This month HBO is airing a quite good story on Tyler Hamilton and the problems he's been facing since testing positive for having another person's blood in his system during last year's Vuelta a Espagna. I was pleasantly suprised at how balanced the coverage was and how well they discussed a few of the issues surrounding Tyler.
Also in the news this week are stories about how Ryan Franklin of the Seattle Mariners and Rafael Palmeiro of the Baltimore Orioles tested positve for banned steroids.
I think it is an interesting statement about how Americans view their sports heros who are caught cheating in relation to the way the rest of the world seems to deal with similar issues.
It was found that less than 2% of Tyler Hamilton's blood tested as though it was from a blood transfusion from another person. Most of the doctors and officials agree that there is no performance advantage to that, and yet he received a 2 year ban for this infraction. That effectively ends his career.
Franklin and Palmeiro each are going to receive a 10 day suspension.
Is it me or is there something weird about that? Rafael Palmeiro went before congress and testified that he has never taken illegal performance enhancing drugs. A few months later he tests positive and all he gets is a 10 day suspension?
I heard recently about problems with mandatory drug sentencing, where people were getting sent to jail for really long sentences for quite minor infractions because of extenuating circumstances and mandatory sentencing.
What does that say about our country? What does that tell our kids about the importance of playing fair and not using performance enhancing drugs?
If you're poor and get busted for drugs, you're going away for a very long time. If you're rich and famous and get busted for drugs and lie to congress about it, you get a 10 day vacation. Nice message!!!
Sorry to rant.
Thanks for reading.
Pete
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4 comments:
It's depressing but I think this is an even bigger problem then people are aware of.
You're right on regarding the dispartity of the sentances between Tyler and Palmero.
I feel really sorry for the generation of kids that are faced with the realization that their heros are dopers. I can't help but wonder if this means a whole new generation of future athelets are going to grow up thinking this is acceptable behavior.
I read this early this morning:
"Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., a former pitcher who's in the baseball Hall of Fame, said the Senate will hold hearings this fall on legislation that would mandate two-year suspensions for any professional athlete in a team sport who tested positive for steroids.
``The hard line is for the good of the kids,'' Bunning said on ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``We don't want children, high school or college players, trying to boost their ability to make it into the major leagues.''"
Pete
Unfortunately, it calls into question a lot of our "Hero Worship" of professional athletes! People need to re-evaluate their priorities and remember they are just as human as the rest of us and subject to the same problems and foibles as the rest of us! The best way to remove the problem would more likely, rather than a long suspension, mandated by the government would be to actually enforce the existing laws and jail them for possession by intoxifacation! This would include Anabolic Steroids unless endocrine disease can be proven as a reason to be taking the substance! Unfortunately, the primary reason used for more government interferance and additional legislation is that old cry "It's for the children"!
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