billw55, on 2015-April-08, 11:30, said:
And, no way I am buying the fraudulent salary negotiation argument. Ownership and management knew perfectly well what was going on, and quietly approved.
Since when did anyone suggest that ownership and management were being defrauded?
As for not actually prohibited, that may well have been true a long time ago, but hasn't been true for many years now, and players like Rodriguez knew damn well that they were cheating.
Btw, there was a time when cocaine was not only legal, but sold in a certain popular soda drink. Try arguing that defence if caught now with cocaine in your possession.
If your point is that it is hypocritical of the sports organizations to claim that they have always done their best to keep their sports 'pure', then I agree with you. Professional sports organizations are about money and ego, and little (if any) else. And some amateur organizations are as bad or worse. Does anyone really believe that 18-20 year old men can weigh 340 lbs or more and run fast enough that they'd be winning sprinting medals in the Olympics in the not-so-distant past, without the assistance of hgf or something similar? High school and college football in the US is a travesty to an even greater degree than the NFL. At least a NFL player is getting paid to damage his health and shorten his lifespan.