Hello blogosphere. I have not been around for a while. As the title suggests, I do hope you missed my presense for the past few weeks. I just returned to Washington, D.C. for my fourth and final year of higher education at The George Washington University. I am thankfully done with my over 40 hour a week summer job and now have more time on my hands, which I shall use to update this site much more.
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| Roger Clemens testifies before Congress concerning his alleged steroid use |
Over the past few weeks more than a few things have caught my attention. I will just start with Roger Clemens so that I can get it out of the way and I will never have to write or think about him again. About a week ago Clemens was charged with, among other things, lying to a federal grand jury about his supposed usage of performance enhancing drugs. I do not think there is much debate on whether or not Clemens is guilty of such drug use, thusly I find it awfully curious as to why Clemens continues to claim he was clean.
Clearly his attorney has been confunded into believing the same ego-induced lies of his client. The attorney's argument to reporters about how Clemens' continued efforts to persuade the public of his innocence is an indication that Clemens is not guilty remains quite asinine and silly. After making such a contention he commented that he and his client would make their arguments in court and not to the public. If that is the case, then why did he just moments before that make an argument to the public? Maybe Clemens needs to seek alternate representation.
One thought that did occurr to me as I meditated on this subject is just how easily we were all sucked into believing that Clemens was legitimately one of the best pitchers of all-time. When he came back to baseball around the age of 40 to pitch for his hometown Houston Astros and not only performed adequately, but exceptionally, we all ascribed it to the fact that he was Roger Clemens. Even though many of us are not as over the top in our infatuation with him as New York Yankees radio announcer Suzyn Waldman, we gave Clemens the benefit of the doubt. The same is true of the other great atheletes who have also used PEDs. When Alex Rodriguez juiced during his first few years with the Texas Rangers and was mashing the ball out of Arlington no one raised an eyebrow because he was Alex Rodriguez a.k.a. God's gift to baseball (and blond haired celebrities). We get lulled into the cult of these players and become willing to believe them of anything. They were able to get away with cheating through their stature in the game.
One of summer's greatest dramas has been Albert Haynesworth versus the Washington Redskins. One thing I have never fully understood in football is when teams spend exorbitant amounts of money on one player. I know that teams usually do this because they think player x is the missing piece to the winning a championship puzzle. But oftentimes signing that missing piece comes at too great a cost. The Redskins signing Haynesworth to a seven year, $100 million contract last offseason is the perfect example of such a phenomena.
I thought that it was a daft signing at the time because the most successful defenses often do well by having depth at the defensive line. A solid rotation of guys is preferred to having three or four that play most of the downs. The number one defense last season (measured by total defense) was the New York Jets, who did not have a 'sack artist' who racked up double digit quaterback take-downs.
Let's remember, most of these lineman are in excess of 270 pounds. Persons weighing that much would be considered obese in any other profession. Asking them to go full tilt over the course of a 60 minute game seems illogical. So when the Redskins signed Haynesworth to that contract, it prevented them from addressing the real issue, which was that they lacked proper depth on the defensive line. They could have signed three decent defensive linemen with the money they gave to Haynesworth.
What's more, the Redskins ought to have seen this coming. While Haynesworth did have a few good years in Tennessee, he has always had issues with staying in shape and being motivated to play football. The Redskins divined that such red flags were instead red herrings and signed (Fat) Albert. I'm not sure if I really believe that Hayneworth has some disease that prevents him from practicing with the team now (maybe that's the same one that He Who Must Not Be Named had before he returned to Minnesota), but if it is true Haynesworth and the Redskins ought to sit down and establish some kind of solution that works for both sides.
And there you have it, my two readers. To borrow from Jim Rome, that's what I am burning on today. I have an NFL preview in the works, in which I will pick two teams to go to the Super Bowl that will be henceforth subject to the 4-1-1 On Sports Curse (last year I picked the Giants and the Steelers and neither made the playoffs). The races in MLB are heating up and the NHL and NBA seasons are a mere month away from starting. The dog days of August are about over my friends, and thank God for that.
