Forty years after joyful US youth staged a Summer of Love with
celebrations at Woodstock and San Francisco, American sport fans
are going through a long, hot, miserable Summer of Hate like none
before.
A steroid scandal darkens a chase at baseball history. A
gridiron star faces prison in an alleged dogfighting racket. A
referee with gambling debts ignited a match-fix scandal to rock
basketball. Legend Gary Player says steroids have invaded golf.
Add new doping scandals at the Tour de France and the
still-hanging appeal by 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis of his
positive test and it's an off-field mess that not even football
star David Beckham's much-hyped arrival can ease.
It would take a young wizard's magic to solve this mystery, but
alas Harry Potter's tale has been told.
And forget US baseball scores, off-season transfers or
pre-season gridiron training. There is precious little room on
radio airwaves, newspaper pages or television screens for outdated
20th Century items such as victory and defeat.
It's like the total collapse of trust in sport, a bulked-up
meltdown of faith between supporter and athlete.
A grim-faced National Basketball Association commissioner David
Stern called referee Tim Donaghy's role in match-fixing and
point-shaving for gamblers the low point of his 23 years running
the league.
National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell, just coming
off the banishments of two top players for conduct related charges,
ordered Atlanta star quarterback Michael Vick not to attend
training camp because of dogfight charges in an indictment that
details the slaying and torture of animals.
Barry Bonds approaches the all-time US Major League Baseball
home run record of legend Hank Aaron even as a federal grand jury
investigates him for tax evasion and perjury charges in a lingering
stain from the BALCO steroid case.
"For the life of me, I can't think of a time when there were
three such burning issues going on at the same time in sports,"
Ohio University Center for Sports Administration executive director
James Kahler told USA Today.
US sports television network ESPN asked fans to decide which
commissioner they would least like to be now. NBA boss Stern won,
if it can be considered a victory, with a vast majority saying his
integrity-rocking woes pose the greatest challenge.
A US Anti-Doping Agency arbitration panel continues to
deliberate after an extended public hearing in May regarding
Landis, who is appealing his positive doping test after a critical
stage victory at last year's Tour de France.
And then there is Player's statement at the British Open that he
knew of a golfer who is taking steroids. That provided an ominous
backdrop for PGA Tour officials attempts to pull together a doping
policy for their sport.
"If the PGA Tour isn't proactive rather than reactive," steroids
expert Charlie Yesalis told USA Today, "there's going to
be a big juicy scandal to deal with."
Sorry, it's going to have to wait in line.
(China Daily via AFP July 27, 2007)