“
But sports, perhaps better than any endeavor except politics, has become adept at a type of cleansing more commonly associated with authoritarian governments. With surprising regularity and ease, once-popular figures who have run afoul of the rules or the law have been erased like disgraced leaders from an old Soviet photo album, whitewashed from history to preserve an institution’s image or to abide by a governing body’s sanctions.
Awards are returned. Banners are pulled down. Names are stripped from buildings. Wins, individual feats, even entire seasons can be eradicated as if they never happened.
Didn’t Reggie Bush win the Heisman Trophy? Didn’t Lance Armstrong win the Tour de France seven times? Didn’t that stadium used to have a statue out front?
“No one says Nixon didn’t go to China or sign Title IX into law because he was forced to resign because of Watergate,” said Bob Costas, an NBC commentator. “It seems to me you can’t strike from the historical record what occurred. The Fab Five played in the N.C.A.A. tournament, and Reggie Bush was a great and impactful player who won the Heisman Trophy.”
”
shaun james bockert 