Ethics: Cheaters Never Win

Essay by rjc0704College, UndergraduateA+, April 2006

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Recently, I learned about an interesting ethical dilemma encountered by a senior high school football player from Springfield, Illinois. I believe this case puts great emphasis on the ground rules for ethical conduct, and this case is a shining example of a young athlete exercising good moral behavior and coaches who behaved unethically.

On October 25th, two high school rivals, Southwest and Cahokia, faced off in a football game. Southwest's quarterback, Nate Haasis, was just yards shy of breaking a new conference record for completed passes. Just before the end of the game, Southwest's coach, Neal Taylor, made a deal with coach Antwyne Golliday of Cahokia High; Cahokia, who had a big lead in the game, would be allowed to score again, uncontested, and then Haasis would be allowed to throw the record-breaking pass. Cahokia let Haasis to make the completion, giving the senior 5,006 passing yards for his career.

This set a new conference record and made the athlete one of only 12 Illinois high school quarterbacks to exceed 5,000 yards completed passes.

A few days later, Southwest's coach Neal Taylor acknowledged that he had made a deal with coach Antwyne Golliday of Cahokia High right before the end of the Oct. 25 game. When interviewed by the media, the visibly disappointed Haasis stated that he was not aware of the deal made between coaches, but that soon after all the excitement of setting the record, he felt that something wasn't quite right. He kept playing back in his mind the events transpiring at the end of the game. He didn't understand why the last score from Cahokia wasn't contested. Additionally, he had struggled to complete any passes the entire game and he felt as if the other team had simply allowed him to make the 37...