“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make, you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” – Matthew 7: 1-3
Yes, that’s correct. I just quoted the Bible. Enjoy it, because the only other biblical reference I’ll make is when I inevitably tell the story of how Larry Bird created the world in six days and rested on the seventh to watch Tom Brady win the Super Bowl. The reason I’m recruiting an Apostle is because I want to show each and every one of my readers that I’m not messing around. Enough is enough. We’re a forgiving culture. Let’s check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.
I’m as big a fan of a good crucifixion as the next guy, but the mass hysteria is getting a tad ridiculous. Call me a sympathizer if you will, but I’m casting my vote for simply moving on from this whole debacle as quickly as possible. It was all deplorable, but hopefully it will soon be over. I was disgusted by the recent Alex Rodriguez news. I’m disappointed that my boyhood heroes are continually being marred by scandal. I wish I never heard the phrase “performance-enhancing drugs” 65,384,923 times. I, like many others, also wish professional athletes were impervious to greed, peer pressure and bad judgment. I can also admit I will never understand the demands of being a professional athlete, and that’s why I am willing to forgive those who have gone astray and tarnished the sanctity of the game. It’s easy to sit in our sofas and berate the sinners when we view ourselves as saints. Before we strip them all of a second chance, let’s take a moment to look at ourselves and question what we would have done in their situation.
It’s not a common sentiment, but I often find myself feeling bad for many of the steroid users. Players see their teammates and competition attain fortune and fame for their power numbers. Homeruns are what garner attention from the media (like slam dunks on SportsCenter) and fatten management’s contract offers. Just take a look at what Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s personal homerun derby did for baseball in 1998. I’d like to think I'd be a better man than all the juicers, but when millions of dollars are suddenly attainable when Player X is hitting 30-40 homeruns when they otherwise would be hitting 15-20 if they didn’t use PEDs, it's a difficult decision. I'm not sure what I'd do in their position, especially when, at the time, there were seemingly no repercussions for their transgressions and one out of every seven players was taking a substance that was even detectable. The pay difference between a guy who hits the aforementioned 30-40 dingers and one who doesn’t is remarkably dissimilar. Of the top-20 highest paid positional players last season, only three (Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki and Rafael Furcal) averaged less than 22 homers per season, and only Carlos Beltran (29), Magglio Ordonez (28), Miguel Tejada (26), Torii Hunter (25) and Bobby Abreu (22) averaged less than 30. There’s certainly something to be said about a player’s homerun total correlating with the amount they get paid.
The media and fans are not innocent, either. The media fawned over the sluggers while fans basked in the distance of their homeruns. People were blissfully and conveniently naïve. I heard murmurs of steroid abuse, saw the results with my own eyes, and never wanted to believe it was true, but I never believed it wasn’t. Your eyes do not deceive you. Every time I see a reporter act like they had no idea what players were doing when their muscles were swelling faster than the Hulk’s or a holier-than-thou fan screams for the banishment of A-Rod, I keep thinking of the words of Colonel Nathan R. Jessep in A Few Good Men, “I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it”. PEDs are obviously not a matter of national security, they’re a matter of our national pastime. Replace the phrase “a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom” with “the masses of people who I entertained with my majestic homeruns” and you should be able to grasp what I’m attempting to say here. Fans rejoiced in the likes of McGwire and Sosa and now expediently disregard their own ignorance. And if you say, “I had no idea. I was deceived. I thought what they were doing was legitimate”, begin that defensive rant with “I’m an idiot”.
As for A-Rod, if I were him, I’d not only acquire an acting coach to teach me how to cry on cue, but I’d demand a refund from my public relations firm. Assuming he took their expensive advice, that motley crew helped him look like a bigger jerk than he did prior to this mess. In the eyes of many, mine included, A-Rod completely mishandled Tuesday’s press conference. He contradicted himself innumerable times, repeated “I was young and stupid” to the point it no longer had any affect, said he purchased the PEDs at a GNC when they have never been legally sold in the United States, felt like he couldn’t tell anyone what he was doing even though he didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong, introduced a mystery cousin and created more questions than he provided answers. This health nut who had previously admitted he doesn’t eat cookies because they’re unhealthy, admitted Tuesday to repeatedly injecting himself with a substance of unknown effect, and these are only a smattering of his inaccuracies.
If you’d like to continue to reprimand A-Rod for being a disingenuous liar, I’m fine with that. He’s had multiple opportunities to come clean, and he’s miraculously dug himself a bigger hole than he was formerly standing in, one that was already six-feet deep.
But this blog isn’t exclusively about A-Rod, it’s about the entire steroid era and the subsequent reaction. If you can honestly look inside yourself, and sincerely and confidently say no matter what the circumstance you would never take a PED if you were a professional athlete even if there were no immediate consequence only perceived financial benefits, then continue chastising. Don’t let me get in your way. But if you have to think about it for even a second, I firmly believe you’d dabble, and I’d like you to shut up. God’s watching.
If you disagree with my opinion, would like to share your own or want to tell me this is the most intelligent post you've ever read, email TheSportsDon@gmail.com.
