We've Got Controversy!

This post was originally written by me but posted on Ryan's Victoria Times.

Even though I haven't updated my own site in over 6 months, Ryan asked me to do a special guest post on his site over the weekend, so here we go. I kind of feel like Brian Kenny when he fills in at ESPN radio, but I promise not to spend 90% of this post talking about boxing and claiming that UFC is just a "trend" and that boxing is the supreme sport. Anyways....We've got controversy everywhere in sports right now...let's break it down...

- In case you've been living in a cave, Barry Bonds is on the verge of breaking the most well known record in sports, and impressively during his march to 755 HR his hat grew about 8 sizes. The steroids issue in baseball is far from over, and will be an increasingly hotter topic over the next few years as more and more guys from the 90s become Hall of Fame eligible. So what do I think about this? It's all relevant. 75% of the guys that have been caught since testing began have been pitchers. So the roided-up hitters were hitting HR off of roided-up pitchers. Sounds fair to me, might as well elect them all and let the people of this generation pass on these stories to their children when they visit the Hall of Fame or look at record books. The hitters from this generation that didn't use steroids will obviously be held in higher regard in the future, and if future hitters (like Alex Rodriguez) wind up toppling these records, that will make them even bigger legends and something for baseball to be proud of. Another thing the Hall of Fame can do is give higher regard to the singles hitters, great fielders, and great base stealers of this era. I'm not saying that puts Scott Podsednik in the hall of fame, but it could make things more fair.

- The NFL is being stung with a flurry of arrests and indictments, with the biggest obviously being Michael Vick and his dogfighting. Now, I'm fine with believing in the concept of innocent until proven guilty, but I've never been suspected of dog fighting, and you've never been suspected of dog fighting. That's not something that you just get accused of if you aren't involved in at least some way. What I don't understand about this is....why is he involved with this? It's not like he needs the money from taking bets. So he obviously just thinks its cool to watch dogs fight. So as a result of this, it looks like your 2007 Atlanta Falcons starting QB is none other than: Joey Harrington! Can we start a new "Harrington" curse? It seems like now wherever he goes, he winds up starting due to some injury/arrest. I wonder if he won't be able to find a job in 2008 just because a team doesn't want their starting QB to be brought up on genocide charges by the U.N.

- Hot off the press in the NBA's latest controversy. A referee that bet on games and fixed the finishes. That's a pretty big charge that can tarnish the league for years, but a lot of people suspected that this has been happening in the league for a long time with Dick Bavetta being assigned to playoff series in order to extend them to 7 games to generate more money. Let's also not forget the alleged frozen envelope from the 1985 Draft Lottery. I guess this definitely explains the Toronto Raptors winning a division title this year. In a league where all of this is happening, I'm surprised that dull, fundamentally sound teams have won 5 of the last 9 titles. Maybe the NBA needs to use this referee and the mafia as special consultants to come to a more profitable solution in the future.

- Even a sport that's fake has been in the news lately, where a pro wrestler flipped out (possibly due to steroids) and killed his family and himself. This is a sad situation and I won't discuss it more out of respect, but the common thread with all of these sports is that they are in the news, being talked about, and generating interest, even though the publicity is bad. What's being left out here? The NHL...

- The NHL endured a betting scandal of its own that involved its most famous player's wife, but the story kind of fizzled out and the NHL is once again out of the national news. So here's my proposal to get hockey back on the map: During intermissions between periods of games, the entertainment must be dog fights, but not just any dog fights, but steroid injected dogs fighting, in which all in attendance will be forced to bet on or be subjected to steroid injections themselves. And instead of having the new shootout rule to break a tie, the result of the dog fights will determine who wins the game, but only if the referees and mafia approve.

So there we go. My first post in months. Obviously I'm just kidding about the NHL proposal and the league should be commended on not having any major controversy right now as the other leagues are suffering through their own. These kind of stories actually make sports more interesting because if they weren't happening, you would have to think about things like the upcoming mid-week series between the Orioles and Devil Rays. On that note, the 2nd highest paid player on the Devil Rays is none other than the legendary Casey Fossum. Maybe the MLB and NBA aren't all that different after all....