Ryan Braun Suspension Taints Brewers History

In 2008, the Milwaukee Brewers chased down their first playoff berth since 1982.

Over the final week of the season, Brewers fans experienced some real goosebump-type moments.



Three years later, more of the same, this time for the NL Central title.



Nearly five years later, those moments have suddenly taken on a different meaning.

And it isn't good.

The man responsible for many of those moments -- Ryan Braun -- has been officially outed as a cheat and the ultimate fraud.

It's one thing for a pro athlete to take performance-enhancing drugs and lie about it. Unfortunately, guys do that all the time.

But Braun took it to another, nauseating, degree.

I spent 23 minutes under the warm Arizona sun two Februaries ago listening to Braun earnestly, arrogantly and pointedly proclaim his innocence, blaming the man who collected his urine for "chain of custody" issues. That's how he beat the rap, on a technicality that he would never admit while professing his innocence.

That day, I listened to him say that upon learning he tested positive for testosterone at "three times higher than any number in the history of drug testing" on Oct. 19, 2011, he said he told the players association: "I promise you on anything that's ever meant anything to me in my life, the morals, the virtues, the values by which I've lived in my 28 years on this planet, I did not do this."

Monday, I watched Braun accept a suspension without pay for the rest of this season, 65 games and about $3.5 million worth, and lamely say, "As I have acknowledged in the past, I am not perfect. I realize now that I have made some mistakes."

Fine time to get religion, isn't it? With his Brewers in last place, 18½ games out? Cutting a deal when he's making a mere $8.5 million this summer, before his salary increases to $10 million next year, $12 million the year after that and then leaps to $19 million in 2016?

What we already suspected, but sadly learned beyond reasonable doubt the minute he signed off on this deal, is that Braun is a phony and a liar. And he is the worst kind of liar: the kind who stares straight into your eyes as he's lying to you.

It's one thing that Braun lied. Sad fact is that people lie all the time, often about stuff not worth lying about, and more often than that about stuff they'll eventually get caught for lying about. And here's the thing: We all know we're going to get caught, but still lie!

But Braun's lies and deceit are only trumped by the awful statement he followed Monday's suspension announcement with.

"As I have acknowledged in the past, I am not perfect," Braun said in a statement. "I realize now that I have made some mistakes. I am willing to accept the consequences of those actions. This situation has taken a toll on me and my entire family, and it has been a distraction to my teammates and the Brewers organization. I am very grateful for the support I have received from players, ownership and the fans in Milwaukee and around the country.

"Finally, I wish to apologize to anyone I may have disappointed -- all of the baseball fans especially those in Milwaukee, the great Brewers organization and my teammates. I am glad to have this matter behind me once and for all, and I cannot wait to get back to the game I love."

Thanks.

When the initial suspension was overturned, Braun had the nerve to call out the man who took his urine sample in October 2011. He went through back channels to impugn this man's character, even going so far as to insinuate that there was some sort of intent behind the chain of custody issue that got Braun out of a 50-game suspension.

None of this gets Major League Baseball out of its responsibility, but this is not the time to attack Bud Selig. I don't disagree with Brew Crew Ball, which closed its piece on the suspension by saying Selig "got the feather" in his cap that he "so desperately wanted." Part of this was clearly a personal vendetta on Selig's part, but I'm not going to sit here and act as if Braun is some sort of victim.

Ryan Braun put himself in this spot. He did so with what has been reported to be a long pattern of PED usage, not just a one-shot deal. He chose to not only lie about what he had done when presented with the evidence, but he chose to throw a drug-test collector guy to the wolves as part of his defense.

No, Dino Laurenzi, Jr., didn't follow procedure to the letter. But that didn't mean Braun had to go out of his way to point fingers and accuse Laurenzi of acting maliciously. Braun did so knowing that Brewers fans were likely to stand by him, and they did just that.

Now, it's the job of Brewers fans to send their own message.

Not going to suggest vandalism or running on the field to attack, or anything dumb like that.

But here's a novel idea to separate Brewers fans from the neanderthals in San Francisco that cheered Barry Bonds throughout: Make Braun earn it.

After all, the fans are the ones who bought the tickets to fill the coffers and allow the team to pay Braun an absurd amount of money. And the fans are the ones who stood, cheering and screaming when Braun hit home run after home run to get the Brewers to the playoffs twice after a more than quarter-century drought. Those moments -- memories for fans of all ages -- are forever tainted by Braun's use of PEDs. The memories might last, but so will the questions.

Would Braun still have been an MVP without drugs? Would CC Sabathia still have been able to hoist the Brewers to the playoffs in 2008 with not even a half-season's worth of starts? Would the Brewers still have beaten Arizona in 2011 without Braun getting hits in half his 18 at-bats over the series?

We'll never know.

He can't change what he did. But he can make himself a better man for having put himself -- and others -- through what his choices have put them through. No one made him ingest PEDs, but he can make sure it doesn't happen again, and he can earn back the trust of those he has let down.

That's true in his clubhouse, and it's true in Section 218, too.

Ryan Braun, Others Targeted by Angry Bud Selig

Bud Selig is mad. I mean, he's pissed, man. He's mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore.

Selig is tired of his sport being torn down by steroid cheats.

If you don't believe he's mad, look at what he's reportedly about to do.

Commissioner Bud Selig's office is expected to suspend (Ryan) Braun and (Alex) Rodriguez, along with as many as 20 players sometime after next week's All-Star break, for their roles in the Biogenesis case, several sources told "Outside the Lines." As OTL reported, MLB started building cases against the players last month after Bosch agreed to cooperate with investigators.

The question is the length of the suspensions.

Sources said the commissioner's office was considering 100-game bans for Braun and Rodriguez, the punishment for a second offense, even though neither player was previously suspended for violating MLB's drug policy.

The argument, one source said, would be that they -- and possibly other players -- committed multiple offenses by receiving performance-enhancing drugs from Bosch and by lying about it.

Yeah, he's going to do that.

(I'm not going to touch the 100-game bit. Hardball Talk already nailed that.)

Listen, I'm not in favor of steroids or steroid users. I think PEDs should be pushed out of sports, but I'm also not stupid. It isn't going to happen.

But let's not hide from what's going on here. Selig wants to catch high-profile PED users in his sport (no, Melky Cabrera doesn't qualify), and his testing system is apparently antiquated to the point where any advanced user is able to beat the system.

In other words, baseball has -- before our very eyes -- turned into cycling, another sport where it seems participants are assumed guilty until proven innocent because no one can believe in the athlete being clean anymore.

