I confess…I’m no expert when it comes to most professional sports.  Soccer, or futbol, for instance, can be paint-dryingly yawn-inspiring when spectated by the ill-informed or casual viewer.  It’s not easy to grasp its high degree of rabid fan devotion unless you have irrationally shouted at a non-responsive TV broadcast of a clearly erroneous call by an NBA ref against your equally irrationally-chosen team, and, even then, stadium-wide rioting with multiple fatalities…???  Oh…and though I would have questioned incorrectly had I responded with, “What is a form of urinary infection?”, to the Jeopardy clue, ‘Sepp Blatter’, the more-general query, “What is an insidiously infectious disease?”, would probably have been acceptable by the judges.

The skills, stamina, strength and determination of countless athletes in any number of sports is, without question, a mind-boggling, non-stop highlight reel.  However, any pretense that performance-enhancing drugs, illicit manipulation and out-and-out cheating, both in plain sight as well as in shadowy back rooms, is not as much a part of professional sport as say…a shamelessly sung anthem, would be, at best, sadly misguided if, in fact, anybody really gave a shit.  I guess what I’m saying is, would it really affect any level of sport appreciation if we simply accept all of the above and freely admit…it’s all just rasslin’?