The Other Hammerin' Hank

New York Yankees newbie owner Hank Steinbrenner, along with his brother Hal, has not only inherited his father’s team, but his dad’s lip as well. You won’t read any “missives” from Hank penned by George’s spokesman, Howard Rubenstein. Hank has an opinion on everything. Just ask him. He’ll tell you.

You may not agree on everything, or anything he has to say. But there is one thing he is absolutely right about:

Baseball isn't the only league with a steroid or HGH problem. It's just been exposed. However, the NFL trudges on Sunday-to-Sunday with absolutely no repercussions whatsoever.

Why would a league like the NFL need something like HGH or steroids to heal faster? There's no need for players to recover game-to-game from blindside hits, facemasks, tackles, hamsting pulls, tears, broken bones, chop blocks, crackbacks, double-teams, ACL injuries, achillies problems, concussions--all which make-up those well-published published injury reports that give Vegas the wink-wink on its pointspreads.

Nah, it's just a baseball problem.

Sure, the NFL can talk all about its random drug testing policy, its four-game suspensions and everything in-between. But that doesn’t seem to explain Rodney Harrison’s suspension for admitted HGH use.

As Senator George Mitchell as shown us (with a minuscule, incomplete investigation), where there's smoke there's usually a Bunsen-burner.

Do yourself a favor. If you have a tape handy of a Buffalo Bills game from the Super Bowl Era (sounds sad, doesn’t it?), pop it into that obsolete VHS player. The first thing you may notice (besides the faded Astro Turf) is that compared to today's players most of the Bills could have been cast as Notre Dame's Rudy.

The bigger problem (sorry, pun certainly intended): nobody cares. Ask yourself how many total yards Emmitt Smith racked-up before tripping at ESPN. Ask yourself how many sacks Bruce Smith ended his career with. How about Jerry Rice's total yardage?

What's the number for NFL's highest career passer rating? Better yet, who holds it? How many TDs or yards has Brett Favre thrown for in his career?

There may be one of you who knows those. And if you know all of them, maybe you should be spend less time on ESPN.com and head over to eHarmony.

In baseball, the magic numbers are 762* (was 755), 73* (should be 61), .406, 4,256, and 511 with free Hall passes for 300 (wins) and 500 (HRs).

In the NFL there are three magic numbers: 17, five, and the pointspread you like best.

There are fewer people who care about the NFL record book than those working on Ron Paul's Presidential "campaign." Nobody cares if their favorite linebacker retires with a concussion problem just like wrestling fans have become desensitized to droves of their heroes dying from the plague of abuse. The only things fans care about are winning Super Bowls, winning bets and winning fantasy leagues.

(Is it just this writer, or does "fantasy team" sound like a bizarre term for a male sport followed by mostly men?)

NFL PR-spinmeister Greg Aiello can talk all he wants about the league's testing policies that predate "Full House" in syndication. But he can't hide the fact that busts like Tony Mandarich got through college on steroids before signing fat contracts that pay for off-label HGH use. You can't test for it, so you think only baseball players and Sylvester Stallone use it?

And on a side note, doesn't it bother anybody else that Rocky may have beaten Ivan Drago with a little help from his friends?

It took shipping labels to nail Rodney Harrison to cop to his HGH use before one of the NFL's dirtiest players was branded with a four-game suspension. Ooh. That'll "learn" him. No problem here, huh?

Four games. Then he can return the way he left. A steroid or HGH suspension doesn't allow time for detoxification, especially when you only play once a week. In baseball they play ten games for every NFL game and a suspension is worth 50 games. That's more than three trips to the DL.

Hank Steinbrenner may talk a lot, but in this case he's saying the right words. A drug testing policy is only as good as what it can test for, and there's no reliable HGH test available. HENCE: THERE IS NO TEST.

If you want to hold side-by-sides of baseball players from the 1980's and today, you have to hold the NFL by the same standard.
Sports fans should realize the NFL has a problem--now--and not be blinded like we were by Mark McGwire's bulging frame. It only took the shrunken, reduced version of Big Mac to prove Jose Canseco right--think about that--and the "little" Mac to stick the needle in Roger Clemens' balloon.

Who is the NFL kidding? Even if college athletes fail their drug tests (which have questions of their own) they'll still be drafted. They'll still get their money. And they'll still find their ways around testing. And people will still give the league a pass thanks to its farce of a policy, their countless fantasy teams, and their A.D.D.-riddled obsession with a once-a-week pastime fueled by gambling.

Sure, there's a PED problem in baseball.

And there's a bigger problem with the rest of us if we turn a blind eye to the NFL like we did baseball a decade ago.

Fool me once? Riiiiiiiiight.