Cheaters Sometimes Prosper

I have a hard time with cheating in professional sports. I'm conflicted with the morality at play. "Deflate-gate" is just the latest in a long series of issues (not the first for the Patriots, either) that sully the most basic concepts of sportsmanship. Or do they?

As far as deflating a football goes, I am aghast that both teams don't use the same ball in a game. This seems less like cheating and more like the league missing an opportunity to add more parity. The NFL should provide any and all balls, and they should never be in the hands of equipment personnel from either team. Simple enough. I believe that the only way the playing field is actually level is if everyone has the same access to performance enhancement.

Performance-enhancing drugs? If I understand them correctly, many of them are meant to assist in recovery after exertion. I would allow those immediately. Yes, there's the concern of health issues down the road, but any professional athlete is risking life-altering injury every time they compete. Hell, a 25-year-old cricket player just died after being hit by a ball. Doesn't matter if he was on the juice or not. Besides, who can say that steroids are worse than Splenda in the grand scheme of things?

I want to see my favorite basketball/baseball/football/hockey/soccer/tennis/etc. player do what they do best. If that means Adderall to focus or HGH to recover and hit the field faster, how is that more dangerous than telling football players they can only tackle knees? Concussions are a bigger concern, in my opinion.

The bigger travesty than Lance Armstrong getting caught for using PEDs is that he essentially buried the guy who originally outed him. It's pretty well known that everyone in cycling does some kind of performance enhancement; the crime here was slander, and Armstrong was the villain. I could have forgiven him for getting caught doping, but ruining another person's life to maintain his ridiculous lie is unfathomable.

It's worthwhile to consider the concept of cheating within the realm of professional sports. The ultimate draw of sports is competition, but professional sports is also entertainment. The key word is "professional". At the point when sports becomes a career, I believe any advantage an athlete can gain to win or be the best in their position should be available to them, with the exception of substances that are illegal in general.