Photo by: Hoppenworld
I saw that Monster Energy Supercross re-released the 2014 Toronto SX today and while it was meant to just be a flashback to an amazing race, it instead gave me a PTSD flashback that just reminded me how incredibly unfairly a legend of the sport was treated. The 2014 Toronto SX would become one of James Stewart’s last wins—he won the next weekend in St. Louis as well—and one of the most impressive wins of his highly-decorated career. That race will definitely go down in the history books as the last vintage James “Bubba” Stewart ride where the #7 was clearly on another level and absolutely untouchable.
After James won his third race in a row the next weekend in St. Louis, the hammer came down on his season—and most will agree, on his career—from the FIM and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) when it was announced that James had failed a drug test. James was later—unjustly in my opinion—suspended for two long years for not filing a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) to take a drug Adderall that he had been taking for years for a documented medical diagnosis. After his two-year, career-ending suspension, he would be approved to use the drug but the damage was done. I am in no way saying James should not have been punished for his paperwork error, but the way it was handled was an absolute shitshow and his punishment was like charging a person with murder for stepping on a spider.

Most of you already know the story and some who followed this website back in 2014 know my opinion of the whole deal, so I am not going to rehash the whole saga, but, in my humble opinion, James’ suspension was the single biggest miscarriage of justice in supercross and motocross history. The FIM and WADA cheated James, but, even more importantly, they cheated his legion of fans out of seeing a legend of the sport close out his career with the dignity he deserved in a sport he had helped grow and unarguably changed for the better forever. I hope we never see a legend that gave the sport so much be treated with so little respect ever again.
Video by: Red Bull