It's annoying that Congress is getting involved in the Patriots cheating scandal and also Roger Clemens issues and steroids in baseball generally, but we've had an awful lot of scandals in major sports lately. The Pats were cheating, assuming you agree with Roger Goodell that videotaping opponents is cheating, and Tim Donaghy really did cheat on behalf of his betting interest in the Spurs. That only calls into question the last NBA championship (and who knows how many others?) and three of the last six Super Bowls. (The Seattle Pittsburgh SB was one of the worst, though no fault of the teams, but the officiating was horrendous).

The steroids/HGH issue is hard to spin into calling a World Series title into question, but certainly some all-time records and interest in the game generally are damaged by it. The Hall of Fame now has a separate question about steroid use to entertain - not just performance - and the whole thing becomes a bore because it can't be settled. If you want to argue whether Tony Perez belonged or not, we can look at the numbers and what he did on the playoff teams he was on. If you want to argue about Don Mattingly or Tony Gwynn or George Brett, that was interesting - there was something to go on. But throw the steroid question in there, and I don't care anymore, either way. Was Bonds the greatest hitter ever, Clemens the greatest pitcher? That question can't be answered without delving into the nebulous and unknowable area of what they did when, and what constitutes fair play. Basically, it takes the fun out of it.

In cycling, Tour de France champ Floyd Landis cheated, and then tried to blackmail Greg LeMond into keeping quiet about it. This after proclaiming his innocence and outrage so insistently.

Of course, it's no different than what's going everywhere else in society, but it's particularly troubling in sports because that's our one place of refuge from bullshit. I was talking to Mike Salfino on my XM show last week about how it's interesting that Dems and Republicans tend to defend the awful performance of elected officials in their own parties when you'd think they'd be even more upset. Just the opposite happens in sports where hometown fans are harder on their teams than anyone else. As a Knicks fan, I hate Isiah far more than a Laker fan could because he's ruining it for my team. Salfino said something to the effect of "that's because the lawyers can spin anything in politics, so that white is black and black is white. But that's why we like sports - because there's a scoreboard."

In other words, sports fans know when their team has succeeded or failed, and there's not much anyone can do to spin it. But when cheating's involved, even that's not sacred. Now if you're a Rams, Eagles, Steelers, Colts, Chargers, Raiders or Panthers fan, you have to wonder whether the videotaping impacted some of those extremely tight games. We could just dismiss it all and accept the results at face value, but then sports is merely about who's crowned the winner, and that's not very satisfying. We want to know who the best, most deserving team was. At least I do.

One of the reasons I think the Super Bowl was so uplifting this year (and not only to Giants fans like myself, but to a lot of non-Pats fans who I've talked to) is that it really felt like in that game - and throughout the playoffs - they went out and claimed that title. They made the plays, and the refs didn't decide the game, and there was no indication of foul play, and they were genuine underdogs playing inspired ball. Unfortunately, that's felt like the exception in sports of late rather than the rule.