It no longer matters if the athlete looks everyone in the eye and denies using anything, and it sure as hell doesn't matter if the athlete passes drug test after drug test. Just ask Lance Armstrong. Or Barry Bonds.

See?

No Brewers fan wants to believe Braun juiced. But the facts make it impossible to believe he didn't juice. Yes, Braun has been betrayed by the system that was supposed to protect him. He's faced endless scrutiny since word leaked that he failed a test and was facing a suspension.

If anything is worse than MLB's handling of the Biogenesis case, it's MLB's inability to keep this stuff secret, despite a policy that clearly calls for confidentiality.

The Biogenesis case is Selig's opportunity to punish people he's been dying to punish. He's wanted to punish Braun and Rodriguez for years, to set an example for players and fans that this stuff isn't going to be tolerated. But he's doing so in this case without either player failing a properly-administered drug test under MLB's policy, a policy Selig helped write and get approved.

Milwaukee scribe Michael Hunt offers this on the situation.

Once you might have asked why Braun would risk his good reputation here by using banned substances. The answer, at least for now, is that he likely stands to lose little locally. If — more likely, when — the 100-game suspension is done, he will return sometime next season as if nothing had happened. Certainly, no one is going to blame him for taking down a season that is already lost.

But beyond the five-county area that finances the house in which he plays, Braun is going to take a nasty hit.

He is somewhat fortunate that the national story will always be led with Alex Rodriguez's name, but the damage will be in the fact his accomplishments from 2011, one of the greatest in franchise history, always will be tainted by the public court Triple Crown of suspicion, disbelief and mistrust.

Baseball is to be applauded for its belated crackdown on cheaters, but this whole slimy Biogenesis affair doesn't exactly have credible sources on either side. Whom to believe? I don't even think that's a legitimate question anymore. Braun has twice been in situations he should have avoided. If he is innocent as he claims of putting banned substances in his body, he certainly is guilty of placing himself in circumstances that project more than a veneer of guilt.

This is well-done by Hunt. It's spot on.

No one wants to take the side of Braun and Rodriguez, especially the latter. Cheaters are the scourge of sports, the guys who make it impossible to truly believe in athletes the way that people used to. But I don't want Braun and Rodriguez suspended because two guys -- Tony Bosch and his partner -- who have virtually zero credibility (they've lied to MLB and other investigators, as well as the media, and now MLB is taking their testimony as gospel to the point that players will be suspended based off it) decided to talk to avoid federal lawsuits. Basically, MLB made a deal with these guys so they could nab the players they want to nab.

This is a personal vendetta by Bud Selig. He doesn't care how he catches players. He wants them caught. CBA and drug policy be damned. By going this route, Selig is unknowingly delegitimizing his own drug policy and testing program.

Braun and Rodriguez (and the others implicated) are hardly innocent here. In fact, they are more than likely guilty of this and probably other drug-type crimes. That's not the point. The point is that MLB crafted rules designed to catch the cheaters. Unable to do so within the auspices of the system, Selig and his cohorts have resorted to means that can't be reasonably justified.

This is a sad time for baseball, for many reasons. He doesn't understand why, but Selig is a huge part of it.

Associated Press' Duty: Strip Cheater Brian Cushing of Award

The NFL does not hand out the major postseason awards recognized by The Associated Press. The AP does. It's their members -- their chosen panel -- who vote on the honors.

While the league might enjoy having a hand in such matters, they really don't. So when it's time to look at who the awards were given to and hand out criticisms, most people blindly blame the league while not understanding the process that decides the winners.

Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2009. And no one questioned the vote. After all, Cushing was a Pro Bowl selection as a rookie, and he tied for the AFC lead with 133 tackles. Them's some impressive credentials for a first-year pro.

However, Cushing's past caught up to him along the way. Last year, before he was drafted, rumors of the use of performance-enhancing drugs clouded Cushing's draft status. He boldly proclaimed he wasn't "that kind of guy," and Houston bought the act.

Hook. Line. Sinker.

Now, the Texans are left to pay for their faith in Cushing, who was suspended four games Friday for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

Guess he might be that kind of guy after all.

ESPN reports the test he failed was actually taken last September, and the matter was stuck in appeal since then.

The article also notes an NFL rule that bans players who test positive for PEDs from playing in the Pro Bowl, so Cushing won't be eligible to go to Hawai'i, no matter how well he plays in 2010.

Sports Illustrated's Peter King, as well plugged-in and knowledgeable as any scribe who covers the sport, has some harsh words for Cushing in Monday's MMQB.

Cushing admitting that he appealed the positive test in February makes it virtually certain that he derived benefit from whatever illegal substance he took during his rookie season. And if this suspension is the result of a positive test at any point during the 2009 season, I'm in favor of stripping him of the defensive rookie of the year award and giving it to second-place finisher Jairus Byrd of Buffalo.

FanHouse colleague Dan Graziano blasted Cushing -- who acknowledged the suspension but refused to admit using steroids -- in a Saturday piece.

Really? We're expected to believe this? Again? Nearly every athlete who's ever tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs has fed us the same garbage story. Nothing about Cushing's denial is believable or even original. He's just another cheater who got caught and refuses to fess up, hiding behind an overrated NFL drug policy that's not transparent enough to tell us whether he's telling the truth or not.

Because the league's drug policy doesn't allow it to reveal the substance for which Cushing tested positive, we are left with his word, which in this case is worth less than the test tube that held his tainted urine. You can believe Cushing if you want, but if you do then you're the kind of person who's going to be surprised the next time this same exact thing happens with your favorite player and fall for that player's story even though it's the same one you've heard time and time again.

The rest of us are tired of this. We're waiting for somebody who gets caught cheating to actually stand up and say, "Yeah. Sorry. I cheated. I took a drug that I'm not allowed to take. I did it because I thought it would give me an advantage in the game I play for a living. I knew it was wrong, and I didn't think I'd get caught, but I did and now I have to take my punishment like a grown man."

Dan notes that some have admitted to taking stuff for their own benefit. Others have admitted to taking PEDs, but not for the reason of gaining an advantage. They used the tired excuse of "needing to recover from an injury," instead.

Reality is that the AP -- given ESPN's report, which came courtesy of insider Adam Schefter -- has no choice here. They must strip Cushing of his award and offer the honor to Byrd.

Of course, if I were Byrd, I'd have a bit of a hard time accepting. No, it's not out of sympathy for Cushing, who made his own bed here and must be punished for his misdeeds. Instead, it just has to be awkward accepting a pretty big honor so far after the fact.

