Alan Abrahamson has written a fantastic column asking why we praise AROD but rip the Russians

Get out from under wrote:

USA's corporate sponsored doping is worse. Every single sport is teeming with doping issues. To American's, meh, no problem...

Lol. Russia hasn't been sufficiently punished? When is the US going to be banned, even for 3 months??

There is zero evidence of corporate sponsored doping in the US. The most you can say is that corporations look the other way. Sponsoring get doping isn't really in their interest, and the risks are far too great.

Long time high school track and field coach. Have every issue of T&F News since 1971 (including, sadly, the last one). Follow IAAF season. BIG baseball fan. BIG Yankee fan. Don't like A-Roid.

Aside from all the valid points everyone has made about how this "hypocrisy" is manufactured, since he can't actually point to anyone who is mad about Russia and also loves A-Rod, the more fundamental problem with this piece is the take home point. It isn't that we should be equally mad about A-Rod; it's that we should be forgiving of the Russians!

AA advocates respect and deference to authority, no matter how corrupt or incompetent. Advocating for reform is immature! Principles are for children! It's bad enough when he sticks up for USATF, now he's sticking up for one of the unambiguously corrupt regimes in the world. Sometimes I wonder if (hope?) he's just a great troll, since it's hard to imagine someone so spineless and unprincipled exists.

Who praises ARod for anything on the baseball field? I know of no one who wants to see ARod anywhere. However, he is one person; Russia has destroyed the credibility of Olympic sports for generations with its state-sponsored doping programs.

The Logo, Jerry West, BROUGHT Pau Gasol west to the Lakers, and two more championships followed. The trade was not the worst in NBA history because they sent Marc Gasol back, and he turned out to be pretty special.

"On February 1, 2008, Gasol was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers along with a 2010 second round draft pick for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, the rights to Marc Gasol (Pau's younger brother), and 2008 and 2010 first round draft picks."

The Grizzly gm:

"Not only did we pick up Marc, that salary cap room was later used to trade into with the Clippers for Zach Randolph. At one time when we first got into the playoffs, the 2010-11 season, we had seven to nine players on the team that, if you traced their roots how they got to Memphis, you could trace to that deal."

Kwame Brown=sack of potatoes

My only question... why is AA so obsessed with the Russians? Why does he even care? He should spend his time and energy on investigating the issues with the Trials in Walnut, CA (NOT LA). What is the status of their stadium? Can those in charge confirm the stadium will be ready?

So A-Rod should be shunned socially -- no hot girlfriends for you, A-Rod because you admittedly doped -- and as a baseball commentator? Unlike Olympic sports, there is no governing body that can destroy A-Rod's social life and entertainment job. A-Rod served his time for doping just as Gatlin has done multiple times. Besides his time, he is unlikely to make the Hall of Fame judging by the chances of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. The subject line for this thread is misleading as I'm not aware of anyone PRAISING A-Rod for this PED use.

Didn t Carl Lewis do some drugs. He has been a commentator.

Who loves ARod? I'm a Yankees fan and I can't stand the guy.

hypocrisy is every where, it's rampant... look at the Left and how they celebrate sexual freedom to sleep around and act like a w hore, but then go bananas with all the MeToo stuff.. the Right runs around screaming about Jeezus and the Bible but fawns over and elects a NY playboy billionair scum bag lie DT.. We take people houses, cars, toss them out of school and charge them with felonies for possessing marijuana but alcohol is celebrated (Dilly! Dilly!)...

@rojo wrote:

You obviously don't pay much attention to American culture, where everything short of child molestation - and possibly, but not certainly, murder - can eventually be forgiven.

Think about this (what you said is valid):

There was just an election in Alabama where an accused child molester barely lost. People in Alabama were willing to vote for a guy accused of hitting and having sex with teenage girls when he was in his 30's.

Not to mention everything that scum bag did.

Do you think those people care if a sports star uses drugs to enhance his performance?

When I wondered HOW GW Bush could have possibly been elected someone said- Never forget, we live in a big, stupid country.

A-Rod is despicable, but comparing him to the Russian State-Sponsored doping system is asinine.

I have never praised A-Rod in my life and never will. It was disgusting to hire him as a commentator during the World Series. I thought the same thing about having Pete Rose as a commentator.

However, A-Rod and Russian doping is not a fair comparison. MLB players compete with other MLB players, not Russian baseball players. The same is true with the NFL, which is currently probably dirtier than baseball. Those American baseball or football fans who are okay with players doping are no justification for Russian athletes cheating when they compete with athletes from other countries.

A fairer comparison would be comparing USOC sports in the US with Olympic sports in Russia. The US makes a legitimate effort to comply with the USADA and Olympic rules, even if it's not always perfect. That's not true (or wasn't true) with Russia, where the governing bodies were intentionally sending doped athletes to compete unfairly against other countries that had compliant drug testing programs.

Inside the tent pissing out > Outside the tent pissing in.

And A-Rod would most definitely piss into "our" tent.