Learning a Lesson from Brian Cushing and the NFL

Last week, we found out that rookie linebacker Brian Cushing tested positive for an illegal substance (presumably steroids). Unfortunately, we can't know for sure what that substance was but, honestly, it's beside the point. In baseball, a story like this would be THE story for at least a couple of days. We'd have columns and TV segments devoted to such a story being yet another black eye on the face of baseball, about how baseball has not yet cleaned up its act, and that it's a game chock full of cheaters. In football? Some voters made such a mockery of the story (the ensuing re-vote for the Rookie of the Year award Cushing had won) that they even changed their vote from another player to Cushing .

In case you didn't click on the link and read another entire story, here's a quote for you:

John McClain, who covers the Texans and the N.F.L. for The Houston Chronicle, offered his reason on Twitter for voting for Cushing again: “I vote Kevin Williams All-Pro every year knowing he tested positive. I voted for Peppers in ’02.”

Maybe we would see an MLB writer say this (look up Buster Olney's thoughts on steroids and the Hall of Fame sometime...as a writer who gets a vote for the Hall of Fame, he's actually campaigning AGAINST his having a vote and the way we judge those guilty or suspected of taking steroids) but that writer is a clear oddity, not the norm. Cushing kept his award, meaning that voters like John McClain were indeed of the prevailing mindset. Why such a discrepancy between two popular American sports? The answer: a multi-layered reality check that numerous baseball fans have refused to undertake.

Personally, I respect the NFL writers' re-vote and would've done the same thing myself. Why pretend that something isn't going on and then acting like a moral authority when you definitively find out that it is? Baseball writers LOVED guys like McGwire when they were saving baseball (everyone knew McGwire was taking andro, which is a baby step away from steroids...it was often reported on and NOBODY CARED. Why the sudden moral high ground years after the fact?) yet bastardized them once they could no longer ignore the facts and the realization that steroids were much bigger than just a few guys. But honestly, shouldn't we care LESS once we find out it's a bigger problem? If only a few guys are doing it, then you're given an uneven playing field. If a vast majority are doing it, you're back to even again (or as close as you might get). And that's where the NFL writers get it. They know what goes on but they accept, and even embrace, the fact that people love watching large, fast men run at each other and knock the living crap out of each other. We accept it because it's an even playing field, just like baseball has been.

Right now, if anyone is actually reading this, you're probably a little fired up and thinking about what a complete moron I am. It's possible that I am (actually likely) but I stand by the fact that the Steroid Era should not just be blackballed from baseball history. No, steroids should not just be embraced going forward. It's good that baseball is finally on top of it and working on their testing and ridding the game of PEDs. But the past DID happen and those guys were still very talented ballplayers. Embrace their performance based on the fact that they were competing against guys doing the same questionable things to get better. Sure, there are home run numbers that are skewed.

But let's compare players the way we should--in comparison to those around them. Players of past eras played without blacks or latinos, on speed, on crack...the list goes on of the different things that changed the conditions under which players played. So instead of living in the past and pretending like all of these cross-generational comparisons based on home runs and RBIs really make sense, let's evaluate players in comparison to how they dominated the era in which they played. The NFL gets it. Hopefully Major League Baseball can take a couple of hints and move the game into a new golden age.