Here's an article I just read from a sports columnist about Arlen Specter's investigation of the NFL and Spygate.
http://openmike.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/15/668023.aspx (http://openmike.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/15/668023.aspx)
This part was particularly interesting and spot on:
QuoteSpecter's one of the champions of fairness who wants to fix it so that the President, Vice President and telecoms will be immune from prosecution for spying on citizens illegally. In other words, cheaters will be cleared after the fact of their cheating.
That's fine with Specter, because it involves only a violation of the civil liberties of ordinary Americans who don't contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign funds. The NFL, on the other hand, is messing with the profit margin of the folks stuffing his coffers.
And that, my fellow Americans, is your tax dollars at work.
With priorities like these, who needs enemies?
Really, why is Congress sticking its nose into the MLB and NFL? Now, I'm not going to give the stupid argument of "Shouldn't they be focusing on Iraq and the economy?" Obviously, Congress tackles many different issues, big and small, and they, kind of, can do so in a simultaneous fashion.
The NFL I can understand to a certain extent because they do have an anti-trust deal with Congress, and thus I can understand some oversight, though there certainly still exists the double standard when it comes to the issue of spying.
But in baseball, the reason that steroids and HGH are so rampant is because the MLB doesn't want to do anything about it AND the fans really don't give a fuck about it. If they did, they would stop going to games and giving them money. They'd stop shelling out $40 for a seat in the nose-bleed section and buying the $5 beers. And so Congress feels they need to be the arbitor? I just wish they had the same zeal for fixing other problems Americans are apathetic about, like say healthcare. Instead of grilling some mook like Roger Clemens, how about we focus a little more attention on why the goon that heads the Insurance company is postponing decisions on covering procedures in the hopes that the patient dies first.
I mean for crying out loud, any idiot with common sense knows Clemens is juiced. It isn't normal for a 40 year old to get physically stronger as he ages. It isn't normal for someone's head to literally grow and expand. But come on Arlen, I'd rather you keep Bush off of my phone lines then worry about Bellichik stealing a couple of route patterns.
To be honest, I wish steroid use was unregulated in more sports. If you want to use a drug to get massive for my entertainment, and your ok with the trade off of having balls the size of chickpeas, then GO RIGHT THE FUCK AHEAD!
Football, hockey, UFC, all of these would be cooler if the people doing them weighed 350+ pounds of pure muscle.
I wish the use of steroids was less regulated in swimsuit modeling and ladies' volleyball, then I would finally stand a chance!