Solid Use of Taxpayer Money

Steroids never seem to go away. This time the perpetrator just so happens to be the greatest pitcher of this generation in Roger Clemens. But it is not the fans who are calling him out. Nor is it journalists. Or even Bud Selig and his men. No, Clemens is being called upon by a federal grand jury, who is indicting the Rocket on six counts of lying at a 2008 Congressional hearing about steroid use in sports. The indictment specifies that Clemens lied about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, and if found guilty could face prison time ranging 15-21 months. But really, what would an admission, or I suppose here, a finding, of guilt really do to help America? Would the streets of our nation be safer knowing a liar is behind bars? This is yet another case of Congress getting involved with things that they have no business interfering with. And, sadly, this is becoming all-too-familiar a story.

Backtrack 16 months to March 2009. College football faced more criticism over the BCS format when undefeated Utah did not qualify for the national title game. Instead, one-loss teams Florida and Oklahoma did. This was certainly not the first time the BCS had come under scrutiny, and it won't be the last time either (Boise State fans might agree to this come January). At the time the country was in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Unemployment rates, according to the New York Times, were at their highest rates in twenty-five years. Yet what did Congress spending their time doing? They held a hearing over whether the BCS is "fair". Are you kidding me? The leader of the hearing, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah (which explains why the meeting was held in the first place) claimed that the BCS format was unfair because all non-BCS teams were left out at a chance at millions of dollars. This just in: universities don't need more money. They have plenty of it. And forgive the voters for thinking that Florida and Oklahoma were more deserving of a title than Utah. After all, the Gators only beat #4 LSU, #6 Georgia, #25 South Carolina, #20 Florida State (in Tallahassee), and #1 Alabama by an average of 32 points, while the Sooners only averaged 54 points a game, scored 60+ points in each of their last five games, and beat five ranked opponents by an average of 29 points. Utah hammered BYU and edged out TCU, which is nice. And although they kicked 'Bama in the teeth in the Sugar Bowl, the computers picked the two best teams in college football. The meeting was a complete waste of time in which absolutely nothing was accomplished (unless you count spending more taxpayer money an accomplishment, but at this rate isn't that becoming commonplace?).

And that was only a one-day meeting.

The steroids investigation has been a years-long process, of which the Clemens indictment is a mere footnote.The infamous Mitchell Report named Clemens 80 times, but he was but one of 89 players mentioned who were suspected of using steroids or HGH. That was a 21-month long investigation. At the 2008 hearing, Clemens told congressman "I have never taken steroids or HGH." It was a meeting of he-said-he-said between the Rocket and his former trainer Brian McNamee, who claims he injected Clemens. At the time the big-wigs at the meeting were split down the middle as to who was lying and who was telling the truth. But in the grand scheme of things, it shouldn't matter. The meeting should not have happened because it was another case where the government should have been incredibly far away. would love to hear exactly why Congress has spent so much time and money on something like steroid use in sports. The players are only hurting themselves, and while they are tainting the history of America's pastime, that's not technically a crime. This is an issue that should be dealt with by Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and every other league individually. Yeah, using PEDs is cheating and hurts the integrity of sports. But let's face it: with or without steroids, pro sports are multi-billion dollar businesses. People will question the sanctity of it all, some might even stop following it, but no matter what money will be made, and isn't that the only thing the greedy politicians care about anyways? Meanwhile, AIG employees can ask for $182 billion in bailout money, yet all their big-wigs can afford their own private jets and mansions. Congress should worry a little less about cheating going on in sports, and cheating going on in the real world. Roger Clemens did not kill anyone. He did not steal anything from anyone. He did nothing illegal except (potentially) take steroids, which I'm pretty sure is not worthy of a Congressional hearing and federal grand jury investigation.

(And while on the topic of Clemens: It seems the public has already reached their verdict. Roger Clemens took steroids. But just remember one thing. Jose Canseco, a very-much-admitted steroid user, said through his lawyer, "I am not aware of any use of steroids by Roger." And to this point, most everything Canseco has said regarding players and steroid use has turned out to be correct (Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi have all admitted their use, while Juan Gonzalez was mentioned in the Mitchell Report). I'm not saying this makes Clemens innocent, but I don't think it can hurt his cause. Either way, Clemens was 100% correct when he said at the meeting, "No matter what we discuss here today, I am never going to have my name restored." Which means a man with 354 wins and over 3600 strikeouts will be left out of the Hall of Fame for the foreseeable future.)