A Sporting Chance: Spies Like Us As Politics And Sports Merge

Who would ever have thought that you could see parallels in the “values” embraced by those in the whatever-it-takes world of politics and the “values” in sports where the word “sportsmanship” could seemingly become as outdated as the word “grand” meaning “great” and “gay” meaning happy?

But you can.

Read this column by Pajamas Media’s Rick Moran:

Sports these days is a deadly serious business. Despite the fact that most sports are essentially children’s games played by adults, the amounts of money tied up in leagues, franchises, TV rights, merchandising, and salaries surpasses the gross domestic product of most countries. That ain’t monopoly money being tossed around.

All of this money puts tremendous pressure on teams to win. Couple that with the naturally competitive nature of the games themselves and you create an atmosphere where just about anything goes in order to glean some kind of advantage from your opponent.

Such has been the case recently as two major cheating scandals have rocked the sports world. The authorities in each sport have come down like a ton of bricks on the transgressors with huge fines and other serious penalties. But the thought that even these draconian punishments will deter others from attempting the same tricks is a chimera. The next one’s who try it will just be more careful, that’s all. In the cutthroat, winner take all world of professional sports, it pays to cheat.

That’s just his opening. Read it all.

Thirty or even twenty years ago you could not accurately say that there was a growing trend in sports to “the ends justifies the means.” This doesn’t mean it’s widespread, but you can detect some changing of minds. It isn’t just in professional sports: note how once obnoxious parents at kids sports games can now occasionally morph into news-making thugs who beat up or even kill another parent or, in one instance, shove a kid on an opposing team away.

Similarly, in politics the bulk of steadfast, principle embracing partisans (the classic liberals and classic conservatives who argued issues, political thought and policies) could not be relied upon to scream at one side about something and then turn the other way or try to transparently downplay something they berated on the other side if it happened on their side. You would never believe they would turn on a dime and jettison beliefs they had long talked about, written books about, and embraced and nurtured .

But in the cutthroat, winner take all world of politics, it pays to do whatever it takes to attain power, not risk not attaining power or to hold onto power. Whole books have been written about this.

It’s now about rooting for your “team” because it’s your team and if you’re on the team (or in some cases leading it) doing whatever it takes to get a victory even if it means throwing out principles or trying to win an election or argument by demonizing or discrediting those who dare to hold different beliefs.

There are limits, though.

The White House’s recent sudden use of “success” to apparently banish the word “victory” in the case of the Iraq War is something that simply won’t work in politics. Sports teams need “victory” and political parties need “victories” not just “success” to take presidencies and Congress.

But the worlds have now taken on some of each own’s characteristics.

So it would will not be surprising if one day soon we learn of a scandal about a politician involved in dog fighting, or an athlete picked up for peeking into and tapping his foot in a bathroom stall.

Or perhaps there will be a one-size fit all scandal for both worlds: an athlete or politician picked up for cockfighting.