Being Barry Bonds

What if you broke the most hallowed record in all of sports...and almost everyone was angry at you for doing it? What if you became the Fall Guy for a generation of drug abusers? What if you were arguably your generation's best in the sport you played, but had very little chance of making the Hall of Fame?What if you were Barry Bonds?

I know, you wouldn't be. You're too squeaky clean, too honorable, to committed to the integrity of your industry. You never cheated. Not on your taxes. Not on your wife. You never stepped outside the lines of propriety in order to get ahead. You never looked for that angle, however immoral or illegal, to give yourself a leg up on your competition.

Plenty have. Plenty have paid for it, too. They got their pink slip or their prison jumper for their troubles. So, you don't feel sorry for Barry Bonds. The guy could have been the least bit likeable and maybe this would never have happened. He could have stayed clean...or at least come clean when he was interrogated under oath. Jason Giambi did. He took his lumps for it, too. But he won't face prison time. Barry may.

I am in no way defending Barry Bonds. I'm not. But I refuse to celebrate the indictment of the man who is the face of a problem much greater than himself. He wasn't alone in his cheating. He wasn't the only one shooting up so he could bulk up. He was just the only one who did it while assaulting a hallowed record.

I imagine it isn't much fun, being Barry Bonds. I doubt it was a great deal of fun even when he was smashing the record-setting tater. Probably wasn't any fun when his achievement was mocked and an asterisk burned into the historic ball he hit out of the park. It was even less fun when he was served notice that a grand jury had indicted him.Being Barry Bonds has to be a pretty lonely feeling. But somebody had to be Barry. Somebody had to bring this house of cards tumbling down. Who knows where it will end? How many will be forced to own their mistakes, their duplicity, their cheating, their law-breaking?

Maybe...just maybe, this turns the tide. Or, maybe it at least stems the tide. Perhaps, at long last, the playing fields will be level again, and the athletes who do it the right way will have a crying chance. Maybe the madness will end...and we can all return to believing in Santa Claus, happy endings, and the integrity of professional sports.

If so, I will celebrate that.

But I will not celebrate the fall of Barry Bonds. Self-destruction is not a pretty thing. It isn't fun...or funny. It's just...sad.

Super Cheaters

Roger Goodell has had more than enough on his plate in this second year of his oversight of the NFL. First drug abusers, then dog-fighters, and now good old-fashioned, first-class cheaters.

In light of the way the New England Patriots were caught red-handed and pants-down, we can now officially end the debate over whether the bums deserve to be in the debate over who is the all-time greatest team and begin the debate over whether the penalty they received was harsh enough.

Goodell, thus far, has been the modern-day equivalent of Judge Roy Bean, the famed "hangin' judge" of the Pecos. His responses to league violations have been swift and severe. Until now.

So, Belichick, the head football cheater of the Patriots was fined $500,000. Big whoop! You think he will miss it? Do you really even think that, ultimately, when all is said and done and the Boston Cheaters figure a way to slide the money under the table to the head cheater, the money will even come out of his pocket?

Wade Wilson, the Cowboys' quarterback coach, a man living on pauper's wages in comparison to Belichick is serving a five game suspension in addition to the hundred thousand dollar fine he received for an infraction of the rules that occurred before he was on the staff of the Cowboys. He bought human growth hormone (HGH) online. The natural speculation would be that he was buying it to give to Bears players. So far, no fines or suspensions have been slapped on the Monsters of the Midway. Nope! The cowboys are being inconvenienced and penalized for what went down on the Bears' watch.

I guess that is another story entirely, except it begs the question: where is the suspension for Belichick? If a little HGH is worth five games, what is blatantly cheating during the course of a game worth? And if a lowly quarterbacks coach deserves a suspension for misbehavior, should the head cheater not be held to at least as high a standard?

The team penalty in the form of a first round draft pick if the Pats make the playoffs or a second and third if they don't seems equitable enough. How about this though? Forfeit the game we KNOW they cheated to win. Make the miserable low-life bastards who make a mockery of your sport 0-1 rather than 1-0!

Why isn't this a bigger story? Why is there no groundswell, no across-the-board demand for justice? Why does the mighty media of the Northeast wink at this? Is it because it is their beloved Patriots? Would they be ready to torch Jerry Jones if this had happened in Dallas?

Hey! I know justice is blind, but does it have to be retarded? Or...is it justice at all? One thing for sure, we should do history justice and drop the Patriots from any and all conversations about greatest team ever. There are some Packers, Steelers, 49ers, and Cowboys teams who deserve better company than that.