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Sports ethics compromised in organized contests more than pickup games

If you watched any of the World Cup games, you probably noticed a lot of players falling down for very little reason. Soccer – or futbal – players are the sport world’s best at flopping or diving. That is faking an injury from minimal contact to draw a foul. It is clearly a form of cheating that has become normalized.

If you were a fan of the old Key & Peele show, you may remember a skit portraying a soccer player who flopped and miraculously came back from death to score the winning goal. To be fair, basketball players are probably the next best at acting out a flop and fake injury. American football players fake an injury to stop play without having to use a timeout.

Cheating permeates sport as it does society. Recently, we have had reports of cheating in chess by computer assistance, professional fishing by stuffing fish with lead to increase weight, and professional cornhole by making the beanbags smaller than regulation so they will fit through the target hole easier. I didn’t even know there was a professional cornhole circuit.

Cyclists have been some of our most creative cheaters, devising schemes from doping to installing motors in their bike frames to towing or hanging onto a car. Some old-time cyclists even used the lead weights idea in a different way. They would fill water bottles with lead weights to improve speed on the downhills. Soccer’s World Cup “Hand of God goal” is still highly celebrated though it occurred back in 1986. Argentina’s Diego Maradona scored a goal using his hand against England. Argentinians still celebrate it and view it as a “cunning display of gamesmanship” despite the fact that it was cheating. No video replay in 1986.

Remember how we governed our pickup games as kids? We would “call your own.” That honor system method worked remarkably well. There would be occasional arguments, but they were brief because we all wanted to return to having fun. If an argument couldn’t be resolved, we would compromise by saying: “OK you get this call, but we get the next one.” We unknowingly created alternate possession, which is now a rule in basketball.

The question posed to Sport Ethics students was why do you play honestly during pickup games in which you own up to committing a foul, but as soon as you put on a uniform in a game with refs and fans, you lie and cheat to win? Their answers could basically be summed up to the greater importance of the organized contest. I don’t know about that. I remember some pretty important, highly competitive pickup games. The follow-up question: So, you are willing to compromise your ethics from one game to the next?

Injuries are part of sport, however we all agreed that one should never intentionally injure an opponent. Sounds like a reasonable premise, however, most of us watched boxing in which the intent is to give your opponent a concussion. So, by watching, and thereby, supporting boxing, are we violating our own ethical code?

I miss those discussions. I have long felt that sport and art can offer prophetic commentary on the state of a society. Gladiatorial Rome would be an example of its impending decline. If so, how should we interpret mixed martial arts and ultimate fighting? Does that level of violence portray the decline of our society?

Clearly, at least in sport, we need to return to the value system of our childhood. Eh, Diego?

Jim Cross is a retired Fort Lewis College professor and basketball coach.