(Never said I wouldn't accept it ... just that it would feel weird.)

Frankly, the AP is making a bigger statement if they honor someone. Vacating the award doesn't mean as much, compared to actually handing the award to the second-place finisher.

And the AP owes the league, the players who choose to avoid PEDs, and the writers who work hard to fairly fill out their ballots every year. They owe us all an award that goes to a proper recipient, as opposed to the all-too-typical guy who chooses to cut corners and take things he knows he can get in trouble for taking.

Cushing is the worst kind of pro athlete. Not only is he a cheat, but he's a liar. He's willing to lie to potential employers, denying rumors and speculation about his off-field habits that obviously carried more weight than he acknowledged before the 2009 draft. He's willing to lie to a thriving, boisterous fan base that just wants a winner in a great, fertile football area. He's willing to lie to teammates, coaches, owners, media types, and league officials.

Even now, after he got caught with his hand (buttocks?) in the cookie jar, Cushing refuses to admit to anything. Instead of fessing up, admitting he cut corners and took PEDs, but will now vow to lead a clean life and educate other young players about the dangers of PEDs and the fact that -- you know -- they're against the rules, Cushing continues to dig himself a hole.

These guys have out-of-control egos that we continue to feed on a weekly basis. It's why they take the crap in the first place, and moreover why they don't bother to admit any wrongdoing when they get caught.

It's always an accident, a tainted sample, a false positive, a misunderstanding, or recovery from an injury.

In this case, Cushing should lose more than four games' pay. It's not enough to make this guy wear the badge for the rest of his career. Go back and take away the award he "earned" under false pretenses. Give it to the guy who really earned it, and also managed to pass his drug test.

Bryant Gumbel Names Names

I don't get HBO. The only exposure I get to it is during free preview week on DirecTV, and whenever I stay in a hotel that offers it to guests.

Usually, when these things happen, I'm quickly reminded of why I am not even tempted to pay for it on a regular basis.

One of the crown jewels of the network is Bryant Gumbel's series Real Sports. They tackle some generally important topics on that program, and they do it with highly-respected journalists who rarely get caught running out of bounds in their stories. Gumbel does a commentary at the end of each show, and even that is usually well-reasoned and articulate.

However, no one is perfect.

Tuesday night's show ended, predictably, with some thoughts from Gumbel on Mark McGwire's steroids admission from last week. I don't think it's surprising that people are still laying into McGwire. They should be, because it shouldn't take a decade for someone to admit something they did wrong and then act all sorry about it.

You might remember that McGwire issued a brief statement, then took to MLB Network for an hour-long chat with Bob Costas, who used to host an HBO show himself. McGwire did some other interviews, with the well-stated but unrealistic goal of putting the issue to bed before spring training.

If he really wanted to do that, he would have admitted to using steroids in front of Congress, or at any point before he was hired as the Cardinals' new hitting coach.

Anyway, Gumbel used the scorched-earth philosophy of commenting. He named names, left no stone unturned, and may have ruffled a few feathers.

"Finally tonight, an open letter to baseball's usual suspects. Dear Barry, Roger, Sammy and Rafael, I'm writing in hopes you saw Mark McGwire's phony non-apology last week and learned from it. I'm assuming that you, like most people not named Tony LaRussa, got a good laugh out of Mark's crocodile tears and his self-serving claims about truth, guilt and the pharmaceutical way.

"So on behalf of all fans, do us a favor. If and when you're ready to come clean, don't insult us with talk of how much of what you did was God-given and how much was chemically induced. Let us figure that out, OK? And don't play us for idiots. Spare us the lies about talking 'roids for health reasons. We're all grown-ups. You took stuff for the same reason most of us break or bend rules. You thought you could get away with it. And you did.

"You did because commissioner Bud Selig, being Bud, was, of course, asleep at the switch when you suddenly grew Shrek-like necks and bloated biceps. But even Bud's selling absolution these days. He's cheering any and all mea culpas, even half-assed ones. If you don't believe me, just ask A-Rod, Manny, Papi, Jason and the others who've come forward because they had to. There may be no crying in baseball, but there is forgiveness, maybe even enough to get you to Cooperstown.

"In closing, guys, please feel free to share this letter with Bagwell, Nomar, Pudge and all those others who went from hitting homers to power outages overnight. Tell 'em fans are ready to accept what happened. Tell 'em we're ready to move on. Tell 'em that most of us get it...even if they, like you, still don't."

Emphasis mine. I still haven't seen video of the commentary, so I have no clue how it was actually delivered on the show.

I'm all for naming names. If we had taken to this practice from the start, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. And I don't think there's anything remotely wrong with reminding people of names that have been named in the past.

(Especially guys like Ortiz, who continue to deny using PEDs as if drug tests routinely fail miserably and lead to false positives and wrongly ruined reputations.)

However, we should stick to naming names who can be fairly connected to the Steroid Era. While Jeff Bagwell admitted to using andro during his playing career, there is no known connection between Bagwell and drugs that were actually against the rules in baseball.

I can find no actual connection between Pudge Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, and drugs. Yes, Nomar's career was derailed by injuries, and many have assumed that he used, but we have nothing but circumstantial evidence. Same for Pudge, who is still playing.

The reality is that Gumbel's commentary likely does more harm than good. He turns people who may have done nothing wrong on the defensive. Not only that, but he gets away with something we wanted to hang a blogger for doing: speculating.

That Gumbel has been a journalist and worked in media for decades doesn't make it okay. In fact, it makes it more wrong.

McGwire's Confession Shockingly Doesn't Resonate With Everyone

This happens whenever someone confesses to something they never should have done, whether it's someone putting sandpaper on a baseball, cheating on a wife, driving drunk, or taking steroids.

They apologize, and we -- media, fans, relatively disinterested observers -- pick the apology apart and judge whether or not it's sincere.

It's just how we operate in society now, and it shouldn't be a total shock when we do it.

The latest is former baseball superstar Mark McGwire, hired recently to take over as hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. Five years ago, McGwire feebly appeared before Congress, refusing to address allegations that he used steroids during his playing career. Of course, everyone took this as an unspoken admission that he had used steroids, and his silence only further convicted him in the court of public opinion.

Monday, McGwire finally came clean. He admitted what we all either knew and talked openly about, or knew and chose not to believe.

