New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez was suspended in August 2013 after he was accused of having ties to Biogenesis, a now-defunct anti-aging clinic, and taking performance-enhancing drugs. The suspension covers 211 regular-season games through the 2014 season. Rodriguez denied the accusations and said he intends to appeal. Twelve other Major League Baseball players received 50-game suspensions without pay in the Biogenesis probe, and In July, Milwaukee Brewers star outfielder Ryan Braun was suspended for the rest of the season for violating the league's drug policy.
Editor's note: Terence Moore has been a sports columnist of more than three decades. He has worked for the Cincinnati Enquirer, the San Francisco Examiner, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and AOL Sports. Follow him on Twitter
(CNN) -- Whenever Alex Rodriguez — or his DMs (designated mouthpieces) -- discuss the evil ways of his haters these days, it sounds believable. To hear the DMs for the man they call "A-Rod" tell it, Rodriguez's bosses on the New York Yankees are out to get him, and the same goes for the entire establishment of Major League Baseball. I mean, Team A-Rod would swear on a stack of trading cards that the world is forcing this guy to struggle up a hill with a cross made of old Louisville Sluggers.
Poor thing.
I'm not buying any of this, by the way, and neither should you. It doesn't matter that the tongues for those on Team A-Rod are as smooth as Rodriguez's hitting once was while he was evolving into the most prolific slugger of his time, before a five-year slide to ordinary or less.
Denial, denial, denial. Not about Rodriguez's likely use of performance-enhancing drugs within the last few years (he has admitted that he used them when he played for the Texas Rangers from 2001-2003). Team A-Rod has moved around that subject on its tippy toes. They mostly issue denials that Rodriguez isn't into misleading baseball officials, the Yankees, his teammates, fans and even his absolutely pristine self about anything at any time.
Just thinking ...
Haven't we seen this middle part of a three-station cycle before from Ryan Braun, Lance Armstrong, Rafael Palmeiro, Marion Jones, Pete Rose, Mark McGwire and Michael Vick? Yes, we have, and these figures are among those in the ever-expanding Liars Hall of Fame. For induction, you must ace the ability to move quickly from The Accusations to The Denial, and before you reach The Confession, you must challenge the world record of politicians for denying and denying some more.
"I did not bet on baseball."
"I have never, ever used performance-enhancing drugs.
"Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my (butt) six hours a day. What are you on?"
"Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never."
"This is all B.S. I am completely innocent."
The rise and fall of Alex Rodriguez
Rose: Don't make one guy the example
CNN Explains: PEDs
"I take these charges very seriously and look forward to clearing my good name."
If you're keeping score, the authors of those previous whoppers were Rose, Jones, Armstrong, Palmeiro (as he wagged his finger at a U.S. congressman on Capitol Hill), Braun and Vick.
What's up with this?
"Athletes get hooked on notoriety and fame. I mean, when is the last time they had to buy a meal or a drink?" said Patrick Devine, who spent years as a sports psychologist for the Atlanta Braves before returning to private practice. He also serves as a professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Added Devine, "They think everybody loves them, because there are so many people looking at them as their heroes.
"So, athletes start to think that, because of their great deeds and because of the championships they may have won, the public in the end is going to forgive them for whatever they decide to do."
Opinion: How A-Rod let us down
That's why, after The Accusations and The Denial, members of the Liars Hall of Fame don't bother with The Confession until evidence surfaces to confirm their guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt. Then they throw themselves to the mercy of their fans, but only after they have slashed and burned a bunch of innocent folks along the way.
As a result, this Rodriguez thing is about to get creepier, because it feels so much like everything I just wrote.
There is Major League Baseball claiming Rodriguez joined 12 other players in purchasing and using performance-enhancing drugs from a clinic in south Florida called Biogenesis. According to reports, those same baseball officials say Rodriguez tried to hinder their investigation by lying and by encouraging others to do the same. There also are reports from CBS's 60 Minutes that Rodriguez used some of his associates to squeal on other drug-using players in an attempt to cover his pinstripes. Rodriguez denies this.
Which brings us to this: Follow the money. The New York Times reported this week that Rodriguez has retained at least six law firms and two public relations firms. Among other things, the paper said those A-Rod entities are trying to prove the Yankees and Major League Baseball are trying to take away as much of what remains of Rodriguez's original $275 million contract as possible.
Baseball officials had slapped Rodriguez with a 211-game suspension that would keep the 38-year-old third baseman out of the game until after the start of the 2015 season. He appealed the decision, and it will be months before the results are known. If the suspension is upheld, Rodriguez will lose approximately $34 million of his salary.
Until then, when it's raining, we'll have Rodriguez telling us the sunshine is beating against his shades.
"It's the same thing as somebody suffering from alcoholism. Denial," Devine said. "Now, in the case of some of the people we're talking about, they just look at everything (PED use, conniving, lying) as simply, 'This is what I have to do to compete at the highest level,' and in their mind -- morally and ethically -- it's not wrong. It's also like, 'If I do get caught, what's going to happen to me?' I mean, we're eventually going to put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame, and that sort of thing allows athletes to go into this denial thing along the way to being so convincing.
