Ban the bums - forever

More than anything else, cheating undermines sports. It's why pro athletes can get away with beating their wives and get nailed for gambling on their own games.

BALCO is under investigation for producing and distributing illegal performance-enhancing drugs. That sucks, but my biggest beef isn't with them. It's with the guys like New York Yankee Jason Giambi and San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds who used these drugs to give them an illegal edge over their competitors.

Bonds is saying he didn't know that the substances his trainer was giving him were steroids. I'm sorry, not even a pro baseball player is dumb enough to not suspect anything when his trainer tells him to "take this stuff, just don't ask me what it is."

Giambi and Bonds, and every other player who admits to steroid use, should be banned from baseball for life. They cheated. They don't deserve to play. Even if Bonds didn't KNOW he was being given steroids, it's his responsibility to find out.

I'd toss Sammy Sosa out of the league, too. He used a corked bat in a game last year and got a slap on the wrist because "he didn't know." Dude, FIND OUT.

There is more to sports than just making money. Former NBA star Charles Barkley got it wrong when he said, "I'm not a role model." Part of the draw so many men feel to enter into sports is the power we the public give to the men of pro sports. Because sports is so powerful over us, pro athletes inherit that power. It's a beautiful thing, really - the tacit companionship these men inherit simply by putting on a jersey and swinging a bat. With that, they also inherit responsibility. Whether they want it or not, they get it when they sign that multi-million-dollar contract they all yearn for.

Cheating at these levels needs to be taken more seriously, and the harshest penalty of all needs to be handed down liberally.

The New York Post got it right this morning: Boot the bum