Friday, June 26, 2009

Do We Really Hate Steroid Use?

By Paul Foeller

Bud Selig has been preaching the same sermon for so long that the congregations that pack (or more recently, fail to pack) stadiums every day have become unaffected by the rhetoric involved in convincing the average baseball fan that Major League Baseball's drug testing program is in fact adequate. But an unsettling reality is beginning to become all too clear in the minds of baseball fans of all ages. Regardless of who is tested, and how often they are tested, steroid use in professional sports (including baseball) is here to stay.

When the NFL accepted this blatantly obvious truth, and was subsequently able to stop dwelling on it, football exploded into the omnipotent god of professional sports that we know and love today. This is why it came as a surprise to no one, and more importantly, why no one cared, when Shawne Merriman tested positive for steroids 2006.

In fairness, a four-week suspension without pay is a steep penalty, but to this day everyone, including me (a Chiefs fan), recognizes Merriman as one of the most talented young linebackers in the league. He also manages to draw a chorus of 70,000 cheers from the fans in Qualcomm stadium for eight Sundays every year, although his celebration dances are inexplicably unappreciated by opposing crowds. Either way, "Lights Out" Merriman is no Barry Bonds to sports fans.

You remember Barry Bonds, right? The antithesis of Brett Favre. The guy who never retired and nobody wants or likes. He's strikingly similar to Merriman, with the lone deviation (aside from being genuinely unlikeable) being that Bonds has never actually tested positive for steroids. Sure, he's enjoyed freakishly ballooned power numbers, but we (the Bonds-haters) still own the burden of proof.

So why do we hate Bonds and not Merriman? The answer is unfortunately simple. We don't hate steroids or even steroid use. We don't even hate being lied to or tricked by our favorite athletes. All we really hate is being the last to realize the prevalence of steroid use, and in our anger, we've chosen to sacrifice our once-favorite players.

Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Alex Rodriguez are no more guilty than Shawne Merriman, they just make more convenient scapegoats for the truly guilty (yet again, this is you and me, Bonds-hater).

We are guilty of enabling their steroid use by remaining willingly and blissfully ignorant of it. We realize this, and we hate it.