Which sport has taken the most heat this summer?

Question

Which sport in your opinion has lost its credibility the most and also has take the most heat?

Baseball and Bonds breaking the all time home run record with a cloud of steroid allegations over him?

Basketball and the Tim Donaghy (Dirty Ref who bet on games) scandal?

Football with Pac Man and others getting into a lot of trouble with the law ALONG with Michael Vick and the dogfighting charges?

Cycling? Tour De France and several of its top cyclists and leaders of the tournament getting caught/kicked outta the tournament due to steroids charges

Wrestling? Death of Chris Benoit (one of the faces of the WWE) and couple others

Boy, Hockey looks like an angel at the moment haha...

any others you guys have in mind that I didn't mention?

Answer 1

I'd say basketball cause what happened there really attacks the integrity of the game. I don't think players taking steroids is as damaging to the reputation of a league as a ref fixing outcomes. Everyone already knows Bonds took steroids along with half the cyclists and pro wrestlers. Football I think takes the least heat because these are the actions of individual players and what they did was not affiliated with their sport in any way. Also the NFL does a good job of handling these situations and punishing these idiots. But yeah, it's kinda interesting that you mention all this and hockey because this might be a good opportunity for the NHL to bounce back and regain some of their fans who are turned off by all this turmoil in other sports.

Answer 2

I'd say football right now. I've never seen people be so outraged at the behavior of players from the NFL. It was certainly deserved but usually people in the past have blown off whatever bad behavior has existed in football. Not anymore apparently. It's been more than Vick and Pacman too. There's been Tank Johnson, Lance Briggs, Chris Henry Clinton Portis and Deion Sanders' comments about dogfighting. People simply are fed up with athletes and celebrities behaving like goons and then getting what is perceived as special treatment. Bonds hasn't been mentioned a whole lot since he hit 756 and no one in America really cares about cycling. I think people have always had suspicions about basketball and this could be just the tip of iceberg as far as the Donaghy scandal goes. I think if and when that blows up and more names are known, then we'll turn our attention to that. The same thing with wrestling. I think people always had their suspicions that they were on steroids so that wasn't too much of a shock. Football has recently had this pristine image of a league that can do no wrong and now we're finding out that there is more than meets the eye. The NFL was the highest up in the sports totem pole and now has the farthest to fall and we're seeing that right now.

Answer 3

The sport with the most heat has got to be football with Pacman and Vick. The Vick crap has been all the sports world and the national media can talk about. There are more players out there that have done unmentionable things, but these two have certainly left a huge black eye on the face of it's profession.

Answer 4

WWE is not wrestling. It is no more a sport than Survivor or American Idol. It's reality TV on steroids (literally!) :) Of course, reality TV is not reality at all, but it's not sports either.

Nobody cares enough about cycling for it to lose credibility.

The NBA lost it's credibility YEARS ago. That's why the Donaghy scandal lasted about a week. Attendance, TV ratings and profits continue to plummet. Who cares about one ref when the whole league is in shambles?

The steroids issue is dead, too. That came out in 2003-04 and it took exactly no one by surprise when Bonds broke the record.

The NFL, on the other hand, is by far the most popular and profitable sports league in the US. Without even including Vick in the discussion, discipline issues got out of control under Paul Tagliabue. Roger Goodell has made it his priority to clean up the image of the NFL in this regard, but everytime he opens the newspaper, there is something else. Forget about Pacman Jones, too ... and even Chris Henry. How about Lance Briggs in a hit-and-run? Bruce Gradkowki now being mentioned in a points shaving scandal while he was in college? Tim Couch taking steroids?

Everyone talks about the utter importance of this season for the image of the NFL, but I think next year is more key. Goodell is obviously working his butt off trying to get this ship righted, but if next year's offseason has us listening to the sports networks legal analysts more than breaking down X's and O's, the NFL should look carefully at the NBA to see what is in their future.

Answer 5

definitely NBA. Crooked refs are as bad as it gets. The league has lost all of its credibility and I think Donaghy is just the tip of the iceberg. More refs are involved, I'm sure. It will be hard to fix this problem, while NFL just needs to ban a few players and the problem is solved. MLB will slowly clean up the steroid situation. I don't care about the other sports you mentioned.

Answer 6

As we approach the football season I would have to say Football.
The off field behavior of the players has become horrible. They're either Thugs with guns or killing Dogs. That sport has become out of control.

Answer 7

Football.There are more idiots in the NFL then I thought.And wrestling also, because there was so much controversy following the tragedy of the Benoit family, and alot of ppl that were sticking up for Benoit, and in the end I think it just made the world of wrestling that much more hated by some ppl.

Answer 8

i say football definately. so many players getting in trouble. a couple have been fatally shot. along with the michael vick thing, i'd say it would have to be football. baseball comes next. then basketball. nobody really cares about the Tour De Fraunce so that'll come later.

Answer 9

Basketball first, baseball second...

It's one thing for players to knowingly cheat... when it's a referee your sport loses all kinds of integrity.

Answer 10

Football; NFL had suspended two players as Paceman and Henry for the season as they might to suspend Mike Vick, too if he was found guilty.

Football has many players who had trouble with the law that suspend from NFL, arrest, respond the law.