Many of the greatest athletes and sports teams are hailed as icons. But they are not all as perfect as they make themselves out to be.
Cyclist Lance Armstrong is a cancer survivor, founder of an organization that advocates for cancer awareness and the name behind yellow Livestrong wristbands. He has also just accepted charges of doping.
Michael Phelps is, as we all heard a couple hundred times on NBC, the most decorated Olympian of all time. About a week after he competed in London, Phelps modeled for a Louis Vuitton photo shoot, breaking an IOC regulation.
Penn State football won two national championships under coaches Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky. Last year a child sex abuse scandal involving the coaches put the entire football team in an athletic rut, so to speak.
Sports have rules, and those involved need to adhere to those rules. But I can’t say I always agree with the consequences.
Take a closer look at Penn State. As punishment, the NCAA fined the school $60 million, imposed a four-year postseason ban on football, took away 20 scholarships over the next four years, placed the program on probation for five years and took away all of the team’s wins from 1998 – 2011, when Paterno was head coach.
But why does the NCAA need to punish the players? They did nothing wrong. The coaches should be the ones fined. Taking scholarships away is only going to take away some students’ chances of playing in college. Yes, what happened at Penn State was terrible. However, the NCAA needs to pay closer attention to whom those punishments are affecting.
Lance Armstrong, on the other hand, deserves what came at him. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people are “fake.” Armstrong put on the cover of a cancer awareness advocate who wanted to raise money for charity. But under that cover, he was a cheater. Now, don’t get me wrong, his work with cancer awareness and charity is still wonderful. However, I lost most of my respect for him, so I have to agree with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to ban Armstrong for life and strip him of his record seven Tour de France titles.
The IOC still hasn’t made a decision about if or how to punish Phelps for modeling for Louis Vuitton. I don’t really think that Phelps modeling is an issue, it’s the fact that he didn’t follow the rules. As an athlete who is frequently in the public eye, Phelps needs to pay attention to little details like IOC rules. He doesn’t deserve a big punishment (such as having his medals taken away), but the IOC does like to make a point out of its regulations.
All that said, athletes need to follow rules, and athletic organizations need to be careful of who the consequences fall on when people mess up.
