Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the just-concluded Super Bowl XLVII was actually Baltimore Ravens defensive cornerback Jimmy Smith. At a critical junction in the final moments, he seemed to impede receiver Michael Crabtree, thwarted a go-ahead touchdown, likely saving the game for his winning team.
Should the officials have called a penalty for holding? Anyway, they did not.
Some football fans will be distraught at the outcome. Surely that key play defined the result. Some will feel pass interference & cheating determined the game, overshadowing everything else. Others will overlook the incident. "The Winner Takes It All" -- though a few feel shame amidst celebrations -- the shadow of cheating to win.
"Ravens hold on to Win"
"Baltimore held off a San Francisco comeback"
"Ravens are Champions after holding off SF"
(actual headlines)
Let's consider this along with Lance Armstrong's doping. Armstrong - an example of America to the world - amassed a fortune through cheating.
The wider impressions of America's world sporting activities differ from the impact inside the country. Domestically (within the USA), sport throws out many impressions per day. But in the wider world, US sport provides very few impressions each decade:
-- Lance Armstrong: stripped of all titles for 14 years, banned for life; admitting to doping & lying
-- Tiger Woods & his women
-- Marion Jones cheating in track (surrendering five Olympic medals & two World Champion medals in athletics)
-- Super Bowl scandal ??... more of the same sleaze.
