Lance Armstrong. Ben Johnson. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson…the list goes on. They’re all athletes who decided that the end goal was to be achieved, what ever the cost, and the cost was their and their sport’s integrity. But why cheat?

The easy answer is money, but it is too easy, simply a number put on an achievement. The money, or fame, is intricately tied to the psychology of sports as a business. All things considered, an athlete has very little “real” use. They serve to entertain the masses, an actor in an intricately plotted play. But with this definition, they earn salaries out-of-proportion with their “usefulness.”

However, demand (and continual seat price hike and television exposure) has determined that that is the price the businesses/sports teams will pay, for a limited time. These athletes are the best of the best, but they can only earn wages doing what they have trained for for a short period of time. Cheating becomes the easy way to capitalize on this time frame, and as long as the fans still come, industry tolerates it.