I am not a follower of professional sports: They hold almost no interest for me, and I vastly prefer playing my video games. Nevertheless, I can hardly help but notice the massive cheating scandals that are sweeping the world of professional sports. However, reviewing the various media footage, I realize that there is at least one sport which remains untouched by these activities: Hockey. Being one of the few professional sports I enjoy watching at all, I am rather pleased that it has managed to keep clean thus far. This of course led me to wonder why it remained unaffected by the growing cheating spree (realizing the possibility that hockey may simply have avoided being caught or noticed yet). One possible explanation that occured to me (though by no means the only one), is the lockout year. Professional sports are no longer sports. The game is no longer the focus, it's all about the money. Hockey players demanded more money, and staged a lockout that resulted in the near criminal skipping of a year of the Stanley Cup. They learned that they were being paid to play a game, and that if the were unwilling to play, people would find entertainment elsewhere. The humility such a discovery would make on the players is of course strictly temporary, but it would explain why Hockey is one of the few sports that is not having to explain why its teams are cheating to the media. It's a lesson, that I feel would benefit all professional sports: They are being payed to play a game. They are entertainers, not supermen who are immune to the laws. The sport is what is important. When competitors cheat, there is no competition anymore.

Feel free to post your own opinions of the causes and effects of the current cheating frenzy.