Alex Rodriguez came clean (sort of) about playing the game dirty from 2001-2003.  Now comes the questions, and there will be many of them

SCOTT JACOBS

Sometimes you want to go up to an athlete and ask them, “how stupid do you think I am?”

Alex Rodriguez confessed to using, well something illegal, but he couldn’t put a name on it, because apparently he didn’t know what he was putting in his body.  Damn I hate when great athletes say that.  You know why?  Because these are guys who treat their bodies like their temple.  They watch everything they eat.  Sure they have trainers, and nutriotinists, and other guys of that nature, but you mean to tell me that guys as good as A-Rod had no clue, none, whatsoever about what they were putting in their temples?  Yeah, right.

A-Rod claims he was young and stupid.  Yup, they always seem to resort to that.  But what really bothered me was when A-Rod said he had never even heard of guys taking performance enhancers while he was with Seattle.  He can’t possibly be serious.  Allegations were flying left and right in the late 1990’s that performance enhancers might be taking over our best athletes, and enhancing their performance to superhero levels.

“I was naive,” Rodriguez said.  Yup, and he’s still naive if he thinks we believe that he never knew what he was doing.  And the idea that he had no idea about the stuff before flocking to Texas, is just absurd.  Absurd I tell you.

I give A-Rod credit: he said he did it, and came out quickly with it.  But then he went on to attack SI’s Selena Roberts who helped write the story, saying she did things like tried to break into his home.  Roberts denies this, and SI stands by her as well.  You could sense desperation in his voice.  “Please love me,” felt like the overall message to his confession.  “I’m the golden boy,” because he couldn’t possibly do any wrong.

But I’m not buying it.

He’s an idiot.  He not only made a mistake, he made many mistakes.  He knew he was doing something illegal, but he was surprised to hear he failed a test?  How does that add up?  He wants to move on (of course he does), but something doesn’t sit right with me when it comes to steroids boy being the guy who has the largest contract in pro sports here in the states.

That’s what bothers me.  He’s the face of the sport, the guy chasing down Bonds’* record.  He wants to be the best, and he sad as much.  But this won’t soon be forgotten, nor should it.  Three seasons cheating?  That sounds like three years of cheating if you ask me.  Not 14 seasons of playing baseball the way it should be, and 3 seasons of goofing up.  Could you imagine if the government said, well, you robbed a bank for three straight years, but for the first 37 years you didn’t so we won’t put you in jail.  No.  That would never happen.  Same deal with A-Rod.  He did it, he screwed up, in my eyes, if we’re disregarding the McGwires, Sosas, Palmeiros, and Clemens from the Hall, then A-Rod should be right there with them.

This isn’t about second chances.  If A-Rod did it for one year, and then was like, what am I doing, it’d be different.  He did it for three seasons, if not more.  He screwed up, but hekept doing it. I can’t feel sorry for a guy who doesn’t learn from his mistakes.

It will be interesting to hear what Roberts says in the coming days and weeks about A-Rod’s allegations.  They are major allegations.  They are cries of blame her, not so much me, and they sound desperate.  He sounds scared.  This little thing he had going as baseball’s savior is over.  He’s just as dirty as the rest of them.

That doesn’t make him a bad person.  But it does make him stupid.

And Alex, if you’re reading this: We’re not nearly as naive as you think.

Good luck getting yourself out of this one.

Photo: AP/ESPN

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