Steroids in Football and Baseball: There Is No Double Standard

What has annoyed me the most about all the steroid talk lately has not been whether or not people believe what Alex Rodriguez has done, but rather every baseball purist is whining and complaining that football players seem to get a pass when they get busted for using performance enhancing drugs.

My advice to them is to quietly shut up.  There is no double standard between football and baseball's steroid use.

In football, the glamour position is the quarterback.  He is the player who gets the most attention from the fans and the media.  His performance is also the most scrutinized whenever there is a problem with the team. 

In baseball, the glamour position is the power hitter. As the saying goes, "Chicks dig the long ball."  Argue it all you want, but home runs and offense are what the casual fans want to see and will go to the stadium more often if big numbers are being put up.

Now, to date there has been no big steroid scandal involving any major NFL or college football quarterback.  Most players busted in the NFL have been interior linemen and linebackers.  

In fact, the only big name player that most people remember got suspended in the NFL was Chargers' linebacker Shawne Merriman.

Meanwhile in baseball, look at all the popular players what have either been busted for steroids or linked to performance enhancing drugs: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Rafael Palmeiro, Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, Ken Caminiti, etc.

When your stars are the ones getting in trouble, the whole organization is going to suffer.

This brings me to another point. All the major hitting records in baseball are tainted. Some, including MLB Commissioner Bud Selig have asked why people care so much about the records.

Well, every sports fan knows the numbers 61 and 755.  They are some of the most important numbers in all of sports not just baseball.

How many fans know the NFL records for career touchdowns or rushing yards?  (208 by Jerry Rice and 18,355 by Emmitt Smith for those wondering)

In baseball, while it is a team sport, all the major records are focused on the individual. While in the NFL the only record that anyone really cares about is 17-0, the perfect season by the Miami Dolphins in 1972.

Those are the reasons why football will never get the attention for steroids like baseball does.