Sportsmanship Lies

This is one of those times where people actually think they believe something that they don't believe. Sports fans are literally channeling that inner toddler - recalling stories of George Washington & his cherry tree, and forgetting to apply the vast amount of knowledge they have acquired over their years on this planet.

This Derek Jeter nonsense is completely laughable. It is a joke, and I'm not talking about what he did.

In any given baseball game, you see 3 to 4 plays in which a player "sells" something that he or she didn't do.

In any given football game, you see a lineman decide to hold a defensive player, and hope to get away with it.

In any given basketball game, you see a player flop or act as if they got fouled.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the sport culture we have created, and you cannot have your cake and eat it, too. Every time Pedroia phantom swipes 2nd base on a double play, do we get up in arms? Every time Big Baby takes a soft hit to the chest and falls backwards, do we call the morality police?

The answers, as we all know, are no freaking way.

When it all boils down to it, Derek Jeter has 1 job - win World Series rings. He is better at that, I may add, than anyone in the last 20 years, maybe the last 40 years. He is a powerhouse, an epic Hall-of-Famer who has done everything, every single thing, that is asked of him by the organization.

Jeter knows he is getting old, and he knows he is slowing. His job is to get to first base, and he'll do whatever it takes. There are rules set up within the game, and if you can point to a rule that says, "no faking," I'll read it and respect it. Further, if there is consequence, then let that be applied.

But without rules and without consequence, in the context of a sport, I have no overarching issue with what Jeter tried to accomplish, aside from the fact that I would personally not choose to do something like that.

Do I dislike the dishonesty that takes place every single second on a sports field? Yes, I hate it. I despise it. Do I think that a player should be run out on a rail for accepting it as a reality, especially when dollars, legacy and championship are on the line? No way at all.

In any given Pro Sporting event there are lies. Dozens per game. Athletes, and pro sports, are blocks of time in which you try to accumulate all advantages you can, within the rules, in order to win. We set this system up, and we don't demand change, so what can we expect.

Next time you see your favorite Patriot trap a football and claim it was a good catch, or next time you see Garnett smack away at a player's arm and not call the foul on himself, try to align yourself with the fact that they're just looking out for No. 1, and that's all Jeter did against Tampa the other night.