The Weis Guy
Sports and politics do not mix
By Michael Weisman, Senior Sports Writer
January 20, 2008 | 2 p.m.
Commercials and the Super Bowl. Brackets and March Madness. Strawberries ‘n cream and Wimbledon. These pairs are inseparably linked in the minds of sports fans.
But not everything in sports mixes well together (see: Michael Vick and dogs). And over the past few months, another bad pairing has reappeared — sports and politics. The two have tangoed before, and will do so in the future, but it’s yet to work out positively.
Look no further than the Olympics to see why sports and politics do not mesh. Ask the American athletes, who were starved of a chance to compete in the 1980 Summer Olympics when the U.S. boycotted the games in Moscow, about sports and politics. Look at Tom Osborne who left his career in politics to return to Nebraska as athletic director.
The sports-politics pairing is reaching an all-time low, however, with the release of the Mitchell Report and baseball players being forced to testify before Congress. Does the government not control enough parts of our lives? Do they need to interfere with the one aspect that gives many a much-needed getaway from the daily grind?
Sure, Congress is helping to clean up the sport of baseball and putting an end to the steroid era, but do they not have more important things to focus on, like a war in Iraq or an economy in recession?
I think baseball can patrol itself, so butt-out Congress! I do not see the NFL asking Congress to help make its players behave better (do not get any ideas Congressmen). NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was able to change that himself (take note Bud Selig). There is no congressional committee on whether the BCS should be blown up and a college football playoff should be implemented.
Sports can run themselves and certainly do not need help from the government.
Besides, Congress can make players testify under oath all they want, but what is done is done. Steroids were just a part of the game for the second half of the 1990s and the first few years of the 21st century, and people, Congress included, just need to accept that.
All the investigating and congressional hearings are only stirring up more controversy of asterisks and Hall of Fame rejections. NASCAR changed to the “car of tomorrow” last year (or maybe it is the car of today by now), but no one is differentiating between champions who won with cars of yesterday from those who won with cars of tomorrow.
Sports evolve and change, but the record book remains consistent, void of asterisks or markings clarifying that this player played more games than the previous record holder, or this player’s statistics include post-season play, while the former record holder’s stats only included the regular season games.
It is unfortunate that baseball was full of steroids for a period of about 10 years, but that is how the game was played, just like basketball players wear better shoes than in years past and college basketball has used a 3-point line since 1987. Now Congress is trying to rectify the steroids era, but in the words of Mark McGwire, “we’re here to talk about the future.”
If Congress must get involved, they need to prevent steroids from infiltrating baseball from this point forward, something MLB Commisioner Bud Selig should be able to do himself. They do not need to find out who used steroids in the past. All that does is create a he-said-she-said argument like the one between Roger Clemens and his trainer Brian McNamee.
Oh, it also gets athletes and trainers sent to jail for perjury and lying to federal investigators. Barry Bonds’ trainer, Greg Anderson, has been sitting in jail for a while now, trying to keep Bonds from joining him. If Congress continues to push and force players to testify, we could see many players heading to jail.
Bonds, the all-time home run king, could be headed for the slammer, all because Congress felt it necessary to see who cheated* years ago, when it is too late to be fixed. If Clemens and McNamee hold to their arguments, one of them will be guilty of perjury after he testifies before Congress in a few weeks. Rafael Palmeiro testified to Congress he didn’t use steroids and then tested positive. Miguel Tejada is being investigated for lying to a federal investigator.
Any of these people could be visiting a jail near you in the near future, which would be a shame. Rather than letting baseball patrol itself, like every other sport in the world, Congress had to rear its ugly head and stir up the peace, resulting in possible jail time for athletes who did not even commit a crime until Congress got involved.
Perhaps Bud Selig, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and company should advise President Bush on a strategy to withdraw troops from Iraq or how to get rid of our ever-growing national debt. Then again, maybe not. But that’s why sports and politics don’t mix.
Let the players play ball, the commissioner rule his sport, and the politicians (try to) run our country!
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*Steroids were common in professional baseball during the era Bonds and other players supposedly took them and some substances were not banned from baseball at the time.