Steroid furor not evident in NFL fans, By: Larry Bohannan

09/10/06

The NFL season begins in earnest today, with these stories sure to be ignored on the pregame shows:

Dolphins backup running back Sammy Morris is serving a four-game suspension for violating the league's steroid policy.

Broncos punter Todd Sauerbrun is serving a four-game suspension for violating that same steroid policy.

Chiefs offensive lineman John Welbourn, suspended four games at the start of last year for a steroid violation, has been suspended an additional six games by the league. Welbourn retired over the summer, but the suspension could derail an apparent interest in restarting his career.

If you are waiting for the outrage, the pious political speeches and the congressional hearings that accompanied steroid revelations in Major League Baseball, don't hold your breath. The double standard that exists in the acceptance of steroids in football and baseball is wider than a football field or a Barry Bonds tape-measure home run.

Because most fans still don't understand the scope of what steroids can do for an athlete, they are stuck with the old, outdated and singular idea: steroids only build muscle mass and strength.

Fans may disapprove of steroid use, though more and more surveys show fans really don't care. But those fans think they have an understanding of why a football player is using. Of course football players want to be bigger and stronger, they reason.

Until recently, most fans felt steroids were counterproductive for baseball players. A hitter can't afford to be muscle bound because of steroids, fans figured, and pitchers need extra bulk even less than hitters. The fact that performance-enhancing drugs can be used for stamina and fast recovery times is just now sinking in for fans.

Faced with confusion and disbelief over steroid use in baseball, fans turned that confusion into outrage and calls for immediate explanations. Get Congress involved, they cry. Get tougher testing, they insist. Root out the cheaters and clean up the game, they yell.

But where is the yelling about steroids in football?

Double standard

If using steroids in baseball makes a player a cheater, then the same is true for a football player. Morris and Sauerbrun will miss one-quarter of their team's games this year, a significant chunk.

But few people even know that Morris was suspended. Compare that to the screaming-headline hysteria when journeyman relief pitcher Jason Grimsley was caught with human growth hormone in a raid of his home in June. Grimsley was hit with a 50-game suspension (about a third of a season) and then lost his job when the Arizona Diamondbacks released him. And no major league team is likely to ever sign Grimsley again after his admissions to using HGH, steroids and amphetamines.

Sauerbrun, on the other hand, was suspended for his action with the Carolina Panthers, but even the threat of missing four games didn't deter Denver from signing him. Morris is still on the Dolphins' roster, and he might not even lose playing time when he comes back in a month.

And not a single senator or representative has made an angry speech or call for televised hearing on the steroid crisis in the country's most popular sports obsession.

And the double standard in acceptance of performance-enhancing drugs in football and baseball will roll merrily along.