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Jason Giambi, a first baseman with the Yankees, admitted to using steroids for three years in a court testimony. A day after this was reported, the newspaper claims that in the same court case, Barry Bonds admitted to using supplements that contained steroids but said he didn't know they were steroids.
It was quite evident to anyone who followed baseball that Bonds used something to bulk up between the 1999 and 2000 seasons and I don't think it was Wheaties. I also don't think that Bonds all of a sudden got motivated to work out to get that big after his 14th season in the league. Check out these pictures between the 1999 and 2000 seasons that show the difference. It's no coincidence that his 73 home run year (which was double his career home run per year average) came after 2000.
It's disgusting to me that these players are so greedy that they'll try anything to get better than they are. Bonds was a great player in the pre-steroid years, but he just wasn't satisfied with that. Even if Bonds didn't know they were steroids, why did he accept a questionable substance when he already had hit 400 home runs and made millions? No matter what he does now, those numbers will always be tarnished.
The people that this will affect most are the ones who don't even know what steroids are. The young kids who live and die with their heroes are the ones I feel sorry for. They just know their "idol" has cheated and deceived them. It's a sad day for baseball.
