Yankees star Alex Rodriguez is grabbing the headlines this week for his admission that he used performance enhancing drugs. Of course his sudden, heroic apology comes days after Sports Illustrated broke the story that he was on a list of known users. Rodriguez will only admit to using steroids during a three-year period with the Texas Rangers. Of course, the sports leagues have yet to come to an agreement for testing athletes for HGH, so we can only wonder how many are taking human growth hormone.
A-Rod is just the flavor of the month, as Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens and others have already been rung through the ringer. The difference this time is that Rodriguez was going to be the savior to lead baseball out of the supposed post-steroid era. Instead, we now know he was right there with them all the time.
His lack of apparent sincerity is dripping all over his lame apology. First, he handpicks softball tossing interviewer and baseball apologist Peter Gammons of ESPN for his disclosure. Rodriguez claims he did not know he had tested positive until the story was leaked last week by Sports Illustrated. However, the Mitchell Report says all of the 104 players who tested positive were told in 2004. ARod deftly claims SI reporter Serena Roberts stalked him for the story despite her being able to refute each step.
After watching Barry Bonds tarnished pursuit of baseball's all-time home run record, this latest saga will hang over the sport as Rodriguez is tracking to eventually surpass Bonds. Bonds and Rodriguez would likely have gone down in history as two of baseball's all-time greats, but now they will be on the government's most wanted poster as steroid offenders.
Michael Phelps should be sending a thank you card to ARod for taking him off the front page of sports. If anything, bong smoking and beer pong should slow him down in the pool.
NFL free agency begins later this month, and it will be interesting to see how the Panthers deal with the Julius Peppers possible departure. The team of course holds the cards, meaning his rights, but Peppers again made it very clear during the Pro Bowl broadcast on ESPN that he has no desire to remain in Carolina.
This past season, Panthers fan and Panther Talk regular attender Jimmy Powell and his family were guests at Panthers practice at the invitation of coach John Fox. The Powell's 20-month old son Jackson suffers from SMA which is the number-1 killer of children before they reach age two. For Jimmy and Gina it is obviously a very traumatic situation to deal with and our hearts go out to them. For anyone who has dealt with severe medical situations, you know it is also financially challenging. To read more about Jackson and SMA, or if you feel touched enough to offer support, visit their website at www.our-sma-angels.com/jackson/
