Despite my column last week singing the praises of the underdog and the glory of sport it hasn’t turned out to be a great week to convince people that sporting contests are a great advertisement for the human condition.

Europol busted open a massive match-fixing underworld ring, Australian sport has been blown apart by drug and corruption revelations, Sonny Bill Williams and Frans Botha’s farcical fight in Brisbane and now the tragic news coming out this morning about Oscar Pistorius shooting and killing his girlfriend.

Heaping fame, fortune and adulation on our sports stars is a dangerous game when they ultimately prove themselves fallible and human.

It’s understandable how it happens with the emotions of the contest making role-models and heroes out of people blessed with sporting ability.

From Luis Saurez to Wayne Rooney via Andy Murray and Quade Cooper you’ll find people willing to blindly support gifted sportsmen despite them being pretty sub-standard human beings.

Perhaps it’s time for us to become a little more skeptical?

Widespread professionalism and the amount of money in sport makes it a dark and murky place at times with administrators, agents, sponsors, broadcasters and players locked in a dance to ensure themselves the limelight and the best financial deals.

Whether you like it or not sport is changing.  The money available at the top (or bottom if you’re prepared to match-fix) is a great temptation to cheat, lie, drug or claw your way to the top.

The Oscar Pistorius case in point. Sure, the guy could run fast, but the wave of public sentiment was unwavering when he proved himself an ungracious loser at the Paralympics and the recent stories of threatening and unsavouring behaviour towards a love rival proved, if nothing else, that ultimately he is simply human. Flawed to some degree like most.

The details on this morning’s shooting are still unclear, but whatever the outcome it should serve as another warning againt raising a simple sportsman up to be something he ultimately isn’t.

I learnt my lesson with Hansie Cronje who I idolised as national captain, but still cannot believe that there are those who still defend what he did. Those of us who idolised a simple human were to blame as much as he was flawed, guilty and disgraced.

By the time Lance Armstrong rolled around we should have been better equipped to handle the revelations, but some people are slow learners.

With today’s news I fancy it’s time that we all took a long, hard look at ourselves and the way were so ready and eager to elevate people up to the position of personal or national hero. Separating in our minds the admiration of sporting prowess from those that show genuine role-model characteristics.

We certainly shouldn’t keep making the same mistake over and over. That’s the common definition of insanity.

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Check out last week’s column by Gareth, HERE.

Check out Gareth’s excellent Arena Sport, while you’re at it.