Sporting events are a huge part of most American’s lives, whether they are playing or just watching, everyone wants to be the winner. This want to win at all costs has bred a culture of cheating, betting, and bribery. Cheating comes in all different forms with some clearly being much more extreme than others. There is a fine line that athletes walk when it comes to trying to gain an advantage. Some things, like using better equipment, are considered okay but others, like an illegal hit, are considered too far. Whether it be professional sports or school or club sports for the small time players, cheating is becoming an encouraged part of “the game” in today’s society due to pressure on their children to win at such a young age, media coverage of major scandals, and the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. 

There are many conflicting angles to gamesmanship that come into play when the topic of cheating is brought up. The whole point of the game is to win, have an advantage over the opponent and use it to beat them, but then when looking into the rules it seems like gaining any advantage is considered cheating. All sports use officials or referees to govern the games by  upholding rules and regulations.  But recently, sportsmanship has been changing, it is no longer just about playing the game, now it is mostly about doing whatever it takes to win the game. Major professional sports are taking major 

Many children start playing some kind of sport from age six or seven. Since then some of their parents have been pounding that winner mentality into their heads. “Second place is the first loser,” probably sounds pretty familiar to everyone. Of course every parent wants their child to have fun with it, but they also want their son or daughter to know what it feels like to be the winner, and strive for it next time as well. This is where cheating is bred in the early days, as a kid gets older and continue through their chosen sport, it becomes reinforced by other influences than a child’s parent. Coaches push the kids to win throughout their high school careers to look the best they can going into college. The athletes want to be a top player from a school that always performs well and wins in order to get in and get in on an athletic scholarship. College football runs rampant with coaches covering up scandals and violations and turning a blind eye to some of the things. Another big problem with college football coaches is coming into a new team. In order to survive as a coach they must be lenient with the team and players in order to save the school’s program. Bleacher report posted a survey to see the challenges coaches are facing and reported:

Is it possible to win in college football without cheating?To get a sense of the landscape that programs and their potential coaches are facing, Bleacher Report posed this question to more than 30 current and former FBS head coaches—most of whom chose to remain anonymous for fear of harming their current or previous universities.The overwhelming answer: Probably not. At least not right away.Once a program is successful, the success can sustain itself. But by definition, most programs that turn over their coaching staffs have not been successful. Most are a mess.One coach who spoke to Bleacher Report was told on his first day that his quarterback might be part of a campuswide gambling ring.One was given an academic report that showed more than 50 of his players failed to go to class during one week in November. Every player. Every class. For the entire week.One was met by rumors of a raging drug problem in the locker room. He drug-tested the entire team during the first team meeting. More than 30 percent of the team failed.

For coaches of college football teams it seems like a nightmare that there is no immediate answer or solution to. There is no overall rules to control how all coaches and players act or what the punishment will be for breaking any rules. Although there are governing bodies for the different aspects of college sports, none of them keep a tight enough leash on the universities’ programs in order to actually keep them in line and solve the problem or cheating at the college level.

Media coverage of sports scandals is another driving factor in encouraging players to cheat. When an athlete gets caught cheating or a coaching scandal is uncovered the media glorifies it. They do not go into the punishments and negative sides of what happened as much as they show “juicy” stuff that fans would like to see. Since it is a business for media outlets they tailor the story to make it interesting for viewers. Also, lately, there has been more unconventional ways of reporting what they find. Things from an athlete’s personal life are now displayed as news, along with the actual story of the scandal. This detracts from what was actually going on with the player cheating and shows more of the player in general. This does not show other players what happens if they get caught cheating. It also does not help to deter players from deciding to cheat in the first place or how to handle it if they know that some cheating is going on. With all this coverage and interest, players get publicity out of it instead of being shunned, like the intent should be. Whether good or bad popularity, the person becomes better known, which might lead to more success in their sport, new deals from the newly acquired fame and attention from the media, which is the opposite of what should be happening. They gain more publicity out of all the coverage of their story. Although, most players do end up losing some of their endorsements and sponsors, they still remain professional athletes or teams so in the long run losing a few sponsors does not end up hurting them too bad. The media of today only focuses on what the best story will be and not the the negative impacts made on the sports and franchises due to cheating scandals or uncovered steroid usage among the athletes.

Lastly, the biggest mechanism for cheating today across the board in sports: steroids. Steroids  are the easiest way for players to gain that advantage they are going after. They help the athlete gain more muscle, improve their skills, and overall, perform better. Regardless of any negative side-effects of the drugs or, more importantly, any punishments the player may face if they test positive, steroids or performance enhancing drugs do not seem like they are going anywhere or going to be removed from the game any time soon. Eighty percent of high school athletes said that they believe steroids would be an easy, low-risk way for them to gain an edge and achieve their “athletic dream”. Along with that, sixty percent of people, not just players, say that using steroids is the right of a professional athlete. Although this is only one survey, it suggests that steroids might be here to stay for a little while. People do not see the risk outweighing the reward at this point. They would rather outperform everyone else and win than deal with the consequences. In most popular professional sports the punishment for one positive test result is only a number of game suspension, it varies between different sports depending on how big of a problem it is, with MLB having the most severe punishment, but this is because they have had the biggest problem with steroid usage throughout history. The punishments get more severe in number of games a player cannot play goes up as the number of times the athlete has positive results go up, but only a handful use a lifetime ban for numerous offenses. The punishments are not severe enough to deter people from using steroids, especially not from trying it once or for multiple players on a team trying it out. Additionally, a survey said that it is more likely for multiple players to start using steroids on a team if the idea is introduced by just one player. Teammates are not morally affected enough to care or stop another teammate from using steroids. The opposite actually happens, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse said that: 

One athlete's decision to use performance enhancing drugs also exerts a powerful effect on the other athletes in the competition. As reported by Sports Illustrated, half of all recently surveyed Olympic athletes admitted that they would be willing to take a drug -- even if it would kill them eventually -- as long as it would let them win every event they entered five years in a row. This type of 'win at any cost' mentality is pervading sports at all levels of competition and results in athletes feeling coerced to use substances just to remain on par with other athletes.

This mentality is causing more and more athletes to feel like they have to use steroids to keep up with the other so that there is even a point at competing at all. This is also causing the dosages to increase since more people are taking them, others have to start taking more in order to still stay ahead of everyone else. Another result other than more athletes taking the drugs is that teammates see it as not having to do with them and also helps their team have an advantage as long as they user does not get caught. But most sports only punish players that are using the steroids, further removing it as a team or league problem, since in professional sports, losing a minor player is replaceable and scandals having to do with big players are often overlooked in the eyes of what punishments they should receive. Overall, steroids remain an extremely over tolerated method of cheating in all sports, from college level, to pro leagues, to even the Olympics. 

Throughout all of history players of all sports have tried to gain an advantage over their opponent in order to win. They use whatever method possible to win because everyone wants to win and keep winning and no one wants to be known as the loser. Coaches in sports have problems with being forced to overlook things they might have spoken up about if it was not for saving the team, media does not emphasize the important parts of a cheating scandal which may deter other athletes from choosing to do the same in the future, and steroid usage is at an all-time high in sports at all levels. Collectively as a whole, our society allows and tolerates cheating among teams and players because sports today are run by money and entertainment, not by the love of playing the game or the want to view and participate in a fair competition.