"From 1993 to 1996, I was a walking M.A.S.H. unit," he said. "My body was beat up. When I was approached about steroids and HGH, I just wanted to feel normal again. I took such a low dose. I never went over 250 pounds. I didn't want to look like Lou Ferrigno. I didn't abuse it. I just couldn't get over the [injury] hump. "There was always a roadblock. When I got hurt in 1996, I told my father that I was going to retire. In 1997, '98, '99, I did [androstenedione] and my body felt great. But after the All-Star break [in 2000], I broke down and tried more steroids. I really regret it."

McGwire insists -- both in conversations with ESPN's Tim Kurkjian and MLB Network's Bob Costas -- that his use did not enhance his performance.

This is poppycock. We all know it, and it doesn't help McGwire's story to bang that drum. However, a society that thrives on second chances wants people to apologize for their misgivings, only so we can skewer them for not saying the right things at the right times.

Yes, McGwire blew it in front of Congress, and yes, he's full of it when he says the steroids didn't help his performance. However, as Rob Neyer (a guest many, many times on the old radio show) notes, there's a lot of self-righteousness going on here.

I've always been right down the middle when it comes to McGwire's Hall of Fame candidacy. His first few years on the ballot, my suggestion was that we wait for a while. This time around, I came around; we've seen enough names to know that within McGwire's professional culture, steroids and Human Growth Hormone were merely tools of the trade, little different from protein shakes and whirlpools and Nautilus machines. You may, if you like, continue to summon from your wellspring of self-righteousness the energy to condemn McGwire for doing what so many of his peers were doing, all in the interest of earning a good living and fulfilling his widely considered destiny. As for me, I've run dry. It's not at all clear that McGwire will someday be elected to the Hall of Fame. On the other hand, it's fairly clear that the Hall of Fame will not be much of a Hall of Fame if, 20 years from now, many of the best players of the 1990s have been left out. It's fairly clear that someone will eventually realize that the players of the 1990s were a product of their times. And once someone realizes Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens belong in the Hall of Fame, it won't be easy to maintain the position that Mark McGwire does not belong.

Yes, it was wrong for McGwire to do what he did. No, he should not skate unscathed into the Hall of Fame.

However, he has stepped up and apologized for what he did. There is no real benefit to be had from further dragging him through the mud or torturing him over the past.

Tom Haudricourt, a writer I respect immensely, vehemently disagrees with this take.

McGwire said he wasn't doing this to curry more favor in Hall of Fame voting, which might be true. But I highly doubt that he'll get the 75% votes necessary for election after admitting he cheated. He got only 23.7% this year. I haven't voted for him because he wouldn't come forward and say anything, but now that he did and admitted he cheated, I probably still won't vote for him. I certainly don't like this line of thinking that it didn't help his performance.

You might not like it, Tom, but you just pretty much admitted that you have no intention of voting for McGwire, no matter what his numbers are, how they stack up against his peers, or what he says and does about this issue.

It strikes me as a very closed-minded stance to have when you hold something as significant as a Hall of Fame vote.

On the flip side, it's high time McGwire used his past fame to help make a difference on this issue. With the new gig in St. Louis, he should have some opportunities to turn this into a positive.

In the meantime, you better stay off the high horse, because I doubt you're prepared for the next name to be added to the "Took Steroids in the 1990s" list.

Ortiz, Ramirez Latest to be Anonymously Outed; Time to Come Clean

When Major League Baseball enacted a drug-testing program in 2003 (or, about 44 years too late), the first year of testing was done for an evaluation.

The brass of the sport wanted to know how big of a problem they had on their hands, so an agreement was made. The tests would be conducted anonymously, and if a certain percentage of baseball players tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, the sport would start punishing players for positive tests in the 2004 season.

Obviously, enough players tested positive. Actually, baseball still has no idea the scope of their drug problem, even five years after the start of a program that included punishments for PED use.

Even though those tests were to be anonymous, anyone with a brain had to think that the names would eventually leak, unless there were no meaningful names to leak. Let's face it, nobody gives a rip if David Segui or Jim Parque cheated. They care that pure, wholesome big guys like David Ortiz didn't.

Oh, wait. Sorry.

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, the sluggers who propelled the Boston Red Sox to end an 86-year World Series championship drought and to capture another title three years later, were among the roughly 100 Major League Baseball players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the results.

I'd love to act shocked, outraged, or even upset about this. However, you probably figured something like this was on the way.

After all, Ortiz quickly went from injury-prone nice-guy slugger to always-healthy, extremely dangerous slugger who is setting career highs and becoming a star.

We rooted for the Red Sox, in part, because Ortiz was so lovable and fun to watch. The fact that he cheated doesn't change the fact that he was fun to watch, and it's not going to just erase the fun that Red Sox fans had watching him play.

If anything, this should serve again as a cautionary tale. The bottom line is that the sport of baseball had (and may still have) a serious problem. Those who are supposed to be protecting the game ignored obvious signs of trouble, and allowed things to spiral out of control. The first attempt to reel the game back in was completely half-assed, with the spineless commissioner agreeing to keep the first round of testing anonymous and without punishment.

It was supposed to "protect" the players. Of course, that was a farce. The names were going to be leaked at some point, no matter what agreement the players and owners made. Any player who allowed himself to be tested had to understand this.

We're six years past the anonymous testing. The game may be cleaner, or it may just appear to be cleaner because we're supposed to believe that drug testing will catch all the cheaters -- that no one can beat the tests. In those six years, baseball's image still hasn't improved much, and the only way to stop the steady leaking of names is to release them all.

The union and owners should come together on some sort of agreement. Obviously, the players won't be punished for their positive tests, and the release of names will not tarnish their ability to play or make money in the game. It will get us all on a level playing field. After all, there's a good chance that the guys who were caught in 2003 have simply figured out a way to outsmart the test, and they're still using.

Either that, or they're just as dumb as someone who would knowingly put something in their body that can be really bad for them is.

For now, I'm curious when Ortiz will start his vacation.

In February, shortly after (Yankee Alex) Rodriguez confessed to using banned substances, Ortiz said publicly that players who tested positive for a substance that was banned at the time should be suspended for an entire year.

I suppose I shouldn't be sarcastic, but I'm not.

Ortiz wants guys suspended for a year. The least he can do, as an outed cheater, is take some time off himself.

Or maybe that just applied to those caught after 2003. Funny the things you say when you don't think you're going to get caught having your hand in the cookie jar.

SICK AND TIRED OF STEROIDS

He's left Deadspin, but Will Leitch still surfaces on occasion.

The latest sighting of the "former blogger" and one-time target for Buzz Bissinger came Friday morning, when he penned a piece for Sporting News Today.

