A-Rod Aftermath: My Two Cents On Steroids In Professional Sports

With the latest breaking news of steroids in baseball, all kinds of opinions are crawling out of the wood work. Since everyone else is commenting, I am going to as well.

First of all, cheating is cheating.  I do not care if it is A-Rod, Shawne Merriman, or anyone else. As long as cheating is tolerated in professional sports, it is going to continue.

And what about the kids?  Is the message that these men are sending acceptable to any parents out there?  If a young man is cut from his high school football team because he was not good enough to make it, should he even consider steroids? These men are saying yes.

Additionally, people are saying, what about the '70s Steelers? What about Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa?  Shouldn't they all be punished?

Steroids were not illegal in the 1970s and the harmful effects of usage were not yet widely known. 

As for McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds, they knew better. It was against the law, even if it wasn't yet against MLB rules.

I firmly believe that when baseball went on strike in the early '90s, the game was on its way to the grave. Then along came the power hitters that were smashing all the old records for batters, and attendance came back.

Baseball sold its soul to put us back in the seats. Now, it is time to pay the piper. 

It is time for all sports to come together. Every time a player tests positive for a banned substance, the first offense is an automatic one-year suspension. A second offense is a life-time ban. College kids that are caught taking performance-enhancing drugs should immediately lose their scholarship, basically ending their career.

It is time to take the games back, and let them become games again. Games that parents can watch with their children, without having to answer questions like "Daddy, why did A-Rod get in trouble?"