Rice-A-Phony - The San Francisco Creep?

Considered by many to be the "Greatest Reciver of All Time", San Francisco Forty Niner Wide Receiver Jerry Rice was one of  the first retired NFL players to jump on the "Hate Train" and accuse the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady of deflating footballs to 2 PSI below the NFL limit, and with no proof. Then in what has to be one of the stupidest moves since Pete Carroll called a play to throw the ball over the middle on the New England one yard line with a 'beast in his backfield' and Super Bowl 49 on the line, Rice admitted to using "stickum" on his gloves during his HOF career, knowing at the time stickum was banned  by the NFL. His defense? A silly laugh and a statement "Everybody was doing it-"

So Rice is an admitted cheater! How many of his great catches or even his average catches were aided by wearing stickum covered gloves? 5%? 10%? 20%? It can't be proven  now, but we know he used an illegal substance (think pine tar) to procure an advantage, one that helped him catch  at least a portion of his 1,549 receptions. Sticky rice in San Francisco?

On one NFL show several years ago, retired Dallas Cowboy Wide Receiver Michael Irvin demonstrated how he was able to cleverly push off defenders to create space without drawing a penalty flag during his HOF career. It was against the rules, but Irvin was slick enough not to get caught. Wearing a sly grin of his own, and not too unlike a magician revealing his craft, he came clean on national TV ...

Cheating has been  part of competitive sports for a long time. Stella Walsh won a gold medal representing her native Poland in the 100 meters at the 1932 Olympics, tying the world record, and took silver in 1936. Born in Poland in 1911 as Stanlislawa Walasiewiczowna, her  name was changed to Walsh by age two, shortly after immigrating to Cleveland with her family. Walsh’s career included 20 women's track and field world records, 41 AAU titles, earning her a 1975 induction into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame. An autopsy performed after her accidental shooting death in 1980 revealed she had both female and  male chromosomes. Was Stella Walsh injecting herself with male hormones to increase muscle mass? No, in fact the coroner also reported that in addition to female characteristics, Walsh had male genitalia. One of the greatest female track stars had actually been born with what Doctors refer to today as ambiguous gender "mosaicism" and  just as easily could have been considered a man. There was talk of stripping her Olympic medals, but nothing was ever done.

So where does it stop? Certainly not with Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens, Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton, Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, Danny Almonte, etc...

People cheat on their taxes, drive above the posted speed limit, lie on their resumes, have extramarital affairs, and if they don't get caught, they don't consider it cheating.

We'll have to wait and see how the whole "Deflategate" debacle shakes out, but we do know the New England Patriots won Super Bowl 49 fair and square, unless of course they put something in Pete Carroll's chewing gum to cause him to have a senior moment...