Four More Fitting Choices for Sports Illustrated's Award in 2007

Since it is December, awards are being handed out just about everywhere you turn. Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night almost by default, sort of the way Ohio State and LSU were chosen to play in the national championship game. This was a college football season without a dominant team or a dominant player -- unless you count Hawaii and quarterback Colt Brennan. The Rainbows were undefeated and Brennan had Tom Brady-like numbers, but all the experts say they played a weak schedule.

Sure they did. And Ohio State played whom out of conference? Beat whom in the Big Ten? Michigan? Oh yeah, the team that almost beat Appalachian State and can't get Greg Schiano of 7-5 Rutgers -- let's repeat that: Greg Schiano of 7-5 Rutgers -- to take its head coaching position.

Let's forget the Heisman. The voting system is so flawed -- there are people voting who haven't watched a college football game in this century -- it isn't even worth worrying about. Let's move on to Sportsman of the Year, which is an important award and was long before Sports Illustrated turned it into yet another god-awful TV show.

This year's winner is Brett Favre, who deserves some kind of award if only for his brilliant performance in "There's Something About Mary." The Packers are having a wonderful year and Favre has certainly justified his decision to come back for a 40th season in the NFL, but his is clearly a lifetime achievement award.

Which is fine. Favre is a Hall of Fame quarterback who is a good man. He's overcome injuries and drug problems and his wife's breast cancer and is out there every single week, regardless of what is going on or how beat up his body might be. He defines what the award is supposed to be in most ways.

Having said that, perhaps Sports Illustrated should have considered going the route that its sister magazine, Time, has with its choosing its "Person of the Year." Being a good guy has very little to do with being chosen "Person of the Year." Adolph Hitler won the award and Joseph Stalin won it twice. The Ayatollah Khomenei won it in 1979, shortly after the American hostages were taken in Iran. If you are a U.S. President, you are bound to win the award at some point. Richard Nixon won it twice. George W. Bush has won it twice. Enough said. Clearly, competence, honesty or compassion are not required to win the Time award.

Which is why SI should have divided its 2007 award four ways and given it to Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, Marion Jones and Tim Donaghy. Sadly, the four of them were at the center of the biggest sports stories of the year and defined what so much of sports has become. Their stories were bigger than that of Favre, Roger Federer, who won three major tennis titles for a second straight year, or Billy Donovan, who took Florida to a second straight NCAA basketball championship, or Tiger Woods, who could win the award just about any year.

Bonds broke Henry Aaron's all-time home run record this past August and in the process held Major League Baseball hostage. Everyone in the game knew -- long before he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice -- that Bonds cheated the game by taking steroids. If Bonds had never taken a steroid he would have been a Hall of Famer. But he did, and because he did, he tainted the sport's most cherished record. It was not a pretty sight no matter how anyone -- Bonds, his apologists or even Commissioner Bud Selig -- tried to spin it.

Vick pleaded guilty in September to charges related to his part in an illegal dog-fighting venture, and was sentenced to 23 months in prison on Monday. Vick had adamantly denied the charges when they were first filed, but now never completely get away from the charges for the rest of his life. Even if he makes an improbable comeback to the NFL in a couple of years, he will be remembered first and foremost for being part of a cruel circle of men, a great athlete tainted forever.

The same is true of Jones, who was such a joy to watch in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Of course, even then there were whispers that she was taking performance-enhancing drugs, just as there were whispers about the late Florence Griffith-Joyner years ago and whispers that turned into shouts in Seoul in 1988, after Ben Johnson destroyed Carl Lewis in the 100-meter dash.

Some things are too good to be true, and Marion Jones was one of those things. After years of adamantly -- and angrily -- denying any drug use, she finally had to confess after the evidence against her was completely overwhelming and undeniable. Tearfully, she talked about how sorry she was; talked about how she had no money to repay the debts she now has and then had the nerve to say she had "unknowingly," taken the drugs. When will athletes who don't take a cough drop without knowing what's in it stop claiming they "accidentally" took steroids?

If Vick's crime is the most heinous, Donaghy's is surely a strong second. He sold out every referee who has ever worked in the NBA; he sold out the entire league and the entire sport; all because he got himself into financial trouble by gambling. Instead of asking for help -- which he surely would have received, since addicts these days are treated by most of us as sick people and not criminals -- he copped out and gave information to gamblers in order to try to recoup the money he had lost. He may also have made calls that altered the outcome of games, including at least one key playoff game.

At least he didn't try to claim that he "accidentally" fixed games ¿ maybe because he was so caught by the Feds that to make any claim other than "guilty" would have guaranteed even more jail time than he is going to face.

Bonds-Vick-Jones-Donaghy. These are all names that will be remembered forever in sports and in their sports. In the future, brilliant cheats -- arrogant ones too -- will be compared to Bonds. Anyone involved in any kind of cruelty, especially to animals, will be likened to Vick. All Olympic cheaters will now be compared to Jones as well as Johnson. And any time a referee clearly blows a call, someone will shout, "Who do you think you are, Tim Donaghy?"

Brett Favre is a great quarterback. But he will never be the symbol of his sport or of his position. He is one of the greats, but he doesn't stand alone when people talk about those who have played quarterback or football. He isn't even going to be the NFL's most valuable player this year. Tom Brady will win that award.

So, while he is a fine choice as the Sportsman of the Year, perhaps this was the year to change the award description in order to give it to Bonds-Vick-Jones-Donaghy. Call it "Sports Pariahs of the Year."

Each is certainly deserving.