Congress & Sports

I am continually amazed by the obtuse activities of our government, especially during an election year. Now they want to fix professional sports.

Congress first got involved in the baseball steroid issue with hearings in March 2005, after Jose Canseco’s book Juiced hit bookshelves. Then they got crazy trying to determine Roger Clemens’ involvement.

Even with all that going on, the New York Times (Feb 15, 2007) is also reporting that Senator Arlen Specter is “more determined” for the senate to look into the cheating allegations in the NFL regarding secret videotaping of football practices.

Am I the only person in the country who just doesn’t get it?

The sports media, whose job it is to sell newspapers, magazines, and ad time on radio and television, have tried repeatedly to get the public involved in the steroid controversy. Every few months or so over the last three years, a new story “breaks” about someone’s alleged use of steroids. Books are written, interviews are conducted, and aggressive investigations are promised. Mike Lupica alone is a one-man publishing company.

But for all their efforts, the media alone just can’t seem to get the American public involved.

Well then; let’s get congress involved. Surely once congress steps in the American public will become interested, and the groundswell of moral indignation that gives meteoric rise to professional careers will be forthcoming. Nope; not so much.

Federal prosecutors are foaming at the mouth for a chance to prosecute athletes who perjure themselves before congress, when the athletes shouldn’t have been testifying before congress in the first place. And the prosecutors get to use the television face time to build support for federal judicial appointments later on in their careers. Nifty.

Hey, here’s a news flash for you; we don’t care. Really. Keith J. Kelly recently reported in the New York Post (Dec 19, 2007) that the hottest names in the baseball steroid controversy (Canseco, Kirk Radomski, Brian McNamee) are all having major difficulty selling their stories to book publishers.

We watch sports to be entertained. That’s it. Regardless of how loud Ryan and Lupica yell at each other on the Sports Reporters, regardless of how many well-written books Lance Williams or John Feinstein publish, and regardless of how loud or long Congressman Henry Waxman bangs his gavel.

We want our team to be bigger, stronger, and faster than the other team. If some of the members of our team make personal choices to use substances to achieve the size, strength, or speed, who cares? I’m sure losing fifty or so pounds for his role of Doc Holliday in Wyatt Earp wasn’t the healthiest thing Dennis Quaid ever did. But it made the role believable, and we applauded Quaid’s commitment to his craft. Where was Henry Waxman then?

The big four sports are making billions of dollars under the status quo, and this amounts to tacit approval of steroid use. If they really wanted steroid and drug use out of professional sports, then every professional athlete in every league would be tested at least once a week, all year long, and first-time violators would be forever banned from the league.

The truth is, management of the “big four” sports leagues and their associated players unions are very happy the way things are. One of the few things the leagues and unions agree on is that they must display some sort of effort against steroids and other illegal substances to keep the wolf from their doors. Random testing seems to do that. But, I fear I digress.

Congress has no business in professional sports when it comes to the issues of steroids and videotaping of practices. If the sale, use, or distribution of steroids or other illegal substances is suspected, then the appropriate local law enforcement officials should step forward to deal with the issue, and treat athletes like the rest of us “regular” folks. And unless the persons who videotaped football team practices or sideline signals (both against league rules) broke some kind of trespassing laws, this should be handled internally by NFL management.

We have so many serious, pertinent issues for our elected officials to deal with other than professional sports. I could list them all here, but this is not a political argument, and I am hoping for a bi-partisan “Amen” at the end.

I love sports; always have. I played them all both organized and sandlot into my late thirties, and if my current job didn’t require travel, I’d play in a couple of slow-pitch leagues. I’ve had my heart broken by the Texas Rangers and Jerry Jones so many times, I’ve lost count; so don’t question my fanhood.

I’m writing my representative and senators to let them know that I fully support their positions that performance enhancing drug use in professional sports is a serious issue. Actually, possession and use of any controlled or illegal substance is a serious issue.

But their argument ends there, because I am not concerned with the trickle-down effect to high school, collegiate, and other amateur athletes because of the “role model” position of professional athletes. To base laws and national policy on what young adults think of professional athletes is ludicrous and only continues to support parents that are uncaring, uninvolved, and uninformed. It treats the symptoms, not the problem, but it makes for good sound bites, which is important for reelection.

My main goal in writing my representative and senators is to remind them that I did not send them to Washington to deal with problems in professional sports. They are too many other serious things I want them working on.