It was the shot heard ’round the world this weekend: Sports Illustrated reported Yankees mega-star Alex Rodriguez reportedly failed a steroid test back in 2003. Monday he confirmed that in an exclusive interview when A-Rod acknowledged that he did in fact take steroids for a three-year period while with the Texas Rangers earlier this decade. That allowed ESPN’s dogs to attack, including three talking heads who are grade-A pricks in their own right.
“Baseball Tonight” analyst and former Mets GM Steve Phillips compared Rodriguez to Britney Spears, saying both have melted down before our eyes. Phillips must have forgotten that he too had a very public meltdown when he was forced to take a leave of absence in the late-’90s due to a sex scandal.
Not to be outdone, “Sunday Night Baseball” man, Hall of Fame 2B and notable prick Joe Morgan weighed in with a rant of his own, the purpose of which most observers will recognize as a thinly veiled attempt to bash a better player, much like he frequently does with Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg by failing to appear publicly with Sandberg, including at Sandberg’s Cooperstown induction ceremony simply because of a grudge over Sandberg’s higher career home run total.
Finally, “Screamin'” Stephen A. Smith weighed in. Normally a basketball analyst, Smith let A-Rod have it, unloading a series of nonsensical three- to five-syllable words, basically saying A-Rod should return some of his salary since it was earned under false pretenses. Based on this condemnation, one is able to assume Smith also returned the salary he earned at the Philadelphia Inquirer prior to being fired in 2008 after years of job abandonment.
