Cheaters: the real losers

By Chris Furnari

Cheaters never prosper. Or do they?

Throughout the entire sporting world, cheating has now become synonymous with success.

Track athletes are serving lifetime bans for taking performance-enhancing drugs, baseball players are consistently at the forefront of media scrutiny with regards to steroids, and now even coaches are attempting to gain any advantage possible to win.

The most recent culprit in this outburst of cheating is Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. In their first-week matchup versus the New York Jets, the Patriots were accused of videotaping Jets sideline signals, which, by NFL rules, is illegal. Belichick, who claims he misunderstood the rules, has been fined $500,000 dollars by the NFL and will lose the team's first-round draft pick, which is basically a slap on the wrist.

In week two of the football season, the very same team who accused the Patriots of cheating was on the other side of the fence.

The Baltimore Ravens accused the Jets defense of calling out fake snap counts, which, by NFL rules, is illegal.

I must say, when the most popular alleged cheater, Barry Bonds, hit his record-breaking home run, I was ecstatic. I was witnessing history.

The moment will forever be committed to memory, but it doesn't change the fact that he cheated.

But Barry Bonds isn't the only problem. The fact of the matter is, cheaters exist, not only in sports, but in life. Cheating exists in places other than sporting arenas.

According to Matthew Duncan, the associate dean for student life, there were 18 reported incidents of academic integrity violations last year at Santa Clara.

Kerry Keating, men's basketball coach, said at Sunday night's pep rally, "If you aren't getting better, you're getting worse."

I asked convocation keynote speaker and head NFL referee Mike Carey his thoughts on cheating and Keating's statement. Carey believes individuals should take advantage of anything in the framework of the rules, but hold themselves to a high standard of human ethics.

But if cheating is what sports and life is coming to, why establish rules in the first place? Sure, some rules were meant to be broken, but rules that govern some of our greatest pastimes should be respected.

My high school math teacher and former baseball player used to tell me, "If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying." I say, if you aren't trying, you're only cheating yourself.