KWalker wrote:
Football glorifies dopers, cheats, drug addicts, wife-beaters, tax-evaders, loudmouths, and just downright awful people in the same exact way.
Case in point is Brian Cushing. Hailed as one of the best defensive players in the NCAA and now NFL, Cushing tested positive for steroids after years of speculation. Hell, at our gym he openly discussed using steroids, growth hormone, IGF-1, and stimulants and was a complete and utter asshole to anyone that came in contact with him. He tested positive and almost nothing was said.
Then you have Pantani, who quite clearly had some issues with PEDs. He was, however, a humble person otherwise and made the sport interesting to watch. His downward spiral into depression is the opposite of someone such as Cushing, who revels in the exploits of his usage and draws satisfaction from it.
I don't see them as being the same. Maybe public denial about the bro sports is higher, but there are only a few cyclists that act like pro sports stars IMO i.e. Lance, Ricco, DiLuca, etc.
Its also not like the NFL Players Association or any other sports unions are any less corrupt, its just that the public doesn't care. Game fixing, bounties, etc have happened in many sports for a long time, but there is so much money and commercial appeal to them that it simply doesn't matter to most people. To many cycling is still a fringe sport. People don't grow up riding bikes up and down mountains for weeks on end they often grow up playing football (both types) or traditional school sports and thus have no attachment to it. It is a roadshow at best and quite hard to comprehend. The only thing they hear about it are the negatives and are never exposed to the positives because it does not have as much commercial drive and appeal nor get as much press. So what press it does get is either very good (big race results) or very bad (doping). Go tell someone in the US that NFL players dope and give them the reasons why and they'd probably admit that its plausible, but they don't care.
In this vein I don't care about doping in cycling as much as most do. I've watched the tour for the past 24 years of my life (almost my whole life) and grew up knowing that riders probably doped. I sluffed it off then because I liked the event and sluff it off now because I still love watching the sport. In this regard I appreciate Pantani because he contributed to an aspect of the sport I love(d) regardless of how he did it. Its not like I thought that he was some saint whose life I would use to set an example for my children. When I hear people just complain about every rider as being this or that I sometimes feel that they're truly missing out on an enjoyment in watching pro cycling and their enjoyment comes out of some sick internal desire to simply be a critic.
You forgot dog fighting and murder
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