Cheating allegations involving an American professional football team dominated the country’s news the last part of January 2015. The New England Patriots of Boston this time were accused of deliberately deflating the footballs they used.
On the 22nd of January, on the TV show Good morning America, co-host Robin Roberts asked sports analyst Jesse Palmer (also a former NFL quarterback) what kind of message cheating in professional sports sends to our children. His response was they hear,
“If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying. And if you cheat and don’t get caught, you can get away with it and it’s okay.”
People who oppose cheating, like Palmer, strongly disagree with that reasoning. He added,
“Everybody loses.”
How can that be?
As a passenger, would you want to trust your life to an airplane pilot who qualified that way. As a patient with a brain tumor, how much faith would you have in the surgeon who acquired his or her medical degree and board certifications dishonestly.
Cheating opponents point out when such unethical behavior becomes the norm, cynicism tends to displace faith in anything or anyone. It is false representation and a form of stealing, and eventually this will bring down any nation firmly in its grip.
