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After having read an this article on ESPN.com, I think it is necessary to take the time to reflect on some of the things stated in that article. Athletes are human beings too and it would not kill us to treat them as such.

I don’t know if all of you have been following the breaking steroids news story, but Kirk Radomski, a former Mets clubhouse attendant was caught for selling all sorts of illegal performance enhancing drugs to baseball players. The court has seized documents from Radomski, including a client list that has dozens of players on it. Apparently Radomski also provided information that led to the raid of Jason Grimsley’s home. Grimsley then turned around and accused Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada, and Brain Roberts of being anabolic steroid users.

First off, as a Mets fan, it is important to talk about the implications of this situation for them. I don’t know of any Mets that are on steroids or that have been, but I am sure Radomski might have a good idea. When Radomski was a clubhouse attendant, he spent most of his time in the opposing team’s locker room. However, because his operations were out of his New York home, I would assume there are Mets players that are going to be involved. Radomski’s list of clients and purchase records has not been released and the only way to prove that those players actually took the drugs he sold would be a drug test. I am also sure that Radomski will implicate players, especially Mets that took steroids, even if they didn’t buy from him. This is a very dangerous situation for the Mets and opposing teams are going to look down upon them for letting someone like this leak out tons of information.

The major rumor that people are throwing around is the possibility of Barry Bonds being one of Radomski’s clients. Bonds, being a player that visits the Mets clubhouse at least once every year, most likely had some interaction with Radomski. However, being that Bonds is such a high profile guy, it is very doubtful that he partake in a steroid transaction with Radomski. I also think that if he did, we would definitely know about it already. Our government seems obsessed with finding Bonds guilty of purgery while major criminals run wild. I, for one of the first times, can legitimally say I am ashamed at how our government is treating Bonds. In the United States you are innocent until proven guilty, if Bonds said he didn’t do it then you should not be going crazy trying to turn him into a liar. If someone has that information and wants to come forward with it, they will. Until then sit back relax and stop claiming that a legally innocent man is guilty.

Radomski has the potential to change the history of major league baseball. Players are going to be arrested and possibly jailed for their alleged involvement with Radomski. There is already the pressing debate of putting an * in the record books next to all players that are linked to Radomski. Again, I have an issue with that. If that players drug test comes back positive or a federal court finds them guilty of taking steroids, then yeah, go crazy with the asterisks. Players that are implicated but currently innocent do not deserve to be degraded like that.

When reading a previous article about steroids in football the author claimed that NFL players are gladiators and willing to destroy their body to bring home the big bucks. The public looks down upon it because they are in essence cheating. I have to ask though, are you really cheating if everyone else is doing it? I know there is the age old saying If everyone jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge would you do it too? The answer is always no, but you know the answer is yes, especially when it comes to your career. Playing baseball or football is what these people do for a living. The second you see a drop in their performance all hell breaks loose and people demand for their removal from the team. If I could make $5 million dollars more a year and set my family up for life by taking steroids, I would without a doubt do it. In that article about steroids in football the author claim the Beatles and Bob Dylan were taking performance enhancing drugs by using marijuana and other assorted illegal drugs. So, just think for a second, if you are a baseball player starting the final year of his contract and you have the potential to get a guaranteed contract worth $60 million dollars, would you not take steroids and sign a contract worth $5 million instead. I have never used a drug in my entire life because I don’t want to destroy myself for no reason. However, if someone told me that there was something magical that would make me a better accountant and thus put me on the fast track to be a company leader and potentially make millions of dollars, it might just be something I would be willing to explore.

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