Hit the Roids, Hit the Road

That's right, I said it. Roger Clemens, you disappoint me. You don't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. You don't deserve to be on a team. Quit baseball and leave room for a real role model to step up.

Now, I do have to admit before I go on, that I never really was a Clemens fan as a kid, but I know plenty of kids who were and still are his fans. They stuck by him year after year and for that, they are loyal.

But who are they loyal to? A steroid user.

In today's society of sports, it has become increasingly harder for the older, more experienced players to compete with the up and coming cream of the crop young athletes who are just getting their big breaks. When people like Clemens were 10, even five years younger, there were millions of people who would buy him dinner just to sit across from him. And it's not just Clemens. Bonds, McGuire, they all have the same problem too. After all that success, after you peak, how do you keep your machine rolling?

The truth is the body gets tired, especially when you are an athlete. The more strain you put on it, the sooner it wants to quit. And when it quits, it's time to bow out with grace, honor, and dignity. This is an unwritten cardinal rule in sports: Once you're over the hill, roll over and move on.

But there are those who can't give up the limelight, who can't give up all they've gained. They aimlessly hit the gym twice as hard, fire their trainers and hire new ones at twice the cost. But in the end they are only slowing the inevitable. The body will give out. It is then that most players call it quits and retire, with plenty of endorsement deals and words of encouragement from fans. "Great job Brett Favre, you kept it alive as long as you could."

But there are still those who, after their bodies have said "enough, enough!" stick a needle in their arm and say, "No you don't, body . . . more, more!"

There's no denying that steroids are abused, and no denying that they are bad for the body. But many people (especially Americans) would rather take a quick fix than a long-term solution.

We can argue that sports stars are people too, and that many of us in that situation would do the same thing Clemens did--but this is immaterial. The truth of the matter is kids look up to him. They look up to him like they look up to their fathers. Sports stars are people, just like your dad and my dad and your big brother and mine too. When a younger brother sees his older brother doing something wrong, they will emulate. Brothers and fathers are role models, just like Clemens.

Now, hypothetically, if somebody found out that a father was doing cocaine, wouldn't they alert the authorities? Wouldn't they want to protect that innocent, young child from the negative influence of their father? The answer is 96 percent of us would tell somebody right away. It goes for sports stars. If they are behaving badly, they should get the same treatment as the father in my little anecdote.

But the problem gets much more convoluted. The father in my previous scenario would likely go to court, maybe receive a fine, some drug rehab, maybe some jail time. Clemens has to go before Congress and the Nation for his trial--and he faces much more severe consequences. Should professional athletes be held to these different standards? The answer of course is yes. While like the father in some ways, athletes are much different.

Instead of being a role model to two or three kids, he's a role model to two or three million. The effects his choices make are much further-reaching than the standard father. Therefore, he should be held accountable for his actions, like the father, to the degree of his offense.

A robber who robbed 13 banks should receive harsher treatment than one who robbed a gas station--even though they committed the same crime; they each had a varying degree of consequences.

Maybe the media is making a little too much about this, but maybe the League isn't doing enough to control people like Clemens. It's time for Clemens, and all those like him, to admit to what they did, apologize, and back out with as much grace as they can muster.