It seems sometimes that sports and controversy go together like peanut butter and jelly. If you look at any social media site, newspaper, or sports magazine, there is probably a story on some type of sports controversy. Sometimes these are big issues but sometimes they are small issues that the media takes and spins into a big issue even though, truth be told, it’s not even worth talking about.
One of the most common controversies in sports today revolves around the use of performance enhancing drugs. Athletes use these drugs trying to make themselves perform better. But what ends up happening is the leagues do random testing and they get busted. After they get busted for it, they are suspended for a certain amount of time (depending on what the league and the players unions agreed upon in the collective bargaining agreement). When the suspension is announced, the player typically follows one of two paths. The first is to feverishly deny it; the second path is that they come out and issue an apology to the fans.
Most of the other ones can be grouped together and referred to as general cheating controversies. Sometimes these “controversies” are quite funny because they are so outlandish. On occasion, some of these sound like ideas the losing team made up just to explain why they lost. The media also plays a role in these issues because once they get a hold of it these stories become bigger and more attention gets paid to them.
Unfortunately, for the teams and athletes involved, the punishment handed down is much more severe than it should be. This could be clearly seen when the NFL announced its punishments on the New England Patriots for their role in “Deflategate.” The NFL stripped the Patriots of a first and third round draft pick and fined the team one million dollars. They also suspended quarterback Tom Brady four games for his role and “not cooperating” with the league. A lot of people agreed that the punishments were harsh for the supposed crime.
Speaking of crimes, they make up the last group of controversies. In this day and age of media and social media, it seems like whenever an athlete gets arrested, it’s reported as it happens. Due to all the social media, the information is all over the place instantly.
When the crime is a major one, the team that the player is on has to make a quick decision/statement to not look bad in the public eye and to the media. However, that can affect the player if they were falsely arrested. The player could have lost a job over the police making an arrest that wasn’t correct. Even if the player is not immediately released by his current team, the league has to review the situation to determine if they should suspend the player for their actions.
Over the last 20 years, many controversies have happened, from baseball’s report on steroid use to the Patriots’ “Spygate” to Ray Rice’s abuse of his wife. These are just a few of the most notable examples among the tons of controversies that are found in sports.