(By the way, if you don't get Sporting News Today sent to your mailbox every morning, you're missing out. At least 30 pages of comprehensive sports coverage, including all the late-night scores you missed because your alarm goes off at 3am or 4am every morning. Wait, that's just me.)

Leitch absolutely nailed the Ramirez story. It's on page five of the 40-page Friday issue.

Seriously, it’s time to let it go. I’m tired of it, we’re all tired of it. We’ll never really know what happened during the “Steroid Era,” who was using, who wasn’t. Some of you—most of you will be media members—will be driven mad by this fact. Most of you will not. Most of you will recognize that baseball is a sport. It’s entertainment. It’s something that can move us, touch our hearts, inspire us, connect generations. But it’s still just a bunch of guys wearing funny outfits swinging a stick and running around a square.

One of the fun things about a story like Manny Ramirez is that people who don't like sports are talking about it. Of course, they end up asking questions like "Who else in baseball is using?" and "Are you surprised?".

I almost think people are put off when I tell them that I'm not surprised.

But I'm not.

I'd like to fake some outrage at a guy like Manny. He's got all the talent in the world, a God-given ability to smack a baseball that most of us can only marvel at. He needs to take steroids/PEDs like I need to eat a half-pound burger. Same goes for most major-league players. On the list of stuff they should be consuming to keep their bodies in optimum condition, "steroids" should rest at the bottom, right behind Ho-Hos, Big Texas Cinnamon Rolls, and fried lard.

Instead, I'm just inclined to stick him in the long line of cheaters and move on with my life. Frankly, I'm more concerned about a hockey player sneaking brass knuckles into a fight against a bigger guy. That's the kind of cheating that actually affects my ability to enjoy a competition.

I'm beyond the point of watching sporting events and wondering if the athletes are juicing.

It's not that it shouldn't matter. I don't want my son choosing to play a sport and then finding out that he has to stick a needle in his ass to keep up with everyone else who is. It absolutely matters that we stop it.

But I can't do anything about it. As Leitch says at the end of his column, the only thing that can stop us from enjoying baseball is us. Same is true of any other sport. It might not be for everyone, but I just don't care about this anymore.

We all had a hand in turning our awesome sports into big businesses. We can't turn away when the participants act accordingly.

THE CREDIBILITY OF CANSECO

It seems like a blasphemous idea.

A known criminal and a known liar actually has credibility.

But it's true.

Jose Canseco, who has only decided to speak out of a personal vendetta against baseball for not employing his overrated, no-longer-viable hide, continues to find baseball's cheaters long before baseball does. How does he do it?

Well, it no longer appears that the old theory -- that Canseco was simply throwing names at the wall until they started to stick -- applies. The guy knows what he's doing.

Obviously, he knows people who deal in this crap. He's been in locker rooms with some of them. He's aware of how athletes think.

Now that he no longer cares who he offends, he can let loose.

FanHouse colleague Matt Snyder has more.

We heard tales about Roger Clemens and shrugged them off. 'This idiot doesn't know how to quit when he's ahead,' we'd say.

Enter the Mitchell Report, and Rocket personally burying himself in a clinic on how to not clear your own name.

Next up? Canseco claimed he had some "stuff" on Alex Rodriguez and that he was 90 percent sure Manny Ramirez was a user.

I'd love to nail Canseco to a wall. The problem is that he's clearly not lying. He's not "throwing names at the wall". He is naming names that he knows.

All along, we should have taken Canseco seriously. It's not our fault that we in the media didn't, but the fact of the matter is that we all dropped the ball on that.

MANNY TO STOP BEING MANNY

Huge news out of baseball, as we have our first big-time casualty of the "new" drug policy.

Sure, Rafael Palmeiro got busted a few years back, but Manny Ramirez takes this thing to a whole new level.

It will be announced later Thursday that Ramirez will be suspended 50 games for a violation of baseball's drug policy. There will be no appeal of the suspension.

Obviously, Ramirez (or "Manny", as everyone calls him) has an excuse, since everyone seems to have an excuse.

"Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I've taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons. "I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I'm sorry about this whole situation." – Manny Ramirez

Why is it that no one seems to ever actually be taking PEDs to cheat? It's always a mistake, an oversight, or some malicious act that leads to a positive test.

I said once on the radio that the first athlete to come out and say they knowingly and willingly took a performance-enhancing drug, and did it to gain an advantage on fellow competitors (not to recover from an injury or prevent a future injury) should be automatically inducted into that sport's Hall of Fame.

As for the Dodgers, you have to feel for them. They spent all winter laboring over bringing Manny back, and this is what they get for it. Yeah, they're 13-0 at home, and they're still a really good team. But this puts a damper on what they've accomplished so far, and with Manny out until July 3, it will be very hard for Los Angeles to keep playing at their current pace.

Luckily for them, they already lead their pathetic division by six-and-a-half games, so their magic number is down to like 42. Shouldn't be a problem for them to hold on. Not only that, but they'll have a fresh and motivated Manny for the rest of the season.

It's not all bad.

A-FRAUD 'COMES CLEAN' OR WHATEVER

On Saturday, it was reported that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was on the list of baseball's cheaters.

To the credit of the cheating, adulterous fraud, Rodriguez responded in a hurry, giving an interview to ESPN's Peter Gammons on Monday. In it, he admits to using performance-enhancing drugs.

"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure, felt all the weight of the world on top of me to perform, and perform at a high level every day," Rodriguez told ESPN's Peter Gammons in an exclusive interview in Miami Beach, Fla. An extended interview will air on SportsCenter at 6 p.m. ET.

"Back then, [baseball] was a different culture," Rodriguez said. "It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time.

"I did take a banned substance. For that, I am very sorry and deeply regretful."

Check out the video.



I'm not about to "credit" someone for coming clean about cheating. Rodriguez cheated, and Rodriguez deserves to be thrown under the same bus everyone else was. He was already one of the best players in baseball.

He foolishly took $252 million from the Rangers, even though he had to understand it would destroy the team's budget, making it impossible for them to field a competitive pitching staff. Then, all these years after taking that initial contract, he has the audacity to blame it for his decision to take banned substances.

If Rodriguez was some unintelligible dope, I would understand his inability to comprehend reality past dollar signs. Instead, he always has come across as one of the more articulate and well-spoken players in the game. Clearly, he knew what he was doing, and he did it anyway.

