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Athletes Who Indulge Their Dark Side This page intentionally left blank Athletes Who Indulge Their Dark Side Sex, Drugs, and Cover-Ups Stanley H. Teitelbaum PRAEGER An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC Copyright 2010 by Stanley Teitelbaum All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Teitelbaum, Stanley H. Athletes who indulge their dark side : sex, drugs, and cover-ups / Stanley H. Teitelbaum. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-313-37756-3 (hard copy : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-37757-0 (ebook) 1. Athletes—Psychology. 2. Athletes—Drug use. 3. Athletes—Sexual behavior. 4. Doping in sports. 5. Compulsive behavior. I. Title. GV706.4.T42 2010 7960.01—dc22 2009035331 ISBN: 978-0-313-37756-3 E-ISBN: 978-0-313-37757-0 13 12 11 10 9 1 2 3 4 5 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. Praeger An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America To Jake, Max, Zoey, Will, and Ben—my personal dream team. This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi 1 The Steroids Scandal 1 2 The Dangers of Invincibility 39 3 Recent Gambling Scandals 67 4 Athletes Who Flirt with Disaster 85 5 Women Involved in Sports Scandals 107 6 Murder Scandals 125 7 Cover-Ups 139 Epilogue 163 Notes 165 Index 171 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a debt of gratitude to the many people who have contributed to my thinking, organizing, and shaping of this book. Most of all I am forever appreciative to Leighsa King for providing the support, endless availability, sensitivity, and knowledge in facilitating the flow of the work. I am grateful to Bill Minor, Marc Steger, Sue Macy, Debbie Goldbergh, and Cindy Sabella for helping me to navigate the process and for connect- ing me to key resources necessary to bring this book to fruition. A big thank you goes to Lawrence Teitelbaum for his guidance and spe- cial input, and the support of family members Martin Cohen, John King, and Diane Teitelbaum. I was inspired by the creative ideas from colleagues Henry Kellerman, Paul Elovitz, Peter Buirski, Alan Melowsky, and Dan Dervin, and the useful suggestions from Jim Gaspar, Joe Feldman, Diane Feldman, Gary Greenbaum, Al Pollock, Greg Rauscher, Pearl Wolf and Howard Geltzer. Among the many others whose interest in my analysis of these sports scandals spurred me forward are Joan Erdheim, Andrea Corn, Carolyn Craig, Dan Sosnowik, John Hussey, Gene Carney, and Phil Harmon. The staff at the New York Public Library, Lucille Bertram and the Teaneck, New Jersey, Public Library Staff, and Lily Dougherty-Johnson at the Amagansett, New York Free Library were consistently reliable in accessing research sources. I gratefully acknowledge Dan Harmon and Debbie Carvalko at Green- wood Publishers and Rebecca Edwards at Cadmus Communications for their expertise in cultivating this project. As always the insights, formulations, constructive critique, and encour- agement from Sylvia Teitelbaum in moving the work along were beyond invaluable. This page intentionally left blank INTRODUCTION Sports scandals have captured our interest for decades, and the public’s appetite for these stories is increasingly insatiable. We love sports, we thirst for sports news, and we are incurably attracted to the constant parade of celebrity athlete downfalls. The modern-day landscape has shifted in recent eras, and we now are drawn to sports stars’ off-the-field activities as much as we are drawn to what they do in the game. New scandals occur on an almost weekly basis featuring these athletes who cross the line, and the public is captivated by these incidents involving moral or legal transgressions. In the context of intense media scrutiny and the “hero-ization” of gifted athletes, lapses in off-the-field behavior fuel constant headlines. These transgressions, many of them serious offenses, range from the illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs and other forms of cheating, to sexual mis- conduct, to gambling, to the illegal possession and use of weapons, and even to murder. What prompts sports heroes to make pathologically self-destructive choices in crossing boundaries—choices that lead them to engage in activ- ities that put their careers and their lives at risk? What goes on inside the minds of corrupt athletes, when they cross society’s and sport’s boundaries? What allows them to operate with unbridled hubris? What creates the cli- mate that encourages them to view themselves as being above the system, and to expect a free pass when their corrupt actions come to light? Why do so many celebrity sports stars indulge their dark side in off-the-field misbehavior? Simply put, they do it because they feel they can! Because their acquired distorted self-image, as a result of fan adulation and being pumped up by the media, conditions them to believe that they can cross these boundaries with impunity. Their immense wealth and exaggerated status make them ill prepared for the need to cultivate and to protect their image. xii Introduction It is ironic to observe how frequently our star athletes, who seem to have it all, disregard the rules of society and indulge their dark side, with little concern about the implications for their careers or their lives. In general, the realistic appraisal and anticipation of consequences for stepping over the line is a sufficient deterrent against the acting out of antisocial behavior. Such self-restraint is often absent in the lives of some celebrity sports heroes, who are conditioned to expect a quick fix in response to their needs and to indulge their wishes impulsively and even recklessly, without forethought and without regard for the repercussions. Past transgressions often have been treated lightly, which further encour- ages athletes to believe that they have a license to do whatever they want. The culture of cheating in sports, which mirrors the scandals of decep- tion in our society at large, has reached epidemic proportions; and collu- sions and cover-ups among the league, the owners, the coaches, and the players rule the day. As we become increasingly disillusioned in celebrities and investment managers who are exposed as fraudulent, and politicians and corporate leaders who are guilty of lying, cheating, hypocrisy, and deception, we are faced with similar situations in the world of sports. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, and Michael Vick are merely a small sample of elite sports stars who have been tainted by scan- dals in the early twenty-first century. We are so flooded with these sports scandals that we have become jaded and inured to their impact on our cul- ture. The continuing cavalcade of athletes’ misconduct has become so expected and accepted that some sports scandals that once were viewed as shocking are now considered to be mundane and unimportant. A wide- spread sense of moral outrage has been replaced by reactions of numbness and indifference. In many ways, sports represents the last frontier in which to establish solid values and commendable character traits in our children. Instead of solidifying this goal, we are seeing an erosion of character and integrity in many of our sports stars, which is being passed along to youths who are eager to emulate their heroes. As a result we are in danger of producing a corresponding preponderance of erosion of character and integrity in children. Along with the influences coming from parents, schools, and peers, elite athletes contribute to the task of molding youngsters to embrace values that lead to productive lifestyles. Correspondingly, young people look to their role models in sports to shape them in their journey toward adulthood. The mantle of role model invariably comes with the territory of attain- ing prominence in sports. There is a serious side of sports celebrity status, which is to be mindful of how off-the-field demeanor affects the fans, and, hence, one of the most significant contributions to society that a star athlete can make is to recognize the responsibility and opportunity that accompanies success. Introduction xiii Others have subscribed to the position that it is not the province, nor the responsibility, of sports stars to serve as role models. Charles Barkley, a celebrity athlete, has been most adamant about renouncing this commit- ment. Barkley proclaims that being a role model is a task that must be embraced by parents and that it has become a burden that has been dis- placed improperly onto sports heroes. When sports figures indulge their dark side and pursue shortcuts to per- formance, engage in gambling activities, or resort to violent solutions in dealing with conflict, they are setting a poor example and sending a mes- sage that condones cheating, domestic violence, disrespect of others, and a general disregard of the acceptable norms of society. Unfortunately, a sub- stantial segment of gifted athletes who achieve a high level of success are abysmal failures as role models because of their proclivity to cheat to embellish their performance, or engage in lapses in off-the-field conduct. Sadly, too many of our adored sports figures are providing a model of corrupt behavior, rather than a model of integrity.

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