SPORTS are no stranger to scandals, many of them reading like a Hollywood script. Some actually have been immortalized on films, such as the 1919 fix of the World Series - known infamously as the Black Sox Scandal. Baseball's darling "Charlie Hustle" Pete Rose was banned from baseball after gambling on his own team. The most timely example, however, is that of the case of the alleged pressure on a French figure skating judge to award the gold medal to the Russian doubles team rather than the Canadians.
The problems associated with sports, however, reach beyond the professional level in the form of gambling on college athletics. It's time to take back the field of fair play, and true sportsmanship only can return to the country's arenas through an all-encompassing federal law banning gambling on amateur sports.
All but one state - Nevada, home to numerous casinos - has a similar prohibition in place. Through federal legislation, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) seeks a blanket ban on amateur sports.
In the minds of millions, more than a few stirring and evocative images are associated with the sacred purity of sports: freshly cut grass, hot summer afternoons, "Rudy," gleaming championship cups under massive stadium lights. Without a doubt, such a love of the game pulses throughout the United States and the entire world. However, beneath the cheering crowds and congratulatory hugs at the end of a championship run lies a much darker world. Few people would like to admit that their idealistic realm of sporting competition at times is muddled by dishonesty and criminal acts. Unfortunately, that's often the cold reality.
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In the past week, the focus of a series of Congressional testimonies shifted to college sports and other amateur competition. The NCAA currently bans student athletes, coaches or any other member of the NCAA system from wagering on college sports.
The NCAA has taken a proper stance in its crusade to curb one of the darker aspects of intercollegiate play. Wagering possesses the ability to undermine everything that makes sports such an appealing diversion and competition. The very few benefits gambling rarely bestows on its college athlete participants do not begin to even make up for the harsh consequences that they inevitably face. The rags to riches story of hitting it big - though attractive - are outstandingly rare with the more common story being one of failure rather than triumph.
Betting on sports is a great threat to college athletes. Illegal college bookies thrive on campuses around the country and, in addition to themselves, threaten to take down student athletes in their web of criminal activity in violating both NCAA regulations and state bans on gambling according to testmonies heard before the House of Representative's Committee on Energy and Commerce. Stories of athletes' loss of scholarships or even expulsion aren't unheard of, but beyond the tangible evidence, a more dangerous effect certainly looms over college sports: damage to the true spirit of the game. Athletes don't play for a salary as do professionals, and the fact that others profit - and in many cases lose money - based on their performance places undue pressure on them to perform beyond reasonable expectations, regardless of whether they are in on the gambling or not.
In extreme cases, when athletes themselves are in on the wagering, the outcome of the game already has been predetermined, ruining the inherent spontaneity and excitement of a fair match. Coaches and players may become the target of verbal and even physical confrontations on the street or even in the arena in encountering an irate gambler who lost money in a wager.
A prominent opponent of the federal legislation is Rep. Shelley Berkley (D) of - not surprisingly - Nevada. She faults the NCAA for problems with illegal gambling on college campuses. What she fails to see, however, is that the NCAA lacks the law enforcement and manpower to enforce restrictions at every school. In addition, not all schools are members of the NCAA. Other opponents oppose federal government intervention and are weary of the infringement on gamblers' rights.
These arguments are weak. With the large number of citizens, students and institutions involved, no other individual state or organization has the power to make a true difference. As to the argument that government intervention violates gamblers' rights, the rights of those who bet take a back seat when those of athletes and coaches are infringed upon, as in the case of threats or extreme pressure to engage in criminal activity.
For athletes and spectators alike, sports are the ultimate culmination of guts and glory. Allowing that pure embodiment of spirit to be debased and endangered by gamblers is unpardonable. Both Congress and sports lovers across America should take up the NCAA's efforts for federal legislation to preserve sports' idealism.
(Becky Krystal is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at bkrystal@cavalierdaily.com)
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