Thank you Alex Rodriguez?

After a week that included Elizabeth Hasselbeck saying Michael Phelps is now likely to take performance enhancing drugs, I would like to thank Alex Rodriguez for bringing illegal drug use in professional sports back into perspective.

Let’s compare:

Michael Phelps consumed a “drug” that is not even a banned substance in his sport and is certainly not a performance enhancer, during the off-season. He acknowledged and apologized for the indiscretion.

Versus:

Alex Rodriguez took two banned substances during a year he was awarded the league’s MVP and traded to a team where he would go on to become MLB’s highest paid player. He has gone on ’60 Minutes’ before, denying ever taking steroids and in this case responded: “You’ll have to talk to the union. I’m not saying anything.”

Sure, in A-Rod’s “defense” the results were supposed to have been anonymous. And – at this point – all accusations are “alleged.” That’s about as far as I can go in terms of defending him. And, yes, Michael Phelps makes a lot of money as a spokesperson for products that are marketed towards children. Besides the fact that he’s barely more than a kid himself, and that marijuana is barely a drug, please see above about how he admitted what he did and took responsibility for it. That is what we call personal accountability and it's commendable.

I would like to thank Seth Meyer and ‘Weekend Update’ for really summarizing the Michael Phelps situation accurately – you can see it starting at 1:32 in the below video.



For those of y’all without Hulu access, let me transcribe:

"If you’re at a party and you see Michael Phelps smoking a bong, and your first thought isn’t ‘Wow, I get to party with Michael Phlelps” and instead you take a picture and sell it to a tabloid, you should take a long look in the mirror, because you’re a dick. I mean, really.”