i wish i was a little bit taller

After seeing the second leg of the Ireland-France World Cup qualifiers last week and the infamous 'hand of frog' like many of you saw, I was astonished at the amount of outrage pouring out, particularly in the UK. On the BBC forum, fans said things like, 'Henry is a cheat! and a brazen one at that,' 'Its sad watching a great player resort to this.' It made me wonder what exactly is 'cheating?' After all, I see grown men fall down as if hit by a cannon without so much as being blown on every week in the Premier league to win a penalty. Players grab jerseys and slap arms in the NBA everyday trying to win back the ball in the hopes the referee wont see. Even I have been known to play defense on the boundaries of the rule book, in the hopes of stopping my opponent,cheater am I a cheat?

Let's get one thing clear, Henry didn't cheat. Cheating is hiding an Ace in your sleeve during poker, or trying to use the 'word' Jabberwocky in scrabble. Ben Johnson is a cheat, Jose Canseco is a cheat and if someone ever puts a microchip in their brain to bio mechanically alter their physical abilities to become the 'RoboAthleteDestructor', then they would probably also be considered a cheat. 

However, those of use who don't have access to the Balco Laboratories or IBM's computer chip factory, are entirely not cheats. If you grab a jersey knowing its illegal, or knock a ball forward in rugby thinking the ref can't see or even practically catch a soccer ball and throw it into the goal your merely trying to gain an advantage. Especially when there is money and livelihood involved in professional sports, gaining an advantage is the name of the game. An unfair advantage one might argue, but its not really for anyone to say but the referee. That's why they are there, to protect the rules and see the game is played as fairly as possible.

Did anyone really expect Henry to stop the game, run up to the referee and say, 'oui, my and ave tooched ze ball. Soorie' And forfeit the goal, and therefore his place in the world cup, of course not. Has this ever happened in the history of sports? Why isn't anyone congratulating him on his ingenuity, when your team isn't good enough to score with your feet, you find new and exciting ways to win games.  

But the reality is players will try to win at all costs from now until the end of time, there is no use crying about how the integrity of sports has been lost. As athletes we have learned that if we lose in a slightly unfair way (or if we lose any game) we can't blame the other team for their resourcefulness, we can only blame ourselves the referee. 

An good example of cheating:

A good example of a hand ball: