Every sport has a bit of drama involved in it. Depending on the sport, things can be not as dramatic, to entire teams taking drugs and cheating for an entire season. Every sport has its fallacies and some are plagued more than others. That is, the ones that we know about.
Football is like every other sport, in the sense that it is also surrounded by drama, at least occasionally. With that in mind, here are some of the biggest scandals in the history of football.
Steroids – Every Sports Has This Problem
Every sport suffers from performance enhancing drugs or in simpler terms, steroids.
Following the death of Lyle Alzado in 1992, the NFL started looking into performance enhancers much more seriously. Alzado died of brain cancer. He also stated that most of the players he knew used some form of steroids. The usage of steroids dated back to the 1960s, the very inception of the unified NFL. Steroids have plagued every sport, so it is no strange that they would find their way into a very physical sport full of tackles and crashes.
Gambling Issues – Another Sports-Related Problem
Gambling and sports often go hand in hand and that is quite a bad thing, especially when the athletes and management start taking part in those bets. 1963 saw two players be suspended for gambling, the Packers Paul Hornurg and the Lions Alex Karras. They were suspended indefinitely. The Detroit Lions were also fined because they hadn’t reported any betting activities. Karras and Hornung were reinstated in 1964 and had pretty good careers, all things considered.
In 1983, another player named Art Schlicther was suspended for gambling, the first one since the two mentioned above.
Seeking an Advantage – Corporate Espionage?
When you listen in and record other teams practicing, as well as their meetings, you will get fined, and more. Coach Bill Belichick was fined 500000 USD for spying on the New York Jets during their practice. His team at the time was also fined the same amount of money. The New England Patriots grew a bit notorious for the actions of their coach.
In the following years, the footage was reviewed and no further disciplinary action was necessary. It was a lesson someone had to teach the rest of the league and Belichick and the Patriots paid the price, literally.
Star Players’ Mistakes – Tom Brady Vs Footballs
During the 2015 Championship Game against Indianapolis Colts, Tom Brady was accused of deflating footballs, causing problems for the opposing team. This was taken to court and the case lasted for three years, costing Tom Brady lots of money, a few million dollars. The Patriots played a good couple of seasons with Brady returning to lead them to more victories. He lost in court, so we should see no more deflated balls from Brady.
Sports are very prone to having scandals, mostly due to how much attention and money is poured into them. Everybody wants an advantage and some people cannot resist the temptations. Football is no stranger to scandals, these being a few of the many it had over its long history.
