If a Tree Falls in the Forest

Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens

Today a story came out about Ray Lewis, the retiring NFL superstar about to end his career in the Super Bowl, where he is accused of purchasing performance enhancing drugs. The story isn’t actually new though. Two years ago the same man, Mitch Ross, said he sold PEDs to Lewis previously. Lewis has once again the denied the allegations and within a few days this story will blow over most likely.

Obviously I have no idea if this Ross character is telling the truth or just trying to get fame, publicity, money or whatever else he can by lying. Ray Lewis has never failed a drug test so for now we assume he is innocent.

However the problem here isn’t the accusations or even whether Lewis did it or not, but rather the fact that the NFL has a long list of banned substances, including the one Lewis is alleged to have used (deer antler spray… seriously), but then doesn’t even test for most of them.

Basically the league is operating on the “honour system” for many of the substances that can be as helpful as the ones they do test for such as steroids and HGH. It has long been known that PED use is rampant in the NFL, much like it was in baseball, but that not only do they not do much to catch the users, but it seems fans truly don’t mind.

There is a prevailing theory that the attitude of NFL fans is that they know many players use PEDs, but given the nature of the sport, they are fine with it. There are a lot of skeletons in the NFL closet, such as the Bounty-gate scandal and thus PED usage doesn’t really get much attention or interest.

If Ray Lewis is using the deer antler spray he is accused of purchasing, you can see why he would have done it.

The guy wanted to come back in time to play again this season, which was always likely to be his last. He had an opportunity to use something to make that happen that he cannot actually get in trouble for and he knows for a fact that lots of other players are using it too.

As humans we are always influenced by the culture we are surrounded by. That’s how a lot of well-meaning cyclists end up on EPO even if they had always been anti-PED previously. That doesn’t mean what they are doing is right and shouldn’t be punished, but it’s how these things become epidemics.

The NFL doesn’t seem to want to catch people using these PEDs, so of course the players are going to take them in such a physically demanding sport with one of the shortest average career lengths around.

What use is a rule if it’s never going to be enforced?

Lance Armstrong admitted one of the main ways he got away with doping was simply that they weren’t testing for what he was doing for much of that time. Sure, by nature the cheaters will always be one step ahead of the testers, but they can still make it a lot harder to do. There are tests that exist to test everything, or almost everything, banned by the NFL.

Having the rule but not enforcing it is purely a publicity stunt to make it seem like they are running, or at least endeavour to run, a clean sport. But while the testing stays as it is, it shows that the NFL have no real interest in opening the can of worms that surely awaits them were they to crack down on PEDs.

With everything going on surrounding the concussion issue in football, the last thing Roger Goodell needs is another scandal about the safety and integrity of the league he runs. So this story about Ray Lewis is something for talking heads to go on about for a couple of days and then forget all about the fact that underlying it is a much bigger issue.

Even if Ray Lewis had tested positive, the suspension would only have been four games for a first offence. Compare that to sports where you can be wiped out for entire seasons, multiple years or even lifetime bans.

Perhaps one day, once there is nothing ahead of it on the to-do list, the NFL will actually take drug testing seriously. But in the meantime, you are kidding yourself if you think half the players in the league aren’t abusing the rules in one way or another.

I love American football and am very excited to watch the Super Bowl this weekend (Monday our time). In fact I am hoping Ray Lewis goes out on top. However I am not naïve enough to believe I will be watching a sport where the athletes are clean, just like when I watched Le Tour during the height of the doping years.

When a tree falls in the forest, I hope someone will show up to drug test the lumberjack.

Contextual Heroes

Armstrong during his interview with Oprah

A few days ago a friend who is not a huge sports fan asked me a question, which was perfectly legitimate, even though most of us took it for granted.

She asked me why was Lance Armstrong was such a big deal when it is generally accepted that everyone else was cheating too?

The question was not asked in defence of Lance, but rather wanting to know why he was the one being so heavily scrutinised compared to others. For example, Alberto Contador may not have won seven Tours, but he did win an impressive three before being suspended and having one of his victories stripped.

