Cheaters never win. And winners never cheat.

Though the mantra sounds cheesier than the ingredients of Easy Mac, it is wisdom that deserves more press in a world of fierce competition where winners are applauded and losers are forgotten.

Take the latest chapter in the epic tale of romance between professional sports and steroid use. Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger currently holding the record for most homeruns in a single season, is also fielding more than a handful of allegations saying he used illegal substances to aid his climb to the pedestal he sits on in Major League Baseball.

A book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports, spells out accusations that Bonds filled himself with steroids en route to filling the record books.

Regardless of the merit of these claims one fact remains: This mess wouldn't even be around if people didn't look to illegitimately add fuel to the fire of competition.

But our country loves its heroes. And we want the biggest, the best, the brightest, the strongest, the fastest, the smartest and anything but the "normal-est." Our society reveres "Shoeless" Joe Jackson more than the average Joe. And there is something gravely wrong with that.

With our eyes constantly fixed on the person in the limelight, it's easy to think that the only people who matter are those being chased by paparazzi. But I posit something different: It is better to be a "nobody" than to be a "somebody" who cheated.

The sleep of an honest man is better than the slumber of a man weighed down by the guilt of knowing the gold medals around his neck don't belong there. And an honest "nobody" will never be a "somebody" in jail, or a "somebody" in shame. Because it is better to admit defeat than to admit to those who hailed you as a hero that their hero worship was undue.

Besides, those little white lies will come back to haunt you.

The ghost of a cheating past recently spent the night in Columbus, Ohio, serving Ohio State's basketball program with probation and fines for illegal treatment of recruits during their 1999-2002 seasons when the Buckeyes went buck wild with a Final Four appearance.

They sat luxury into the lap of a recruit and augmented their lineup with a star player that legitimate recruiting might not have been able to maintain. And the Final Four banner they earned illegitimately was stripped from its position in the rafters of their home basketball court.

So why is the old-fashioned, nose-to-the-grindstone tale of hard work so often missing from the biographies of our champions? The answer is: It isn't. But a few bad apples can give the pie a putrid aftertaste.

If the path to success is ice cream, it's certainly a rocky road variety. Swallowing that sometimes seems to choke people up. And instead of concluding that we need to take smaller bites we think we need bigger mouths. So we turn to tricks that ruin the trade. Our "instant results" replace enduring integrity.

The win-at-all-costs mentality is not limited to sports. It permeates every field, every industry, and every competition, regardless of its magnitude. It's not surprising that in the most local competition -- college -- cheating shows up more frequently than the Blue Loop.

The Center for Academic Integrity reported that over 70 percent of college students nationwide said they cheated in some form on a college exam or paper. Most don't get caught, but the next thing written by those who do is usually an overly optimistic application to another school, or to the nearest Burger King.

The academic integrity statement regarding cheating and plagiarism printed on every syllabus in this university can read as the death sentence to a budding career if you get caught.

To the victor may temporarily go the spoils, even if the only thing spoiled was the way the victor won, but like Sherlock Holmes, the truth tracks you down.

And if the Easy Mac wasn't enough, here comes the Velveeta: Cheaters only end up cheating themselves.