Call it a blessing or call it a curse, but star athletes are put on a pedestal. They are regarded as above humans, their accomplishments are expected and their mistakes are scrutinized to no extent.
A year and a half ago, perhaps the athlete most put on a pedestal, Tiger Woods, had his own fall from grace, and one of the most magnificent of them all.
When it came out that he had several affairs, he received more straight headlines in the newspaper than on the days following 9/11 (this is true).
Though it may have been the biggest scandal, it is evidently not the only one in sports history. A scandal in sports can be huge, and these are magnified another 10 times because of the athlete's place in society and because of the fact that, to many children, they are considered role models.
Thus, I thought it would be amusing to look over the 20 biggest scandals in sports history.
Let's begin...
Black Sox
This baseball scandal, known now simply as the "Black Sox Scandal," took place during the 1919 World Series, where the White Sox were playing against the Cincinnati Reds.
It featured eight players banned for life from MLB for purposely losing games during the World Series with the benefit of large amounts of money.
Arnold "Chick" Gandil orchestrated the throwing of the games, and it was he who convinced his teammates to take the money as well.
This scandal is the story behind the fantastic movie Eight Men Out and is still a common topic when discussing the right of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (a player on the White Sox at the time whose involvement has been widely disputed) to be in the Hall of Fame.