The answer in one word is: context

So much of sport nowadays, especially with the “24 hour media cycle” as it’s called, is about contextualising the actual sporting events and achievements. Two players may put up the exact same stats and win the exact same number of games and yet those two athletes could be viewed in very different ways depending on the stories around them.

Lance Armstrong deserves what he is getting now for the way he acted during and after the actual cheating. I don’t need to rehash all the despicable things he said and did as I’m sure you’ve all seen enough of it now. But the point is that if he dealt with the accusations and everything else the way some other cheaters did, perhaps he could have avoided so much of the damage now done.

David Millar was never Lance Armstrong and never won a Tour. He also never started a major charity or became one of the most recognisable athletes on Earth. Therefore perhaps it was a lot easier for Millar to be honest and open about cheating when he was caught many years ago, but Millar was not only forgiven by the cycling community, he is actually one of the most respected guys on the circuit and now a big advocate for cleaning up the sport.

Both Millar and Armstrong cheated in the same way in the same events. In that regard one isn’t really worse than the other outside of the fact that one of them won. But the way they dealt with the situation was so different that the results are also vastly different.

Manti Te’o is not only an absolutely bizarre and fascinating story; he is also a huge example of how context shapes our views on athletes outside of their athletic endeavours.  People seem angry and upset over the fake girlfriend scandal even though it has nothing to do with him or even how he played. But the reason it is such a big deal is that people form opinions on sports based around the stories surrounding them. Manti Te’o wasn’t only famous because he was one of the best players in College Football and at the most famous College Football school, but because he famously overcame the deaths of his grandmother and girlfriend in the same week.

Finding out that the basis for their opinion was false makes people question their own judgement, even if they had no reason not to believe the story when they heard it in the first instance. Discovering you believed a lie is something that hits home for everybody, whether it’s in their personal life or even about a football player they watch on TV. That’s why I believe people are so up in arms about this, especially when this particular lie (or at least embellishment) was used to bring spotlight to the athlete in question.

However in some instances we overlook off field issues. Ray Lewis is about to end his NFL career in the Super Bowl and is one of the most respected and beloved NFL players of his generation.  But it was only a decade or so ago that Lewis was on trial for murder and admitted lying to police to help his friends, who were later acquitted as well. Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, but nowadays the story only seems to even be referenced via Twitter jokes and completely ignored for the most part.

So why does Lewis and many other athletes get a pass where others don’t?

It comes down to how well an athlete is able to handle the situation after the fact. Whether that involves great PR and damage control people or just being honest about the situation, most of the time the public are willing to give second chances if they think the athlete shows they deserve one.

Another factor, as much as it probably shouldn’t matter, is how well the athlete performs after the scandal. Ray Lewis continued to be a great player for many years whereas Lance Armstrong is already retired. Michael Vick had one superb season when he returned from his dog fighting scandal and some people looked past that and focussed on what he was going on the field again.

In Australia, Shane Warne was always getting himself into trouble, even if never anything as serious as mentioned above. But he was still Shane Warne and no matter what went on in his life, he was always our hero when he had a cricket ball in his hand.

Bernard Tomic is going through this now. There was always talk about him being a spoilt brat, but until we read about the trouble he was getting in and the petulant comments he made, many fans focused on the fact that he could be the next great Aussie tennis player. However as his play went downhill and his off court antics got worse, he finally had to deal with the damage to his reputation.

So far in 2013 his play has improved dramatically. That alone will go a long way to helping his reputation, simply because people love winners, but if his tennis doesn’t live up to his antics watch how quickly we turn on him.

Sport is a bizarre world. When it suits us we like to only care about what happens on the field, as evidenced by how we can forgive athletes as long as they perform. However, we are also quick to jump down their throats when they let us down or lie to us. At the end of the day, we don’t know these people personally and can only judge them on their words and actions. In normal life, we care about things like how nice someone is to us and how they treat those we care about. When it comes to athletes and other public figures, we don’t have that luxury so all we are left with is trial by media.

Lance Armstrong seems like a pretty deplorable person. I’m sure he loves his kids and all that stuff, but he has never seemed likable and I don’t think it’s rash to judge him based on what we know. However, we should never stop asking ourselves why some people get scrutiny over others and whether it is always deserved.