The Chris Moeller Archives

The latest steroid scandal

At last. New Orleans Saints head coach Jim Haslett is blowing the lid off the secret of steroids in professional football. Haslett, who starred as a linebacker with the Bills and the Jets from 1979 to 1987, says he used steroids for one year early in his career, and claims the Pittsburgh Steelers Championship teams of the 1970s brought the drugs into vogue in the league.
This story just broke Thursday afternoon, but it will be interesting to see how it plays in the national media. Interesting, because now the exact same thing that happened to Major League Baseball last week should now happen to the NFL.
Look at the similarities-- 1. Haslett claims that a large percentage of the league's players were using steroids in the early '80s. (He says half-- and all of the lineman.) We know Lyle Alzado's death was linked to steroid use, and at least one Steelers player from that era, Steve Courson, has already admitted using steroids. The part-time starter on the Steelers' last Super Bowl winner in 1979 blames a heart condition on steroid use.
2. The league didn't begin testing for steroids for a decade or more-- until 1987, and players weren't suspended for using them until 1989. Random, year-round testing would not be implemented for another year.
3. Haslett claims the pioneering use of the drug by Pittsburgh gave that team a competitive edge in the sport. The team's owner then and now, Dan Rooney, is denying Haslett's accusations, "(Then-coach) Chuck Noll was totally against it. He looked into it, examined it, talked to people. Haslett, maybe it affected his mind."

The NFL isn't dealing with the same issues of testing and penalties that baseball is in the present day-- a few Romanowskis aside. But then again, we know "Romo" was able to beat the league's testing system. He was only exposed through the federal BALCO probe. How many others are beating the system? The same headlines indicting Major League Baseball this year should now begin popping up for the NFL. We have a situation where there are accusations, denials, and unsettling silence. We have the implication of a large number of players doing something that was illegal by law, but not specifically prohibited by the sport. We have a league that was benefitting financially by the players' use of the drugs. Like baseball, the decade of the scandal coincided with the sport's "Golden Era." For football, that was the 1970s. The Juice was loose, indeed.

Are the nation's sportswriters going to begin calling for asterisks in football? We could start by dropping some on the four "Steel Curtain" championships of the 1970s? Are Jack Lambert and Jack Ham going to be dragged out of retirement to face a House committee, and be asked to talk about their pasts under the guise of Congressional Oversight? Will their busts be removed from the Hall of Fame in Canton? My guess is no to each of the above. Baseball will continue to bear the entire weight of scandal in the American sports world.
You know, one night I dreamed that I was walking along the beach with Baseball. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene, I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there were one only.
Yadda, yadda, yadda-- I said to Baseball, "I noticed that during the most trying period of my life, there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?"
Baseball replied, "The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you."
True story.


We can already see the strong case for Mark McGwire's Hall of Fame induction being re-shaped. He becomes eligible in 2007. Like Pete Rose, his accomplishments on the field are undeniably worthy of enshrinement. That reminds me-- these judge and jury baseball writers owe Rose another big apology. For years they told us that the Hall was filled with drunks, wife-beaters, drug addicts, and racists, but that Rose broke the only rule posted in every big league clubhouse. Now many of these writers are telling us there's a second steadfast rule. It's now painfully apparent that the Pete Rose thing was personal the entire time, which I've always claimed it was. Rose was a defiant competitor, which has often brought out the worst in him, but also in his detractors. The press corps has almost instinctually closed ranks against him.
But I digress. The case for McGwire also must include the indictment of current Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson in the Oakland steroid scandal. In the FBI files published by the New York Daily News early last week, Jackson was revealed to be the player who brought steroid-pusher Curtis Wenzlaff into the team clubhouse while he was wrapping up his career in the late '80s. Wenzlaff, by everyone's account, was one of- if not Jackson's best friend at the time. No evidence was ever gathered against Jackson, but then no evidence was gathered against McGwire, either. The dealer refused to implicate his friend, but only an idiot would believe that Jackson didn't know Wenzlaff's trade. This is a guy who used Jackson's address to open a checking account, stayed at the slugger's house "on and off" by Jackson's own account, and then, according to Wenzlaff's original FBI interview, met Jose Canseco through Jackson.
Reggie has been passed by three players on the all-time home run list over the last decade and is on record saying he wants the steroid investigation to go "as far as it can go." I agree with him.

We also have at least two admitted cheaters already in the Baseball Hall of Fame. For years, baseball winked as Gaylord Perry and Don Sutton were doctoring baseballs on the mound. They each admitted their malfeasance only after induction. Baseball has allowed spitballers into the Hall of Fame, even after adopting a league policy outlawing the practice, and rightly so. You can't penalize someone for breaking a rule that didn't exist.
By every measure, even with the un-American asumption of McGwire's guilt, there is enormous precedent for his Hall induction. Public tide is already swaying back in his favor. Last night on "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," former Cardinal (but not a former McGwire teammate) Rex Hudler said he was still a huge McGwire fan for his work both on and off the field, and said he couldn't say anything bad about him. Co-hosts Chris Rose and John Salley applauded his statement, and then the entire studio audience joined in the applause.

posted by CM @ 11:28 PM