Perhaps, at some point in July, it will hit Rodriguez like a ton of bricks. He'll realize that he's spending another summer being the second most-popular player on the left side of the Yankees' infield. At that point, we can only hope he understands the utter stupidity behind what he did in Texas, and how he ruined what was a great opportunity to be part of the rebuilding of baseball's integrity.

Instead of helping rebuild it, he'll forever be looked at as one of the people who tore it down to begin with.

TELL ME I WAS DREAMING

Oh, wait. That's Travis Tritt.

Hey, if you've heard one crappy country song, you've heard them all, right?

Anyway, imagine the horror when I got to work this morning and read this:

Roger Clemens carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready, a romance that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was a 28-year-old Red Sox ace and married father of two, several sources have told the Daily News.

Emphasis mine.

Yeah. Oh, and it gets worse. Or better, if you really don't like Roger Clemens and want to see him go down in flames (figuratively, of course).

Sources say that when McCready, now 32, and Clemens were together, there was barely any friction between them. The two were known to take lavish trips to Las Vegas and New York. One time, McCready attended a Yankees game at the Stadium and jokingly donned a catcher's mask near the home dugout. During another Big Apple excursion, the two holed up in the trendy SoHo Grand and later partied with Monica Lewinsky and Michael Jordan. McCready, according to a source, even bummed a cigar off His Airness to give to Clemens. There were personal love missives to Clemens hidden in McCready's album liner notes.

That's almost too good to be true.

Hey, at least McCready didn't bum the cigar off Monica. Then we'd have some jokes to tell, wouldn't we?

Listen, I'm not one of these guys who jumps all over famous people that sleep around. It's reprehensible, but it's their poor choice to make, and it's not my job to judge. That's not to justify or endorse the behavior, but we aren't going to do anything to stop it.

However, if this report is true, you have a professional athlete running around with a 15-year-old girl. Not good in any way. Statute of limitations or not, this is a major issue.

If the report isn't true, and Clemens' attorney was truthful in saying they were "just friends", I think we still have an issue. Hats off to Will Brinson for nailing this part of it:

And I am sorry, but we don't living in a world anymore where it's okay to assume that any relationship between a 15 year old girl and a 28 year old man is platonic. And even if it is, it is still inappropriate, particularly if that relationship involves trips to Las Vegas and sundry parties with celebrities.

That'll be the end of today's foray into the private lives of idiot professional athletes.

However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the utter stupidity of the Family Cyrus. You're the father of a 15-year-old girl who is (literally) worth a billion dollars. She takes part in a photo shoot for a magazine article. You let her pose rather, um, provocatively, and you let the photo get published.

Miley Cyrus is taking issue with a photo of herself that's going around, and it's not another amateur, truth-or-dare Internet snapshot—it's the handiwork of Annie Leibovitz.

The photos, appearing in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, were taken by Leibovitz, a renowned celebrity photographer whose edgy, silver- toned portraits have included subjects such as Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson and a naked, pregnant Demi Moore.

"I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted," Leibovitz said in a statement released by Vanity Fair. "Miley and I looked at fashion photographs together and we discussed the picture in that context before we shot it. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful."

The Cyrus pictures accompany an interview with the 15-year-old pop star and her father, singer Billy Ray Cyrus. One photo in particular is causing the biggest stir: the teen idol is wrapped in what appears to be a satin bedsheet, looking over her shoulder with her back exposed.

Seriously, could you be any dumber?

RANDOMIZATION: 12/18/07

Christmas schedule. Posting will be practically non-existent from Friday through Tuesday, as we go into full Christmas mode around here. In typical "radio people" fashion, we're doing our Christmas party on January 11*, naturally on a date that I can't attend.

(* - This isn't a slam on the company I work for at all. Radio people are perpetually late, to the point where I have tricked myself I have to be at a 7:00pm hockey game by 4:45pm.)

I allowed myself to get roped into this Secret Santa deal. When I get something from someone, I'm probably supposed to guess who got it for me. I'm not going to have any idea. Why do we do this? I mean, there's probably a 65% chance I'll get something related to the Packers or UMD. Odds might even be higher than that for all I know. The normal line you get is that "we all need to get to know each other", but does anyone really do that? No. Instead, we just assume that since the girl in the sales cubicle down the aisle really likes dogs, we should get her something related to dogs. What if she doesn't want anything related to dogs? Then we just look stupid.

And why am I ranting about Secret Santa?

Mitchell Report fallout. First off, I'm one of those people who believes that if you've been caught in this report, you should just be a man and come clean.

See, even if Mitchell says you did steroids in 1994, it's not like you didn't think there was something wrong with doing steroids. After all, they were banned everywhere, including society. Odds are that you knew this and knew you were simply taking advantage of spineless, clueless leadership in baseball.

But for you to deny taking steroids at this point is kind of childish. Stupid, too.

With that said, what might be even worse than denying it altogether is trying to make me believe that all these guys just took stuff once. That's it. Just that one time to recover from an injury, or out of whatever reason, but only once! Or maybe you just took HGH because you were hurt all the time.

Seriously, do you think I just fell off the proverbial turnip truck?

Do you think the cop believes you when you told him you've never driven drunk or sped before?

Do you think the boss believes you when you told him you've never snuck in the back door ten minutes late before?

I suppose your spouse believes you when you say that you've never made out with the gardener before?

Stop. Just stop. If your answer is "Well, I only did it once, and if I offended anyone, I apologize", then just don't bother, because I don't want to hear it anymore. It's been five days, and I'm already sick of it.

Congrats on the stupidity, NFL. The Pro Bowl system is so broken that words don't even describe it. The rosters have been announced, and it's probably a good thing no one watches the game, because this is ridiculous. As expected, the 12-2 Cowboys put a lot of guys on the NFC team. But 11 is a bit much, especially considering that the other 12-2 NFC team, Green Bay, has four.

Hilariously, Green Bay's best defensive player, Nick Barnett, isn't going. Neither is their best defensive back, Charles Woodson. Instead, the Packer defense sends the deserving Aaron Kampman and the not-so-much Al Harris. Apparently, the majority of the Pro Bowl voters don't get the NFL Network, because they didn't see Harris have a horrifically bad night against Terrell Owens and the Cowboys a few weeks back.

On the other side of the ball, Brett Favre and Donald Driver are going, as they should be. Where the hell is Mark Tauscher? Am I the only one that noticed Scott Wells having a great year in the middle of that offensive line?

Meanwhile, the 8-6 Vikings have seven players on the NFC roster. Seven?

What?

