When Scoop allows conformity at this integrity-laden cost, do you know who he sounds like? Jose Canseco. Bill Romanowski. Any third-grader who makes faces at the teacher behind his/her back.
Sorry, Scoop, but I ain’t a lemming. If you want to be like everyone else, and degrade both your morals and your stature, go right ahead. Me, I’ll wait to raise up an athlete who, as cliché as this may sound, plays the game the way it’s meant to be played. The athlete should not govern the rules — the rules should govern him.
That being said, I suppose now would be a good time to come clean — that 3-2 curveball I saw with runners at the corners a couple years ago? Yeah, I didn’t check my swing. Not even close. But that’s not how the ump saw it. And according to Scoop, as long as the burden of failure lies on the umps’ shoulders, I have free run of the place. So why do I still feel like a jackass over that metaphorical totally truthful example?
Gonzalez choked, but not in the traditional sense. His unknown status has since been replaced by a dishonorable image, a slithering, slash-and-burn purveyor of the dark side of athletics. (Ah, hyperbole is the spice of life, is it not?) Fortunately, as Scoop’s column signs off, the idea of ‘karma’ comes into play — and it is this ethereal influence (and raw, unabated talent) that landed Gonzalez under the sole of Nadal’s tennis footprint.
Third grade, just like Gonzalez's gold medal hopes, may have come and gone, but integrity can last forever.
If only my hazelnut gelato could, too.
Article comments
1 - nicolas
Scoop is ridiculous. He says that you don't do the "right thing" but rather what consensus dictates. Guess what, Scoop? A behavior is usually considered the "right thing" to do BECAUSE it is what consensus would dictate. And if you asked a consensus of tennis players, they would agree with Blake's anger.