Every year, plenty of athletes are caught abusing substances and breaking laws. Recently, the amount of athletes letting us down only seems to be rising.
When you think about it, it makes sense. In a few years, younger athletes who’ve been long exposed to social media like Twitter and Facebook will make up the majority of athletes. A Swiss soccer player and Greek triple jumper were both recently sent home by their countries for racist tweets.
Other things to consider are technology advancements. Athletes who previously went undetected in steroid and PED use will now likely be caught. Take Lance Armstrong for instance. If he’d been born 15 years earlier he’d have had a lot easier time getting off.
But it’s not just PEDs and racist tweets. Weird new scandals like the Manti Te’o scandal, where his “girlfriend” was never real, keep popping up. Although there’s plenty of evidence defending Te’o’s oblivious position to her existence, multiple teammates said Te’o was having relationships with other women on campus, which suggests he was using a woman he thought dead to boost his Heisman campaign.
The most disgusting, notable scandal, the Saints Bounty Scandal, was completely different from the rest of these.
Members of the Saints defense allegedly pledged money to those who could make an opponent leave due to injury.
Multiple testimonials and the discovery of a chilling speech by former Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams were proof enough for the NFL to suspend coaches and players alike for multiple games. This was a sad moment for the NFL, and a situation that’ll hopefully never occur again.
And while all these athletes have been letting you down, you’ve let them down too. In a country which prides itself in a supposed claim of innocent before guilty, sports is somehow different.
The norm is players assumed guilty before they’ve even had a chance to defend themselves.
In a time with increasing accusations of wrongdoing, its understandable, but still doesn’t make it any less incorrect on our part.
Scandals are a part of most facets of life, but the increase in athletes that have let you down in sports is becoming alarming, and it doesn’t look like that trend will change anytime soon.