Hey Congress, Stay Out Of Sport's Problems

Now before I get started on this little rant I just want to say I really could care less about politics and the whole big brother concept it has with other countries. But when it comes to problems in sports and sports figures, Congress needs to keep their big nose out of sport's business. I really am sick and tired of turning on ESPN and now that football is done and over with it seems like the only two things on ESPN anymore are steroids in baseball and the spygate and how congress is "interested in getting to the bottom of this". On Wednesday Roger Clemens and a handful of baseball players, trainers, and representatives are heading to Capital hill to discuss the findings of steroids in baseball. It is a day I am simply going to call "Black Wednesday". This is something that is baseballs problem not the governments. So there is controversy in sports, there are more pressing issues in my mind then worrying about who did and who didn't take steroids in the last 90's and early 2000's. I know Bud Selig hired good old Senator George Mitchell to figure out who was taking what in baseball, but this is taking things a bit far if you ask me. Congress worry about getting us out of Iraq or stopping George Bush from making anymore idiotic decisions with our tax money. In the mean time let me tell you how I would go about fixing the steroids problem in baseball and the problem with spygate.

Steroids in Baseball
It a problem that Bud Selig should of dealt with many years ago. Instead he had Senator Mitchell do the investigation he should have been doing and now thanks to the Mitchell report baseball is now seen under a bad light. Look Selig made a big mistake and we know a bunch of players had at least tried steroids during the past 10 to 15 years, but do we really need to recover what happened in the past? You can't fully prove who took steroids or performance enhancing drugs from 5 to 10 years ago. How can prove it is credible? Instead of worrying about the past just let it go and focus on cleaning up the game for this season and seasons to come. Instead of random testing test everyone in the league for steroids. Because honestly how can you really make a test like steroids random? Now label the past 15 years as "The Steroid Era" and move on. Baseball is already a mess you don't need to make it worse by bringing congress into it.

Spygate
Now since this has come out and I have heard more rumors about the Patriots using it in the Super Bowl and other games I think it is time to really crack down on this. I think the fine and the forfeit their first round pick was a good punishment but now there needs to be more of a punishment. Now I think you should forfeit games and maybe even more than that for being caught video taping now. Who knows if the footage they got of the Rams running their plays helped them in the Super Bowl against the Rams. Roger Goodell needs to enforce some type of punishment system for this. Maybe something like this. First offense: Forfeit of the game and a fine. Second Offense: Forfeit game plus some additional games on top of that. Third Offense: Forfeit entire season. It is at least something the league has to look into.

Congress is there to help punish people for doing real crimes like murders and other serious offenses. They should be more worried about terrorists attacks, how to fix this economic recession, and stop George Bush from cutting taxes on health care. They shouldn't be worried about Baseballs problems, they shouldn't be worried about the NFL's problems, they should be worried about any sports related problems period.

Nate Gonner is a guest writer for The Sports Flow. He writes his columns every Monday and Thursday for Gonners View. Check his site out here