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Reader question: Please explain “cheap shot” in this passage: This is just another cheap shot from my opponent. In college I tried marijuana twice at parties. I didn’t like the stuff and it happened 40 years ago. My comments: In boxing, for example, if you hit an opponent below the belt, that is, in the lower abdomen or the groin, you’ve hit him with what is called a “low blow”. That’s a cheap shot – it’s illegal. Likewise, if you intentionally hit the opponent after the bell, that’s a cheap shot – because the opponent has stopped fighting. In boxing, of course, one of the cheapest of cheap shots belongs to Mike Tyson, who once bit a piece off of the ear of Evander Holyfield. “Cheap shots” take on many forms, and not restricted to the game of boxing. Of course not. Cheap shots, in fact, include any physical or verbal attack using tactics that are considered contrary to rules of fair play. In the example from the top, “my” opponent brought up “my” drug record in college to suggest that I do drugs. That’s just an attempt to smear my good name because I never touched marijuana after college and he knew it. If he wants to fight a clean fight against me, he should find something wrong with me now, not something that’s 40 years old. That’s why “I” say it’s a cheap shot – he’s pretty mean to even remember it after 40 years. | 