Opinion: Is doping at work and in class OK?
"To them, it's really like that old kid's line you hear: If you start telling a lie long enough, you start to believe it."
Yeah, but the rest of us don't have to believe it.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Terence Moore
Loading weather data ...
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Lance Armstong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from professional cycling in October 2012 after being accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong confessed in January 2013 to doping during his cycling career.
Barry Bonds is baseball's all-time home run leader, but some commentators say there should be an asterisk by his record. Though he's said he never knowingly used steroids, two San Francisco reporters wrote a book alleging he used performance-enhancing drugs. He was indicted on charges of perjury and obstructing justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury investigating steroids, and convicted of obstruction of justice.
Lyle Alzado was known as one of the most vicious lineman to ever play the game, and he chalked up more than 100 sacks and almost 1,000 tackles. Before his death from brain cancer at age 43, he told Sports Illustrated he began using steroids in 1969 and that, "On some teams between 75 and 90% of all athletes use steroids."
Known as "Rocket" for his aggressive pitching style, Roger Clemens played pro ball for more than two decades, racking up seven Cy Youngs. He left Major League Baseball under a cloud of steroid allegations, despite a court finding him not guilty of perjury when he told Congress he never used the drugs.
At 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, Alistair Overeem is known for putting mixed martial arts star Brock Lesnar into early retirement. Ahead of a heavyweight title match against UFC champion Junior dos Santos in May, Overeem tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone and was yanked from the card.
An early and chief accuser of Armstrong, Floyd Landis was himself stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He admitted doping in 2010, the same year he accused many other riders of doping as well.
As the most decorated Olympian ever, with 22 medals, Michael Phelps is known as a fish in human's clothing, but for a brief period in 2009, after a photo of him smoking a bong was made public, he also was known as a pothead. Despite losing sponsors, he quickly became known for swimming again, securing six medals in the 2012 Games.
Marion Jones was a world champion track and field athlete who won several titles in the 1990s and five medals during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. After admitting in 2007 that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs, she was stripped of the gold medals and other honors won after the 2000 Games.
Known as "Lights Out" after knocking out four players in a high school game, Shawne Merriman entered the NFL with fanfare, earning 2005 Rookie of the Year honors. His 2006 suspension for steroid use prompted the "Merriman Rule," prohibiting any player who tests positive for steroids from going to the Pro Bowl that year.
After his former Texas Rangers teammate Jose Canseco accused him of using steroids, Rafael Palmeiro appeared before Congress to deny the allegations. Later that year, he was suspended from baseball for testing positive for steroids. He maintains to this day he has never knowingly taken performance enhancers.
Few NBA players have tested positive for steroids, not only because the sport relies less on raw strength and speed than other sports but also because the league didn't begin testing until 1999. Miami Heat forward Don MacLean became the first to fail a test in 2000, and he was suspended for five games.
After racking up awards in college football, Ricky Williams was picked in the first round of the pro football draft in 1999. After testing positive for marijuana in 2004 as a Miami Dolphin, Williams retired and studied holistic medicine in California. He returned to the Dolphins the following year, only to have more run-ins with the NFL drug policy. He retired again in 2011.
Bill Romanowski was known for hard hits on the gridiron, but he also violently attacked teammate Marcus Williams during a scrimmage while playing for the Oakland Raiders. In a lawsuit, Williams blamed the attack on Romanowski's "roid rage." Romanowski settled the suit and in 2005 admitted to "60 Minutes" that he used steroids.
Sprinter Tim Montgomery set the world record in the 100-meter dash in 2002, but the time was scratched after he was found to have used performance-enhancing drugs. Since his retirement, he has had other legal troubles including arrests for money laundering and heroin offenses. He was sentenced to jail time for both.
An Olympian and renowned longball hitter, Mark McGwire spent his entire career with the Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals, breaking the single-season home run record in 1998. In 2010, he admitted using steroids over the course of a decade but told Bob Costas in an interview he took them only for health reasons.
Ross Rebagliati won a gold medal during the first year of snowboarding at the 1988 Olympics. He was stripped of the medal after testing positive for the active ingredient in marijuana. It became fodder for late-night talk show jokes, but Rebagliati eventually got his medal back after it was determined marijuana was not a banned substance.
A winner of eight Grand Slam events, Andre Agassi was considered one of the most dominant tennis players of the 1990s. In 2009, the tennis pro acknowledged in his autobiography that he had failed a drug test for methamphetamine in 1997 but skirted punishment by blaming an assistant.
Regarded as the best soccer player after Pele, Diego Maradona was known for his deft footwork and knack for finding the net. In 1991, he was suspended for 15 months after testing positive for cocaine. He would later admit he was addicted to the drug for about 20 years and began using when he was playing for Barcelona in the 1980s.
A prolific sprinter in the 1980s, Canadian Ben Johnson routinely bested American Carl Lewis in the 100-meter dash. After winning the gold at Seoul in 1988, Johnson tested positive for a steroid. His coach said Johnson took the drugs to keep up with other athletes and later wrote a book saying all top athletes were using in those days.
|