On heels of Cushing and Landis, all sport is guilty until proven innocent

Been quite a time for doping revelations in sport, although as well we know, athletes accused of taking illegal drugs are invariably just downright

Frank Deford | May 26, 2010

On heels of Cushing and Landis, all sport is guilty until proven innocent /

Been quite a time for doping revelations in sport, although as well we know, athletes accused of taking illegal drugs are invariably just downright flabbergasted to find out what has gotten into their bodies by immaculate infusion.

The NFL defensive rookie of the year, one Brian Cushing, tested positive at the start of the season for a banned fertility drug that performance-enhancing users employ, but the NFL didn't bother to reveal this until after the season. When it did, the reporters voted to let Cushing keep his ill-gotten award.

Some cynics might say NFL writers, like the NFL and its players union, care naught for the integrity of the game so long as it's more popular and more violent. The league features a great many monster players who appear larger than the average John Deere tractor, but it still doesn't perform blood tests for Human Growth Hormone, because this would mean sticking these poor behemoths with a widdle needle.

Then we have Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his victory in the 2006 Tour de France for doping, now declaring that the whole sport is rife with enhanced cheating, and that he was even personally debutized to keep an eye on what he alleges to have been Lance Armstrong's refrigerated blood used for doping. This is just one more of several accusations leveled at Armstrong over the course of many years, and taken together, they would tax the gullibility of every sucker P.T. Barnum even dreamed of fleecing.

The cycling establishment, which knows the value of the whole sport turns to ashes if its great champion is ever convicted of fraud, cries that Landis is just bitter and vindictive. Ah yes, and remember Jose Canseco? He, like Landis, also finally admitted taking drugs and then fingered many of his baseball brothers, which caused the sport's establishment to say the same self-serving things about him ... right up until the moment Canseco was proven right.

Yes, of course Lance Armstrong, the cancer survivor, is innocent 'til proven guilty . . . although an insensitive misanthrope might dare suggest that he is also a guilt survivor.

Now too, Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Woods have admitted having dealings with a Canadian doctor, Tony Galea -- he just charged with smuggling HGH into the U.S. and giving it to NFL players. Naturally, Woods says Galea didn't give him any HGH. No, he's just a wonderful doctor who, although unlicensed to practice in this country, conveniently makes house calls from 1,200 miles away. Excuse me, there are no good licensed doctors in Florida?

I'm sorry, it's just so difficult any longer to believe any athlete about drugs. Too many of them have lied and lied and lied until they were proved to be . . . lying. Oh, I know they're all innocent until proven guilty. It's just that by now I'm afraid that I think sport -- all sport -- is guilty until proven innocent.

Published May 26, 2010

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.