The Rocket

Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: MCT Campus Former New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., about the illegal use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: MCT Campus New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, who has admitted to using HGH, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to give his deposition before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. [Click to enlarge]

On Monday, New York Yankees Senior Vice President Hank Steinbrenner, the son of feared baseball executive George Steinbrenner, stated that football was "tailor-made for performance-enhancing drugs."

Complaining to the media, Steinbrenner claimed that it irritated him that the focus was on baseball instead of football, urging that people look at football players, saying: "Don't tell me it's (steroid use) not more prevalent. The number in football is at least twice as many. Look at the speed and size of those players."

Steinbrenner's quote is more than just the latest in a series of steroid shockwaves marring Major League Baseball. It shows how off-base some individuals can be. Steinbrenner is essentially trying to deflect steroid criticism from Yankees star Andy Pettitte and former Yankee Roger Clemens by playing a game of tattle-tale.

After all, if baseball's doing it, the other sports must be as well.

It's a ridiculous attempt to deflect what is some very just criticism being thrown baseball's way, and Steinbrenner's attack is misguided for a single reason.

Since 1990, the NFL has headed off a potential steroid nightmare by having a policy that attempts to do something about it.

That's why the NFL is managing to avoid the public relations nightmare that exists right now in MLB.

Baseball implemented its own steroid policy only after lightning struck with the BALCO scandal in 2005. Though the NFL has its own problems, with Spygate right now, at least the NFL can claim that it is proactive in cleaning up its act, which is more than Steinbrenner can say about his sport.

Baseball's steroid policy didn't come into existence until 15 years after football implemented its own plan, yet Steinbrenner is the one pointing the finger now?

Fifteen years is an entire generation of players, a generation with the potential to shatter some of baseball's cherished pre-steroid records, and this firestorm began because a lot of people feel that the generation of players from 1990 to the present broke records and won championships with the use of steroids.

No one should be na've enough to believe there aren't players in the NFL taking steroids, as there will always be some individuals who attempt to cheat the system in any sport. But what Steinbrenner is so off-base about is that the reason the hammer is coming down so hard on baseball is because it took so long for baseball to do anything about it. Baseball brought this upon itself. The NFL has generally been more adept than MLB at heading off potential problems before they become huge issues.

A perfect example of this is the NFL's Personal Conduct Policy, implemented in 2007 to deal with a spate of off-the-field criminal incidents.

This saved the league from criticism, shifting the onus onto the players and the teams that drafted and employed them, rather than the league.

Problems may abound in both sports, but unlike baseball, the NFL can't be accused of not attempting to do something before those problems cropped up. That's ultimately the difference between MLB being on the proverbial hot seat and the NFL being relatively unscathed over the steroid business. If anything, Steinbrenner should be complaining about baseball's lack of foresight.


Rocco Cremonese is an English graduate student and a regular contributor to The Rocket.

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