The Taint Keeps A-Spreading (or why sports continue to disappoint law abiding citizens)

With the announcement that boxing's "Sugar" Shane Mosley used the "clear" and the "cream" before his 2003 bout with Oscar De La Hoya, can we commence performing two intellectual rituals moving forward through the rest of our sports' fan lives?

First, boxing is dead, long live boxing. The pundits have been bemoaning the waning popularity in the sweet science from the American audience, and they have every right to worry. The heavyweight division, once the roaming grounds of Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and countless other greats, is now an anemic, uninteresting mess. Here's a great link to boxingwriter, who deplores the state of the heavyweight division (with links to other great articles). Second, there is a dearth of great American prize fighters currently in the ranks of boxing. Who would blame them? All the best athletes have left boxing for the NFL, NBA, and even the MLB. Why endure the brutality of boxing if you can just get knocked around on a field and make a whole lot more money? Do you want to be one of the 900 boxing deaths?

I'm sure the rise of mixed martial arts hasn't helped boxing.

Now, if that wasn't enough, boxing has to suffer though allegations of doping. Looks like the WBA, WBO, WB-why the hell are there so many associations...all of the lot have to deal with the same scrutiny devoted to the WWE.

Second, and more importantly, I think we've now gotten to the point where there is no shock in hearing that an athlete used performance enhancing drugs. Reading the article about Shane Mosley, and for that matter, the allegations against Rick Ankiel, Jay Gibbons, etc etc etc, the whole Floyd Landis thing...all of it barely raises the eyebrow anymore (and the eyebrow is a hair triggered device). Sports have become tainted irreparably, and we as sports fans have to come to the conclusion of guilty until proven innocent. Let's all wire our minds to think that all of our athletic heroes are doping, because, sadly, the prevalence of performance enhancement (and the lack of culpability in today's age of PR-firm friendly techniques of denial and flat-out lying) has created a stage where we cannot and should not trust that athletes are on the up and up.

This does not mean that we can't still watch and cheer. Just remember, you are no longer cheering the endeavor of fellow human beings on the field...you're probably applauding the efforts of the new biochemically engineered athlete.