(NewsNation) — It is being called the greatest controversy in cornhole history and it’s the latest example of competitors cheating with no remorse.
Mark Richards and Philip Lopez thought they just won the American Cornhole League World Championships on ESPN.
That is, until their opponents accused them of using bags that weren’t regulation size. Turns out, both teams were cheating with smaller bags.
If you’re not familiar with the game, cornhole pairs teams of two against each other. They take turns throwing four small, weighted bags at a slanted board. Land the bag one the board, you get one point. Make it in the hole of the board, you get three.
The league has strict rules. Bags must be six by six inches when lying flat and they have to weigh 16 ounces. Here’s one of the managing partners of the American Cornhole Association on why bag size matters.
“Illegal beanbags outside of the spec, they can do different things, they can block the hole with a larger surface area. The smaller they are, the easier they go in the hole,” Eric Marvin said.
I mean after all, we’re talking about a $15,000 prize. But this isn’t a story about Cornhole. It’s a story about cheating.
Scandals are popping up everywhere you turn.
First there was the chess champion who inserted himself with a vibrating device during a major competition. A poker player did the same thing about a week later by using a vibrating ring in a televised round. And of course, you’ll remember the Ohio fishermen who stuffed weights in their catch. We introduced you to all of them last month.
You have to wonder where we went wrong. Politics flows downstream of culture. If it’s OK to cheat in culture and sports, suddenly it’s OK to cheat in politics. If it’s OK to cheat in politics, it’s OK to accuse the other side of cheating and declare yourself the winner, or claim the election was stolen.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and not of NewsNation.