Steroids is cheating. Spygate is cheating. Yeah, I care.

I don't necessarily want round-the-clock updates when nothing new is available.

Most of what has gone on with Roger Clemens recently was brought on by Roger Clemens. The House Committee had their meetings, had their Mitchell Report, and was ready to move on hoping MLB would take the cue of other sports or, better still, the olympics with testing. But Ol' Roger went on a campaigning spree that would have done some the also-ran presidential candidates proud.

So, re-enter the House Committee.

Roger is more convincing as being caught with his pants down (pun fully intended), and -- surprise! -- McNamee came off as being a weasel. Gee, who would have thought someone who shoots people in their padding with steroids and hGH is not an upstanding citizen?

As for Spygate, I know Arlen Specter is dying to have the Patriots stripped of their title and the championship of a few years ago given to his Eagles but, really, why did Roger Goodell destroy the evidence and hand down the punishment before an investigation was finished?

It seems a little wacky.

What is tiresome about all of this is there doesn't seem to be a good guy to be found.

At least I learned "misremember" is truly a word. And it is what it is.
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Waspman,
Thanks for writing. Good comments. I loved the mini-debate over ... It is what it is ... a locker room cliche that is is either an expression of the obvious or a clever amibiguity being parsed by Congress. I nearly feel off the chair laughing.
-- Bill O.

Bill, no long time, hope all is well.

Although we tell our kids to do right, obey the law, play fair, etc; we have seen day and in day out athletes (so-called role models) are no different than any of us everyday people -- some are good, some have integrity, and some cheat to get ahead.

A lot of people may care about the transgressions in sports, but then again, sports fills a certain vacuum in our lives and don't readily give it up.

Yes, I am a huge baseball fan, blog about it, and also am an avid photographer; however, as much as I may be bothered by all the evil and craziness going on in sports, in the end, see it for what it is. I'll spend a lot of money seeing the Orioles, Nationals, taking road trips to catch games and what not.

It's just entertainment to me and I find zero moral value with following today's athletes. Sports may be a parable for life, but in the end, athletes are still human beings.

No one makes a huge deal if a fading starlet gets breast implants to keep her top spot, or an actor gets $20 million to star in a less-than-stellar movie; alas, people get their panties in a bunch with grown men shooting themselves up with drugs.

I just find it all hypocritical.
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Anthony,
Thanks for writing.
-- Bill O.

I am sick of the senate grandstanding, and playing partisan politics. Does steroid use in baseball matter... heck yeah. Does it require the congress to finger point and take down specific players? I think not. It has been shown that steroids is an issue in Baseball. Start holding the front offices accountable and you will see a severe decline in use. The congress has no business telling the NFL how to enforce its own rules unless laws are broken, and I am not talking about Arlen Specters legal double-speak. He is essentially saying I don't trust Goodell's judgment! Well let me help Goodell out. "Senator, you are a DISPICABLE politician, in bed with Metrocast, I don't trust your judgment if you think the Senate needs to waste its time policing the NFL!!! And if you are grandstanding, I don't trust your ethics!!!"

I remain interested in these topics because they're important to their sports. But I've about had enough, simply because there seems to be little way that any of these will ever be satisfactorily resolved. I mean, how can Spygate ever reach an honest conclusion when the NFL commissioner himself is destroying evidence? On one level, this feels worse to me than the steroids scandal because it is team-sanctioned cheating, but the NFL seems to get much more of a free pass on its crimes than baseball or other sports.

And as much fun as I have had watching the almighty Roger Clemens squirm, I can't imagine we'll ever get a definitive outcome as to what he did or didn't do – or any true accounting as to how many players really used PEDs over the years. Unless Clemens or Bonds or Tejada or someone else ends up in a federal courtroom, I'd say enough is enough – and thank goodness Spring Training has finally arrived and I can go back to grousing about the nonsense on the field instead of off the field.

Seriously, I heard one of the Knicks, or was it the Nets?, using the term "it is what it is" in an interview the other night on ESPN.

I'm sure some of these guys aren't NYC natives, but they pick up the lingo.
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It's not NY lingo, it's locker room jargon that's seeped in everyday vernacular.
-- Bill O.

Hi Bill, I wrote before on an earlier blog entry but I'll repeat my stance for those interested.

I certainly care about these issues from an entertainment standpoint -- the integrity of both games, the pursuit of "bad guys" and "cheaters" certainly makes for fun drama to follow as a sports fan. But I care about them about as much as I care about a movie or television show, and feel that the extent to which they are generating public outrage is depressing.

It makes me both angry and sad. Tainted championships and records, while not exactly something that gives any fan the "warm and fuzzies," are not things that we should be prioritizing over education, health care, a spiraling deficit, etc.

We have citizens who can't find Iraq on a map, don't understand the implications of free trade or the monetary and social complexities of the immigration debate, or what the record levels of personal debt are doing to our economic future...but they can tell you how many bloody syringes McNamee had or how many tapes Belichick turned over and whether they were recorded on SP or SLP.

Beyond the realm of sports, the impact of these incidents is small and does not warrant the federal resources and time being expended on them. Say what we will about athletes being role models or examples for our children; I'd rather point them at dedicated teachers, social workers, doctors, and soldiers.

But definitely not at grandstanding politicians.
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Jay,
You speak pearls of wisdom. But we all know the reality. That's why athletes and entertainment stars get paid what they get paid and teachers and social workers get paid what they do. You concerns about the expenditure of resources is absolutely legitimate. Thanks for writing.
-- Bill O.

The way Barry Bonds has been treated by sports writers is reminiscent of The Oxbow Incident, a gang of self-righteous vigilantes taking the law into their own hands. Yes, I care about the integrity of baseball, but this small aspect of our society is nothing compared to the role journalism plays in the integrity of our country. So, I care more about the failure of journalists to behave objectively. We need to trust the press, which I consider to be an essential pillar of our republic. The conviction of Bonds by the press before he's had his day in court is far more damaging than anything Bonds has or hasn't done.
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Dave,
You make a good point. I've said before that I may be the only person in America without a strong feeling about the guilt or innocense of O.J. Simpson because I did not sit through the enormous mountain of evidence in that case. I happened to cover both municipal and federal courts for fair stretches during my career making me a little sensitive to the issue of rush to judgments ... in a strictly legal sense. With Bonds, the evidence obviously has been circumstantial. And in his case, the perjury charges will stand as a proxy for his alleged steroids use. Thanks for writing.
-- Bill O.

Yes I care when An African American Woman is stripped of Her Gold Medals, and Robert Kraft gets a FREE PASS, . . But We wont see fair play as the model when the NFL interviews the Plantation Owners