The Super Bowl, Phelps, and A-Rod

What a crazy week it's been in the world of sports. It started on Sunday with one of the more dramatic Super Bowls in recent memory. Being a Giants fan, it's hard to put it ahead of last year's victory over the undefeated Patriots. The only other "big game" that I remember having that exciting of a finish would be the Rams-Titans game from the '99 season. Who can forget the Titans coming up 1-yard short of the winning touchdown on the final play of the game? So, for me personally, I'll rank it as the third most memorable Super Bowl.

During the Super Bowl pregame, we got a statement from Michael Phelps admitting that he did something stupid (while not clarifying what it was)... he has yet to admit that he actually smoked from the bong that he was pictured using. I'm not going to sit here and preach morals... I've never used illegal drugs, but have friends who have... one just has to wonder what was going through Phelps' mind as he put his lips to the pipe? You have to figure if he's at a college party, there's a good chance there will be pictures... and if he doesn't know the folks personally, what college kid wouldn't take the opportunity to cash in the picture? In all likelyhood, that money will replenish his pot supply for the rest of the semester!

Do I think Phelps will be forgiven by the public? In the long run, yes... personally, I subscribe to a three-strike policy. So, Phelps has one more strike before I write him off as just a cocky athlete who thinks he can get away with anything. Honestly, the first thing I thought of when I heard about the photo (my wife was there when I brought it up) was Phelps' DUI after the 2004 Olympic games. The scary thing is what will happen after the 2012 games? Phelps will be 27 years old... with the exception of Dara Torres, it's rare to see swimmers stay competitive at that point. What will happen to Phelps when he doesn't have to be at the pool training every day? Lets hope that he truly does learn from this mistake.

And then there was Saturday's breaking news... allegedly, Alex Rodridguez tested positive for steroids during the 2003 MLB season. I can't say I was totally surprised by this revelation, but it certainly caught me off-guard. This one stings a bit more for me... I don't know if my co-worker from Louisiana, Chris Hunter, remembers this from 8 years ago, but in 2001 I called A-Rod as the potential all-time home run leader. Of course he needed to stay healthy and keep his numbers up, but I thought A-Rod had a legitimate chance to pass Hank Aaron. Of late, baseball folks pointed to Rodriguez as the man who will wipe the slate clean... clear Barry Bonds (the steroids cover-boy) from the record book. Now, if the allegations against A-Rod hold true, he's no better than the rest of the players who forced us to put an asterisk on baseball for close to twenty years.