(Side note: Congrats to the voters on their posthumous voting of Sean Taylor as an NFC starter. That was a super gesture, and hopefully leads to a ceremony in Hawai'i honoring his memory one last time.)

Seven?

(Including starting NFC safety Darren Sharper, who might be having his worst season as a pro. Seriously? I mean, you're better off with Atari Bigby.)

I mean, who are you people kidding? Even when you factor the 30% or so of the selected players that won't bother to play, opening up holes for alternates, this is beyond a joke.

On the other hand, it underscores what the Packers have been selling us, and each other, all season long about this being a team and not a group carried by outstanding individuals. I'll take 12-2, a bye week, and four Pro Bowlers any day over 8-6, fighting for the playoffs, and seven Pro Bowlers.

(/rant)

RANDOMIZATION: JUICED UP EDITION WITH NFL PICKS!

Clemens finally called out. Obviously, George Mitchell did his homework. Well, actually there are some who don't think he did.

"Roger (Clemens) has been repeatedly tested for these substances and he has never tested positive," Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, said in a statement. "There has never been one shred of tangible evidence that he ever used these substances and yet he is being slandered today."

Well, Rusty (can I call you Rusty?), if it's slander, I would fully expect that a lawsuit is forthcoming, correct?

I won't hold my breath.

Mitchell's conclusions, well-documented all over the media and blogosphere, are pretty simple.

1. Baseball has a serious problem
2. The commissioner's office and players' union stuck their heads in the sand and ignored warning signs.
3. If the game is ever going to be cleaned up, it has to start now, and it will take cooperation to make it happen.

I hate to oversimplify, but this is pretty much what those 400-plus pages were all about. The naming of names was a necessary step, but it does nothing more than to add a soap-opera quality to this story. People wanted to hear names, and people wanted to know who was (allegedly) involved.

I'm not here to convict Roger Clemens. Not Andy Pettitte, either. For that matter, I'm not trying to throw F.P. Santangelo under the bus.

I just want to be able to watch baseball without wondering if the guy on the mound, the guy at the plate, or the guy selling hot dogs is on steroids. Probably an idealist thing at this point, but I'm still hopeful.

Overall, the Mitchell Report can only be a jumping-off point. From here, Senator Mitchell can do nothing. It's now up to Bud Selig and Donald Fehr. And even though it was 12 years ago, these are the guys who are reponsible for the cancellation of a World Series. Let's not forget that. If you trust them, you're a better and more trustworthy soul than I.

Don't fret. Barry has still never failed a drug test. This seems to me to be a bit of an issue when it comes to the legitimacy of tests.

Barry Bonds and his supporters often pointed to the fact that the home run king never flunked a drug test administered by Major League Baseball. The Mitchell Report suggests why: it appears Bonds received advanced warning of two tests in 2003. According to the report, Bonds was tested for steroid use on May 28 and June 4, 2003 as part of MLB's first attempt at formal detection. The report cites a San Francisco Chronicle report that it had obtained a tape recording of Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson boasting he received advanced notice of the testing. Anderson purportedly said on the recording that he was told the 2003 testing would occur in late May or early June. "Therefore," the report said, "if the report of this conversation is accurate Anderson correctly predicted the dates of testing, at least for his client Barry Bonds."

For starters, it's obviously easier to somehow circumvent the testing system if you know when you are going to be tested.

Of course, had Bonds tested positive, he wouldn't have been suspended in 2003. Not only that, but he continues to insist that he didn't know those things were steroids.

Yeah, right, Barry. And I didn't know that Twinkies were bad for me, either.

Oh, yeah. Football. Some picks for you.

Last week: 11-5 Season: 135-77

Home team in CAPS
Denver over HOUSTON (gotta be honest)
SAN FRANCISCO over Cincinnati
Buffalo over CLEVELAND
Tennessee over KANSAS CITY
Green Bay over ST. LOUIS
MIAMI over Baltimore
NEW ENGLAND over N.Y. Jets
NEW ORLEANS over Arizona
PITTSBURGH over Jacksonville
TAMPA BAY over Atlanta
CAROLINA over Seattle
Indianapolis over OAKLAND
DALLAS over Philadelphia
SAN DIEGO over Detroit
Washington over N.Y. GIANTS
MINNESOTA over Chicago

RANDOMIZATION: 12/12/07

Petrino to Arkansas. There is no defending the snake-like behavior of former Atlanta Falcons coach Bobby Petrino. The guy has a history of going back on his word, and he has a history of trying to leverage employers for raises by threatening to work elsewhere. This is the third contract that Petrino has signed in less than 18 months, and there's no reason to think that Arkansas will be his last stop as he scorches his way across the country.

ESPN's Pat Forde probably summed it up most effectively:

The disingenuous drifter doesn't love you or any other fan base. He doesn't love any school or any NFL franchise. He loves himself, his playbook and his bank account.

That's it. Don't expect it to change.

Bobby Petrino will return your embrace, Hog fans. But while he's hugging you he'll be looking over your shoulder, scanning the terrain for his next hook-up.

Even in a profession rife with dishonest posturing, Petrino is singularly mercenary. Loyalty, allegiance, commitment and honesty are foreign concepts to him. It must be a sad existence.

Ouch. This smacks of a human being who doesn't care about anything but himself. He likes to talk about doing what's best for his family, but his family can't possibly like the public image he's carved out for himself, and his family can't possibly like moving this much.

Trust me. I've moved before. It sucks.

There's nothing illegal about being selfish and phony. Politicians have made careers out of this kind of behavior, and it no longer surprises anyone when the lies and deception become public.

Not all football coaches are like this. Some of them actually keep their promises. Some of them actually mean it when they talk about how wonderful a place is and how much they like it there. Some of them actually mean it when they say that a particular position is their "dream job". Others are serious when they talk about not wanting to move away from the home they've made.

Bobby Petrino isn't the only coach who doesn't have these values. He's the latest, and he's one of the most notorious. If you're an Arkansas football fan, you can expect a lot of on-field success, probably not a lot of off-field issues, and plenty of rumors about where your coach is going to go next. Along with those rumors will come the occasional contract extension and raise at Arkansas. They mean everything in the world to Petrino, until it's time to leverage for more.

Mitchell report due. Thursday is a big day for baseball, as former U.S. Senator George Mitchell's report on steroid use in the game is going to be released.

It's to be expected that we'll get leaks over the next 12-15 hours before the actual release of the report (2pm ET Thursday). The first of those leaks is rather innocent, as it appears Mitchell will blame both baseball and the union for the drug issues in the game.

