On steroid abuse and other antics in pro sports.

So now we know that steroids are commonly used by MLB players. Big whoop.

IMHO the solution isn't to have Congress do any investigations, the problem is so pervasive and resistant to change that we can"t expect a bunch of bloviating idiots in Foggy Bottom to do anything more than provide comedy relief. This sort of thing has gone on for years, and not just in baseball.

The use and abuse of drugs, both legal and illegal is a problem in all professional sports. Maybe women's midget wrestling is exempt, I don't know. Wouldn't bet the farm on that one either.

As a kid I recall Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" expose on the lives of MLB players and how it rocked the public. I remember reading the autobiography of "Hollywood" Henderson of the Dallas Cowboys. In it he related how the gateway to his own subsequent drug abuse was the "play at any cost" mentality of Tom Landry which condoned doping players to a point of feeling no pain from any injury. You can bet Landry wasn't alone in that sort of thing.

It's even hit the entertainment world of wrestling. Remember Hulk Hogan's testimony about roids and how it saved the ass of Vince McMahon? Remember the recent murder/suicide of the pro wrestler everyone thought was the Dad of the Year and how roid use figured into that?

Remember the recent abdication of an American after winning the Tour de France when it was determined he had drugs in his system? I think that one might still be getting fought out, cycling never really interested me.

So the solution is to take these jackasses off the pedestal that John Q. Public has had them on for years. It doesn't do anyone any good.

Shit, forget the damned drug problem. The "win at any cost" mentality has so accompanied sports that high school coaches routinely give a pass to their athletes for any problems. Check out the record of the athletes that were involved with the Jena 6. One of them was a star with a lengthy rap sheet. Did turning a blind eye to his shenanigans help anyone? Did it help him learn how to live in the real world?

In a nearby town here in Texas a few years back there was a (very) minor scandal when a football coach let one of his players continue the season after the kid was indicted for assault. His reasoning was "innocent till proven guilty". That's pure bullshit. For the sake of the team's reputation the kid should have been benched till his trial was over. Aren't there enough thugs in the pros without deliberately encouraging them in our public school system?

Even kids with no behavioral problems suffer. It's gone on for years. How many kids are playing with injuries that should have them sidelined but for the selfcenteredness of their coaches and the neglect of their parents? Again, this is a problem that goes back for decades. I had a classmate who had to wear a kneebrace because of his football injuries. But that didn't stop the coach from playing him or his father from encouraging it. The coach got a good lineman and "dear old dad" had his son go to college on a scholarship. Again, you can bet that wasn't an isolated incident.

That was nothing but criminal, as the injuries he racked up in high school alone guaranteed him problems for the rest of his life.

So it's time to deemphasize the importance of sports in our culture. We The People have to wake up and raise our kids to be something more.

Just my opinion.