My Sportsman Choice: Trevor Graham

By George Dohrmann

Trevor Graham changed the landscape of sports. AP  Chris Stone: Red Sox Nation, you've earned this one  Paul Zimmerman: Boy Wonder brought Boston a title  B.J. Schecter: Red Sox captured Boston's heart  Richard Deitsch: The Babe had a big presence in '04  Rick Reilly: Big Papi did it all for the world champs  Jeffri Chadiha: A reward for reversing The Curse  Lisa Altobelli: Ramirez never took anything seriously  • Sportsman of the Year archive

It was so much nicer when his identity was unknown. Before we learned that track coach Trevor Graham was the BALCO whistleblower, the one who mailed a syringe containing traces of the designer steroid THG to the United States Doping Agency last year, we could entertain thoughts that the whistleblower's intentions were noble. Was it a flawed athlete tired of harboring his misdeeds (like, say, Ken Caminiti)? Was it a coach so sick of seeing others cheat he risked his career by speaking out (like, say, Baylor basketball assistant Abar Rouse)? No, it was Graham, who has been accused of providing steroids to athletes and has had 10 of his pupils test positive or be accused of doping offenses.

After Graham admitted his role at the Athens Games, he said: "I was just a coach doing the right thing." Later, he told the Italian newspaper Gazette dello Sport he turned whistleblower to "save the credibility of American sport." More likely, Graham sent the syringe as part of a feud with BALCO president Victor Conte over control of sprinter Tim Montgomery and/or to get back at Montgomery and his girlfriend, Marion Jones, for leaving him for another coach.

But looking beyond Graham's motives, who did more in the past year to change sports? Thanks to new stringent testing resulting from the BALCO mess, two dozen athletes were caught doping in Athens, 10 times as many as the Atlanta Games in 1996. Top athletes from the NFL, MLB and boxing, as well as track and field, were linked to BALCO, forcing organizations and leagues to, at the least, review their drug-testing programs. Most important, there is a feeling among USADA officials and those developing drug tests that the dirty athletes no longer have the upper hand.

"In terms of drawing a line in the sand, we've done that," says Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The further unveiling of the deeds of that lab in Burlingame, Calif., was the best thing that happened to sports in the past year. Therefore, someone from the BALCO bunch should be SI's Sportsman. Graham is the best choice from a motley lot. We should not hold a ceremony in his honor. We should not congratulate him. No one should shake his hand. As for the Sportsman award, we should simply drop it in the mail.

Sports Illustrated will announce the 2004 Sportsman of the Year winner on FOX on November 28. Check back every weekday until then to read more Sportsman picks from SI writers.