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Monday, February 9, 2009
Others should follow A-Rod and come clean
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sometime during those formative years of my kids’ lives — post-walking, pre-driving — we had several conversations about honesty.
In tones that straddled the line between nurturing and intimidating, I would pronounce: “Whatever you do, you better tell me the truth. Because if you’re lying I’m going to find out eventually, and then you’ll really be in trouble.”
It was at that point they would respond, “What?” and I realized they had their headphones on. But this exercise succeeded at least part of the time, and I’m assuming everything else will come out some day before they lock me in a home, where I can look forward to fish stick Tuesday.
Now, it might seem kind of late for this. But given ongoing steroid investigations, online pictures of a bong-hitting breaststroker and a former Falcons star being overheard snorting cocaine in the bathroom stall of a Buckhead bar (give Jamal Anderson points for ’80s nostalgia), here’s some simple advice for today’s athletes:
Don’t cheat. Don’t party. Don’t lie. You’re not getting away with anything.
If you did something years ago, come clean now. We will find out and we will take away the car keys, then possibly back over your legacy.
Alex Rodriguez was one of the 104 players who tested positive for steroids in 2003. We were not supposed to know this. We also weren’t supposed to know about grand jury testimony linked to the federal investigation into BALCO. How did that turn out?
Rodriguez’s positive test, reported by Sports Illustrated Saturday and confirmed by Rodriguez (a credible source) Monday, was among the 1,200 screenings conducted by baseball in 2003 to determine if it had a drug problem. (Duh.) The test results were supposed to be kept private. Somebody didn’t get the memo.
Come clean, guys. Come clean now, like Rodriguez. Come clean because sports fans can be quite be forgiving, particularly when somebody is leading their team to a pennant.
Fans embrace heroes, even flawed ones. Honesty sells. Hold a press conference, declare what you did, when you did it, why you did it and let’s move on.
In the steroid era, admission is the mother of all closures.
Eventually, we will find out. Everything. Between social networks, camera phones and websites that exist largely to humiliate, there’s little we don’t know. If Lee Harvey Oswald had a Facebook account, I’m certain we could have learned a lot more from one of his postings than the Warren Commission told us.
Spring training opens this week. If Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens had admitted things by now, arguably the game’s greatest player and one of its greatest pitchers might be in uniform. Instead, both are conferencing with attorneys.
They stick a syringe in their arm and think we won’t find out. How is that possible?
We don’t even need leaked lab results or grand jury testimony.
A former girlfriend (Kimberly Bell) outed Bonds.
A little known personal trainer (Brian McNamee) crushed Clemens.
A former clubhouse gopher (Kirk Radomski) spilled everything he knew about what was going in New York.
A reporter walked by Mark McGwire’s locker in 1998 during the ratings-saving home run chase and noticed a large container with a label, “Androstenedione.” Big word. Big guy.
Jose Canseco, published author, has been made out to be one of the world’s lowest life forms, just ahead of algae and Rod Blagojevich. But almost everything he wrote in his books, “Juiced” and “Vindicated,” has panned out.
Canseco linked Rodriguez with steroids last year. So many mocked him. Part of that stemmed from Bonds’ artificially enhanced home run record and the belief — or hope — that A-Rod was clean and eventually would pass him.
Three things fueled the steroid era: greed, ego and arrogance. Greed to be rich. Ego to be adored. Arrogance to believe you can get away with it.
But now everything is coming out. There’s another 103 players from that 2003 list who are sitting somewhere in a cold sweat. They’re at the mercy of the next unnamed source.
This would be a good time for them to take off the headphones and listen: Come clean now. Because if you’re lying, we’re going to find out. There’s no place to hide any more.
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