Enough of the cheats and lies

I understand that professional athletes are under a lot of stress to perform everytime they're "at work." They get paid a lot of money to give 110% each and every day — and when your salary contains six zereos to the left of the decimal, you bloody well should. Therefore I understand that some athletes feel they need an edge to outperform their opponents; this is where performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) come into play.

There should be a level playing field in all sports. This means that no one is under any type of PED. If Barry Bonds feels the need to inject himself with steroids, that's his choice. I call him a cheater. When these athletes get caught, I would respect them more as people if they told the truth ... "Yup. I injected growth hormones in my ass. The crowd loved it though when I hit my 73rd home run. It makes me a better player. A lot of ball players do it, I just got caught."

The hypocrites are the people who run the sports. Take baseball for example. They sweep the truth under the rug so the fans will continue to come out and watch 250 lb men hit 80 homeruns a year. Then, by fluke, a player gets caught in the web of the drug test and the public outcry makes them do something. Did you notice that as soon as the stiffer penalties were discussed during the offseason a few years ago, the homerun totals dropped. All the 'roid heads dropped weight like a fighter before the weigh in ... of course their excuse was exercise and diet.

Just admit that you're on the juice and the public will get over it quicker and your name will be out of the headlines that much sooner. Your fellow athletes won't care because they're just as guilty as you are.

Perhaps I'm using a broad brush to paint everyone in sports as cheaters but I'm tired of the lies to my face. For instance, "My massage therapist put a cream on my back but I thought it was Calamine lotion." Don't you hate when that happens? Or better yet, "I produce an elevated level of testosterone in my body naturally." Yeah, mixed nicely with the synthetic stuff.

Floyd Landis, Barry Bonds, Justin Gatlin et al ... just come clean ... it's easier.