For our first-ever Headline of the Week, I will take the bull by the horns and address this whole "cheating" thing. Honestly, I'm sick of hearing about it. I'm really sick of the media making a huge spectacle of it, and I'm even more sick of it distracting me from what's really important about sports: watching the frickin games!

Nobody can argue that numerous events that have transpired over the course of 2007 that have compromised the integrity of those sports. Between the gambling refs, doping Barry Bonds, and taping Patriots, we’ve seen what I would consider the worst publicity for major professional sports since the Baseball strikes of the 90’s. But is this really such a bad thing?

Would those of us who love following these games actually give up watching them because we know cheating occurred, and potentially still occurs? Most of us are enjoy following teams and players for the entertainment value. If I found out the Seahawks were taping defensive signals, I’d still be following them. Especially since most other NFL organizations do it. Does it make it right? Of course it doesn’t. The NFL is still going to get my contribution to ratings for following the games, though. I’ll still even purchase Seahawks merchandise.

The point is that while each of these scenarios has questionable moral weight associated with them, and these could be debated until the Dolphins go back to the Super Bowl again (approximately 35 years from now), nobody is going to throw in the towel as a fan because of it. The typical sports fan watches because it’s entertainment, and as long as there aren’t serious moral implications involved, we will be forgiving.

Ricky Williams is a classic example. The dude loves to smoke pot, and was very outspoken about it. That was pretty stupid Ricky, but we’ll all forgive you, because while you’re breaking the law and the NFL’s substance abuse policy, you probably aren’t hurting anybody. You can play football again.

That’s why I just don’t get the big deal with the Mitchell Report, particularly with the media. First of all, doping is illegal, so it really shouldn’t be happening at all. What these players should realize is that unlike the case with Williams, steroid abuse carries serious long-term health risks. Whether players get caught or not, they are taking their overall quality of life into their own hands by roiding-up. Regardless of whether he makes the Hall of Fame or not, we will all remember the achievements of Barry Bonds, and every other famous athlete implicated in that report. We might not hear much about Barry Bonds anymore, but we’ll still follow baseball, and know in the back of our minds that doping will continue.

I look at it like the ref that throws too many penalty flags. Just let them play and stop killing the game. Idiocy is always going to happen, and karma will eventually catch up with cheaters. In the meantime, let’s try to keep it fun.