It had been a long time since I visited a Broncos training camp, and this was the first time I actually enjoyed being there. I watched the excitement in my 11-year-old son’s eyes and thought about how much I love sports, especially when I can share them with him.
Tim is beginning his first season of midget football, and he was getting to watch pros practice for the first time. We laughed as Nick Ferguson entertained the crowd during warm- ups and anticipated something special every time Champ Bailey lined up across from Javon Walker. Looking around at other kids and parents, you couldn’t help but feel their joy.
Reality intruded when Todd Sauerbrun pounded a soaring 65-yard punt that drove the receiver back, back into the end zone. The crowd oohed and aahed as the tight spiral turned over in a beautiful arc, but when the punt finally came down I had to tell my son Sauerbrun will miss the first four games of the season. I had to explain how Sauerbrun broke the league’s rules by using a stimulant banned by the FDA.
I think I probably called him a knucklehead.
Tim forgot about it on the next snap of the ball, of course, but I seethed. Floyd Landis stands accused of cheating to win the Tour de France. Sprinter Justin Gatlin, who shares the world record in the 100 meters, also tested positive for testosterone. Suspicion surrounds Barry Bonds, who is chasing the career home run record set by my childhood hero, Hank Aaron.
As a parent, I deeply resent the damage the cheaters are doing to sports.
Call me an incurable idealist, but I still believe in the inspirational value of sports, that they can teach and reinforce ideals that are the foundation of personal integrity – hard work, discipline, honesty, teamwork, sacrifice, learning how to lose, learning how to win, getting up after you’ve been knocked down, accepting that life often isn’t fair. Quaint as those values may seem today, they are lessons children need to learn.
I believe successful athletes have a unique opportunity – and therefore a solemn responsibility – to inspire children, even adults, by their example. Great athletic talent is a gift, so that talent should be used for good. If athletes don’t play that role in our culture, at least to some degree, they’re just entertainers.
But that’s the problem. Our sports have become a multi- billion-dollar entertainment industry, and too many stars have proven all too corruptible.
It infuriates me when amoral athletes cheat because their sins don’t only hurt them and their sport. They diminish the power of sports to play a positive role in our culture and they send exactly the wrong message to kids: Don’t pay attention to those silly people who tell you to play by the rules; winning is all that matters.
That’s a poisonous message for kids to absorb, and it’s unfair to athletes who play by the rules, who have the proper values and who compete for the love of their sport. It might not seem like there are many left today, but as an Olympics beat writer I see them all the time.
“Our ultimate goal is not to win medals, it’s not merely to entertain the public with the exploits of our athletes,” said U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive Jim Scherr, a 1988 Olympian in wrestling who almost certainly competed against dirty athletes from the former Eastern Bloc. “Our goal, as is the goal of the (International Olympic Committee), is to create a better world and a more peaceful world through sport. If we don’t participate in the spirit of the Olympic ideals, with honor and dignity, then what we do means nothing.”
I wish more athletes felt that way. I hate how great athletic achievements automatically arouse suspicion. I hate how we always have to wonder.
If we could be sure Lance Armstrong competed clean, his example of conquering cancer and coming back to dominate cycling would be one of the most inspiring stories of his generation. He would be a worthy hero, one well worth emulating. But we wonder about him, and why wouldn’t we? Many of the riders he beat last year were barred from this year’s tour because of doping allegations.
Charles Barkley famously said he wasn’t a role model, but athletes are role models – for good or for ill – whether they like it or not. Barkley was correct that parents should be the primary role models in their children’s lives, but in an increasingly amoral culture, we need all the help we can get.
John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
