Stories about professional athletes and their use of performance enhancing drugs are showing up on a regular basis, much to the chagrin of those being caught. A-Rod is a good example as are the many that preceded him. I and my wife are football nuts and she can also be classified as a baseball nut. Therefore, we qualify as fans, and now we want our say in this matter.
I couldn't care less what the powers that be in the NFL or MLB do concerning this situation. We have all seen how slowly and in such a convoluted fashion MLB has dealt with the Pete Rose situation and drugs were not even involved.
As one fan speaking to other fans, I want to present my views on the subject. First and foremost, ask yourself why you watch sports on TV. We turn on the TV to watch the NFL or MLB or the NBA because we like the game and want to see it in action-the more action the better. We view it as entertainment or otherwise we wouldn't watch. That's why the NFL network has more viewers than C-Span.
Anytime I hear an NFL commentator promise that the game will be a defensive battle I cringe. I want long completed passes and 75 yard runs. There is nothing more exciting than watching a punt returner go all the way! Do I care that those spectacular receptions and broken field running plays were enhanced by the player taking some drugs? Not a damned bit! I turned on the set for action and that's what I want to see. Testing a player, finding out some drugs are involved and then suspending him from a number of games and leveling a fine is the reaction you would expect from a 4 year old kid. "You're a bad boy so go to your room and no dessert for you tonight."
The fact is I don't care why that player is as good as he is, I only care that he's good and shows it on the field. That's why I'm watching the game Commissioner, not so you can prance up and down a stage and act like your opinion means anything. If performance enhancing drugs make the game more exciting and more viewable, it would seem that caters to the ONLY thing owners have on their agenda, making more money.
When you watch an NFL game you are viewing are some highly paid, professional athletes doing what they do better than almost anyone else. What that has to do with social issues, drugs, public persona or anything else fails to register with me. I turn on the game to be entertained and the more exciting the better! Moral judgments, by anyone, are completely out of place in the world of professional sports. People who make these judgments, fans, commissioners, owners, are nothing but world-class hypocrites.
So, if it were up to me, I would allow professional athletes to take any kind of performance enhancement drugs they wish as long as it made the game more exciting to watch. It's their bodies, and Lord knows, they take enough of a beating playing the game, they should at least be allowed to play it at a higher level, even if drugs are included. It would also be a great relieve not to hear Commissioners from both the NFL and MLB stop pontificating on how moral they and their owners are.
I ask any baseball fan, would you rather see A-Rod perform at a very high level in a game or just maybe get by? If the answer is yes than it's nobody's business how he gets to that place, not the publics, not the Commissioners, not the owners. We pay to see exciting baseball and that's what he gave us! What a players does in his personal life is no ones business but his, just like what you do in your personal life is no ones business but yours.
Since I brought up the subject of Pete Rose let me enter into that fray as well. Pete was banned for life for gambling on games. Big deal! Now let's all take a big dose of common sense and then ask ourselves; how many brothers, fathers, mothers and friends of major league baseball players do you think place frequent bets on MLB outcomes, ON BEHALF OF THE PLAYERS, either in Vegas or with their local bookie? Of all the stupid reasons to keep Rose out of the Hall of Fame, this again resembles the actions of a 4 year old kid.
And then we have the moral judgments heaped upon Lance Armstrong. He rode a bike like no one else ever did and they took his accomplishments away because he was using performance-enhancing drugs. I say so what? Maybe those people who judged him should take intelligence-enhancing drugs to bring them up to at least the stupid level.
Do I expect this article to have any effect on the situations described? Not a bit. The NFL and MLB will continue with their charades, lies and cover-ups just like you are beginning to see in college sports. Everybody seems to forget; it just a game!
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