A-ROD AND WHO ELSE?

I want a refund!

After MLB mega star Alex Rodriguez’ revelation to ESPN’s Peter Gammons today that he did in fact use steroids while he was a Texas Ranger from 2001-03 it is very likely that we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Rumor mills, pundits, arm-chair athletes, talking-heads, even soccer moms are weighing in on the long term implications and affects of yet another steroid scandal.

In this day and age performance enhancing drug scandals are becoming about as commonplace as the next Jessica Simpson or Brittany Spears headline. I’m not so much concerned about these losers as I am about the kids who are seeing this behavior and thinking that its okay to get a little “horse therapy” as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody else. The problem is, it hurts a lot of people, especially the ones paying money to sit in overpriced seats to watch you play, taking up valuable slots in prime-time when I could be watching Oprah re-runs and giving my kid ideas to circumvent the process! Where are the league commissioners when this obvious and deliberate indifference to their rules is taking place?

Marion Jones’ popularity took a nose-dive when she broke an Olympic record for more excuses in under ten seconds. Her punishment after our tax money was spent to uncover the details in a U.S. District Court and in Congressional hearings? Six-months in a federal resort-spa, 400 hours of community service for two-years upon serving her six-month jail term and the immediate return of her five Olympic medals “earned” in the Sydney Games.

Former NFL lineman Dana Stubblefield did his own version of “I did not take performance enhancing drugs” when he was questioned in the BALCO investigations. Stubblefield did a complete turnaround a year ago when he finally admitted to taking a little bit of ‘boost juice’. His sentence? $5K for lying to federal investigators.

The list of cheaters goes on and will continue to grow because everyone seems to know that this type of behavior is on-going, but no one seems to care as long as we’re all getting our fair share of the profits and the fans keep on paying. I think this is a job of Jack Bauer-esque proportions because no one in CTU can pull this stuff up on the screen and someone in the White House is in on the conspiracy! Okay, it doesn’t really reach the White House but shouldn’t there be a better mechanism to regulate these crooks?

A-Rod thinks that by admitting his insolence he’s going to get a sympathy vote from fans because after all, he told the truth. Yeah, but did it need to come down to an investigation eight years later? And did you also have to carefully draft your response to the American people?

Here’s the part of his statement that I hope will inspire every athlete, current, past, present and dying to feel the aggravation being felt by fans and the skepticism we have about the bureaucracy that governs professional sports and the insanity that propels that machine:

"Back then, it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all-time. I did take a banned substance, and for that I'm very sorry. I'm deeply regretful.

"I'm sorry for that time, I'm sorry to my fans, I'm sorry to my fans in Texas. It wasn't until then that I ever thought about substances of any kind. Since then, I've proved to myself and to everyone that I don't need any of that."

Compare that to the statements often heard by reformed crack addicts who have to steal, beg, prostitute and borrow for unsuspecting victims to feed their fix and then spend years behind prison bars to atone for their sins. Don’t think it’s the same? Well tell that to the public who are getting cheated out of their hard earned cash to pay multi-million dollar contracts only to find out that they are paying to watch lying, cheating, manipulative losers in sheep's clothing. Oh and by the way A-Rod, it isn't that you realized that you don't need the steriods, its just that you don't need steroids after you've inked several multi-million dollar deals since then.

Give me my money back!