As a regular reader of news, I sometimes notice patterns in coverage. Clearly anytime Britney Spears does something the media things it is worth the front cover for days and anytime a world event happens it is worth coverage for at least hours. Africa gets mentioned everytime the media gets criticized for its habits. Patterns are everywhere.

Recently, I encountered an interesting pattern in sports coverage. Someone gets busted for steroids, they plead innocent, everyone covers everyones back and points the blame elsewhere. After a few weeks or months of this game I call Responsibility Roulette, a new player joins the circus. Congress.

It all started on March 30, 2006 with The Mitchell Report being commissioned by Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Though this wasn’t congress, the Mitchell in The Mitchell Report is because of the former Senate Majority Leader George J Mitchell who was asked to lead the investigation. In many ways, this opened up the connection between congress and professional athletics.

It didn’t stop there. Everyone from Arlen Spector to George W Bush got in the game. They made statements about how steroids were a travesty ruining “America’s Game.” An obvious reference to baseball’s longstanding history of being called “America’s National Passtime.”

From there, Congress decided to start talking to the NFL and make sure they were testing properly for steroids. And now, today, I found this article that Congress is looking into Horse Racing, after Big Brown’s debacle. And it makes me think of the billions of dollars we have foolishly wasted on the “War on Drugs.”

We are “at war” for whatever that’s worth. Shouldn’t our Congress be a little less consumed with what jocks are taking what drugs to beef themselves up and be a little more concerned with what’s happening in Iraq? Or is this their way of distracting us from noticing the terrible job they continue to do?

One other minor thing. If Congress is really worried about steroid usage they should check the armed forces. I read recently that somewhere near 25% of the “military contractors” from the company Blackwater Worldwide are abusing steroids. Is that statistic accurate? I don’t know, but I’d rather Congress spent their time figuring that out than whether or not the increase in the size of Barry Bond’s head was attributed to the anabolic steroid called The Clear or his overly inflated ego.