Tweet
Re: Clueless writing about our sport
Do not expect serious, introspective coverage of track and field until our beautiful sport takes itself seriously. Our courageous and ambitious efforts at waging a war on PED's has cost us our place in the American consciousness and kept us out of truly high regard in the sporting world. We are to the national and international public, a shady sport of drug cheats.
We have only ourselves -- the track world -- to blame. FIFA and the NBA deal with no such problem. They just stay out of it.
Examine the different tactics employed by the NFL and USATF (and IAAF) with failed drug test disclosures. The NFLbriefly experimented with "public disclosure", that track invented. They found such disclosure only damaged the NFL image, which is the most valued in worldwide sport and they pulled back to a way more discreet policy. The NFL is more protective of its image, and less anxious to publicize drug violators, in order to better preserve the league "product".
I would suggest track should be asking the NFL how they manage such information. There has got to be a way to detect PED abuse without destroying the very name of track and field. Public disclosure has proved to be a miserable failure. It has not served as a deterrant AND it has destroyed the name of our sport. It is a lose/lose. We have years of image repair ahead of us, but there is always hope, with engaged leadership.
Do not expect serious, introspective coverage of track and field until our beautiful sport takes itself seriously. Our courageous and ambitious efforts at waging a war on PED's has cost us our place in the American consciousness and kept us out of truly high regard in the sporting world. We are to the national and international public, a shady sport of drug cheats.
We have only ourselves -- the track world -- to blame. FIFA and the NBA deal with no such problem. They just stay out of it.
Examine the different tactics employed by the NFL and USATF (and IAAF) with failed drug test disclosures. The NFLbriefly experimented with "public disclosure", that track invented. They found such disclosure only damaged the NFL image, which is the most valued in worldwide sport and they pulled back to a way more discreet policy. The NFL is more protective of its image, and less anxious to publicize drug violators, in order to better preserve the league "product".
I would suggest track should be asking the NFL how they manage such information. There has got to be a way to detect PED abuse without destroying the very name of track and field. Public disclosure has proved to be a miserable failure. It has not served as a deterrant AND it has destroyed the name of our sport. It is a lose/lose. We have years of image repair ahead of us, but there is always hope, with engaged leadership.
Comment