MB2
member
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 5722
|
|
Good read, but pretty long.
Daring to Ask the PED Question
If everyone is secretly suspicious of so many athletic achievements in the 21st century, why aren't we talking about it?
By Bill Simmons on February 1, 2013
I made a deal with myself a long time ago: My column needed to capture the things I discuss with my friends. Last week, I realized that wasn't totally happening anymore. Something of a disconnect had emerged between my private conversations and the things I wrote for Grantland/ESPN. In essence, I had turned into two people. There's Sports Fan Me, and there's ESPN Me.
Sports Fan Me is candid, jaded, suspicious of everyone. Sports Fan Me repeatedly gets involved in arguments and e-mail chains centered on the question, "Do you think he's cheating?" Sports Fan Me has Googled athletes' heads and jawlines, studied their sizes, then mailed before/after pictures to friends with the subject heading, "CHECK THIS OUT." Sports Fan Me has learned to trust his inner crap detector, to swiftly question any accomplishment that seems extraordinary or superhuman. Sports Fan Me hates that he feels this way, but he does, and there's just no way around it.
ESPN Me sticks his head in the sand and doesn't say anything.
ESPN Me occasionally pushes narratives that he doesn't totally believe in.
ESPN Me didn't have the balls to run two e-mails that you're about to read. They nearly landed in each of my last four mailbags. Each time, I pulled both e-mails (and my responses) from those columns at the last minute.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8904906/daring-ask-ped-question
------------------
I pretty much assume, no one is clean any longer, sit back and watch. It doesn't mean we should be comfortable doing so....
|
sptsman
member
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 6198
Loc: Missouri
|
|
So, some sportswriter is having an attack of conscience and we're supposed to be interested? Let's be real here... Any sane person knows that the vast majority of pro athletes are involved with PED's, one way or another. The leadership of each sports knows it, the athletes themselves all know it and certainly the sportswriters and broadcasters, like this clown, all know it. But each has a very real incentive to show some concern, while generally looking the other way and allowing it to go on. There is simply to much fame and fortune (with emphasis on fortune) at stake for this genie to ever get put back in the bottle...
You now just have to watch sports knowing the vast majority of people you are watching, cheat.
--------------------
"Hunts are best measured by the endurance of the memories they produce..."
|
MB2
member
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 5722
|
|
Quote:
sptsman said:
So, some sportswriter is having an attack of conscience and we're supposed to be interested? Let's be real here... Any sane person knows that the vast majority of pro athletes are involved with PED's, one way or another. The leadership of each sports knows it, the athletes themselves all know it and certainly the sportswriters and broadcasters, like this clown, all know it. But each has a very real incentive to show some concern, while generally looking the other way and allowing it to go on. There is simply to much fame and fortune (with emphasis on fortune) at stake for this genie to ever get put back in the bottle...
You now just have to watch sports knowing the vast majority of people you are watching, cheat.
Except the "Wafflehouse Nation" seems to be awful good at lining the guys - and gals - up who are using, and suspending them. 
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