Mitchell's report is also expected to call for the testing system to be turned over to an independent company, and he will also say he believes baseball needs to test more frequently and make the system more transparent.

This report is the culmination of a 20-month investigation into drug use in baseball by Mitchell, who was given free reign by commissioner Bud Selig to conduct this investigation. Selig will not appear at Mitchell's news conference Thursday, instead holding his own news conference a couple hours after Mitchell. The union will follow with a news conference of their own closer to dinner hour.

Reports are that Mitchell will name close to 80 current and former players, but he will also state his investigation was hampered by an overall lack of cooperation. So what will he reveal? How rampant a problem is this? How much worse is the reality versus what Mitchell will present? Will Selig and the union do enough about the problem to satisfy the American public?

80 names is a lot, even if you add in a few former players who wouldn't surprise you all that much. But is the sports world prepared to see names of guys we would never suspect?

It just gets worse for the Knicks. No one is shocked that this team sucks. That was expected after all these years of letting Isiah Thomas make the basketball decisions.

However, what is truly shocking is how messed-up owner James Dolan apparently wants to let this franchise get before he pulls the plug on Thomas' disastrous reign as coach and personnel hatchet-wielder.

The whole sexual harassment mess was bad enough, but now Thomas has developed a warped viewpoint about this current team, and who is to blame for the putrid on-court product being displayed at Madison Square Garden.

Following the boo-infested defeat, which dropped the Knicks (6-14) a season-low eight games below .500, Mara Altschuler, who said she is a longtime season-ticket holder, rushed to the press table to complain that Thomas had lectured the fans behind the bench for not being more supportive.

According to Altschuler, Thomas said, "We're missing layups because you're booing." Altschuler, who worked 16 years for CBS News, said Thomas turned to make his stream of remarks in the third and fourth quarters, directing it to the first couple of rows.

I swear that I'm not making this up. This is too rich for me to make up.

Stop booing this group of multi-millionaires. You're making them upset, and you're making them play badly.

Before you ask, that 104-59 loss to the Celtics was played in Boston. Maybe the Knicks were upset because the Celtics fans were laughing so hard.

NFL FOOTBALL '07: WEEK TEN PICKS

A few issues to address first.

The Vikings are classless. The decision to dock Troy Williamson a week's pay because he attended to his maternal grandmother's funeral arrangements (she practically raised him, mind you) was cold-hearted, unnecessary, and stupid. It was so bad that I had to agree with ESPN loudmouth Stephen A. Smith, who yelled at Skip Bayless on First Take this morning. And who wouldn't want to yell at Skip Bayless?

Smith was right. Sure, you only have 16 days out of the year that you are getting paid to work (football players are only paid salary from teams during the regular season). But that doesn't mean that you should be required to ignore family matters so you can play football and avoid financial penalty. Williamson was very close to his grandmother, also his brother is in a coma after a car accident. Give the man time with his family.

I will credit Brad Childress for one thing. He didn't bring up Brett Favre when talking about players who played through family tragedies.

Williamson had the right attitude. He didn't rip the organization, and he said he would have stayed away even if it meant being docked his pay for the remainder of the season.

Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but no human being should be required to shoo aside a family emergency in order to perform job duties. Nothing in this world is more important than a person's immediate family. Something like bereavement should be left up to personal philosophy and choice.

(Will Leitch made a great point. Fred Smoot and Bryant McKinnie were each fined a game check for causing the Vikings great embarrassment in the famous Love Boat case. Now Williamson is docked a game check for missing a game so he could mourn the loss of his grandmother. Ugh.)

Mike Golic admits steroid use while playing football; Mike Greenberg ignores. Possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard a radio host do. Twice this week, Golic has admitted on ESPN Radio that he used steroids to help deal with an injury during his playing career. Twice, radio sidekick Greenberg has quickly moved on to another topic, ignoring what Golic said.

Huh?

I mean, this is the same network that has spent much time in the last six months discussing the use of steroids in sports (well, baseball), right? How is this swept under the rug?

Greenberg has the look and feel of someone who is afraid of the topic. No radio host should be able to survive in the business while being afraid of a controversial topic. They are what makes sports radio work. If you don't have controversy, why the hell is anyone listening?

Is this somehow related to ESPN's hefty rights fee to carry NFL games? I hope not. Wouldn't be surprised if it was, but I hope not.

On to the picks.

Last week: 10-4
Season: 88-46

Minnesota at Green Bay: Tough call for the Packers. Do you get your safeties back and try to prevent Troy Williamson Sidney Rice Robert Ferguson from breaking a long one on you, or do you bring eight men into the box, hope Al Harris and Charles Woodson can slow down the Vikings' receivers, and try to stop Adrian Peterson from killing you?

Oh, wait. That's not a tough call. Neither is this, though the Vikings will threaten a cover of the point spread.
The pick: Green Bay

Indianapolis at San Diego: The Chargers are now 4-4 and probably need this game to have much of a shot at the AFC playoffs. Indianapolis probably needs to win out to put any pressure whatsoever on New England for home-field in the AFC playoffs. The Colts should get Marvin Harrison back for this one, and I think they'll find a way to exploit the things Minnesota did to the Chargers' defensive front.
The pick: Indianapolis

Jacksonville at Tennessee: Neither team throws well, and both teams play tough defense. This screams "low-scoring slobberknocker", but will probably end up 38-34 because I said that. I like the Titans here. Can you believe that the winner of this game is probably considered a darkhorse AFC contender?
The pick: Tennessee

Cleveland at Pittsburgh: With a win, the Browns tie Pittsburgh for the AFC North lead. After the Steelers won the season opener 34-7 in Cleveland, could anyone have seen this coming? Pittsburgh has to avoid the ol' Monday Night Blahs, but I think they'll pull out a win at home. The Browns are a nice story, and once they get through this one, they are a legitimate contender for the playoffs. Really.
The pick: Pittsburgh

Dallas at N.Y. Giants: The Giants are on a roll, winners of six straight, and they had two weeks to recover from the London trip and prepare for this one. However, Tony Romo is on a roll of his own, and Terrell Owens can't be covered by human beings. Dallas' offensive balance is too much for the Giants to stop.
The pick: Dallas

Other picks (home team in CAPS)
KANSAS CITY over Denver
Buffalo over MIAMI
NEW ORLEANS over St. Louis
WASHINGTON over Philadelphia
CAROLINA over Atlanta
BALTIMORE over Cincinnati
Chicago over OAKLAND
Detroit over ARIZONA
SEATTLE over San Francisco