Football deals with steroid issues, too, By: Sam Rosenthal

9/12/07

Have you ever noticed that nobody cares that much when NFL players test positive for or admit to using steroids? Or have you observed that baseball players' steroid transgressions receive much harsher treatment by fans and the national media?

Only if you follow U.S. sports.

A glaring schism has appeared between the media and fan reactions to steroid users in baseball versus football.

When a baseball player faces mere allegations of steroid use, he is crucified by the media. Many fans turn on him as a cheater, thinking - much mistakenly - that only home-run hitters use steroids.

Lots of players using steroids are pitchers or guys trying to recover from injuries, but fans notice the home runs and the way they have changed the history of the game.

For baseball players tied in any way to steroids, no excuse seems valid. This is not so in the NFL

Last season the Chargers' Shawne Merriman earned a four-game suspension for testing positive for steroids. After returning to lead the league in sacks, Merriman - who claimed a supplement he took was tainted - finished third in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year.

This year the New England Patriots' Rodney Harrison was also suspended for four games after admitting that he used human growth hormone, though he said he has never taken steroids. Harrison said he turned to HGH to recover from injuries faster.

This should not fly. Alibis nobody believes about baseball players work wonders for football pros. In the cases of Merriman and Harrison, there was no public outrage, no BALCO-like investigation and no widespread conspiracy theory that football players are all cheaters. These guys can and have changed football history the way that baseball's sluggers do, it's just less obvious.

This double standard cannot exist. How you view steroid use by baseball players is how you should see it among football stars. Football players' morals - example: Michael Vick or the Cincinnati Bengals - are at least as low as baseball players', if not lower.