As with many athletes (who test positive for drugs) , they always plead innocent … wait a minute, what am I saying… ofcourse they do! There is always a case of “innocent until proven guilty” but aren’t there a little too many cases of athletes failing drug tests to be a coincidence??

Their so called excuses or reasons are always the same, some pretty lame, some innovative … that each and everyone of them “didn’t know about it” , “they were framed”, “they were setup” or “they took medicine prescribed by them to offset the the flu they had” etc … the list goes on. I must say that the recent Ladis controvesy of “testosterone levels were natural to his body” excuse is certainly a first.

You athletes … wake up! If you are taking a prescription for a sickness or physcial problem, isn’t it wise to make sure that officials know about it before the race/event/game or just don’t take those “prescribed” drugs at all until confirmed by another source that it is legal. Poor excuses from athletes saying that “I didn’t know what I was taking” shows naivity, and to a certain extent stupidity … especially if you are a high profile athlete and you know that winning an event will probably warrant a drug test.

The losers are in two fold, the athlete himself and the sport. An example is Baseball … Barry Bonds, holds the all time single season record for home runs and will probably eventually surpass Hank Aaron’s record for the most home runs hit ever. BUT, what is the value of it if it was done with help from drugs to help him stronger and a more powerful hitter? That famous record held by the “true athletes” like Aaron, Ruth, Maris will forever be “tarnished”. The same can be said about Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Jose Conseco. Hall of Fame voting for them – never in my books! Funny how the system works when Roger Maris is not even acknowledged as a Hall of Famer (for no apparent reason), Pete Rose can be banned (for life) from Baseball for gambling and they can allow someone like McGwire, Sosa, Bonds to uphold their records and be eligible for the Hall of Fame ballots.

So the Landis case adds to the many cases of failed drug tests of other high profile athletes like Ben Johnson, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Justin Gaitlin. Bottom line, if you have tried so hard to reach the top, you should be more careful in making decisions … its a tough sporting world out there and don’t spent your whole life building on something just to throw it away.