I spent the last month stuck at home unable to walk on one foot. A situation like that leaves a lot of time to kill. I killed it watching the television. I'm not a fan of the soap operas or game shows which make up most of daytime TV. I like news so I watched a lot of cable news shows. What I was watching surprised me. I think I probably saw more news about Roger Clemens and his trainer and Bill Belichick and his spy camera than about the war in Iraq and all of the presidential candidates combined.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm somewhat puzzled by the behavior of our elected leaders in Congress. When did Congress give itself permission to become involved in the lives of professional athletes? In Article I, Section 1, of the United States Constitution, the role of Congress is discussed and the statement is made that "the chief function of Congress is the making of laws". Shouldn't Congress be concerning itself with discussing things like national security, the economy, education, Presidential nominations to the Supreme Court - matters that directly impact the well-being of the country and all of those who live here?

I can sort of understand Congress taking an interest in the state of Bill Clinton's marriage. He was the President after all. That could have been covered under the heading of national security, I guess. I googled Congressional Hearings just out of curiosity. I found a discussion of Congressional hearings and their purpose. The only justification that seemed to be offered for these types of hearings was that "hearings may also be purely exploratory in nature, providing testimony and data about topics of current interest". In other words, if something attracts the interest of members of Congress, they can just poke around and justify it as exploratory.

Professional sports have Commissioners and rule making bodies. Shouldn't they be the ones discussing what goes on in professional sports? Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, NBA commissioner David Stern and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman are all scheduled to speak before another Congressional committee some time soon. Wouldn't their time be better spent reviewing their own sports and discussing ways to solve a problem which concerns all professional sports?

Senator Arlen Specter defends the time he spent on Patriots spygate in a newsletter which he publishes regularly. Why is he involved in this matter? It was handled by the NFL commissioner and should perhaps continue to be a matter for the Commissioner and NFL coaches to discuss.

Just so I don't give the wrong impression. I am not in favor of steroid use by professional athletes or of videotaping your opponents so that you can beat them at their own game. For that matter, I'm not in favor of Bill Clinton's shenanigans either. I'm just bothered by the fact that some of the people who were elected to make this a better place for everyone seem to have forgotten why they are in Washington and remembered only that they are sports fans.

Since I am becoming long-winded, if you are interested in learning about steroids and sports, the library has some recent books. The first two are childrens' books which might prove helpful for parents seeking a way to discuss all of this mess with their children!
Steroids by Karla Fitzhuqh
Steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs by David Aretha
Juiced : wild times, rampant 'roids, smash hits, and how baseball got big by Jose Canseco
Game of shadows : Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the steroids scandal that rocked professional sports by Mark Fainaru-Wada