Don't you have something better to do?

Am I the only one who feels like the government is overstepping their boundries when it comes to sports?

First, we have to deal with the headache that is steroids and baseball and the never-ending and oft painstaking process of "cleaning up the game."

I can remember so clearly the summer of '98. Two men, one captivating chase for immortality. Each day I would come home from a Little Leauge game or practice to see what McGwire or Sosa had managed to do that day.

As much as I remember the excitement of the chase for sports most elusive and cherised record, I also remember it being the last summer the game was pure to me.

In the decade that has followed, I have grown accustomed to the fact that cheating and lying is a part of the games I love, but today it has become to much. It drives me nuts that when you go to the paper or TV today, before any mention of the game on field, you get the frustrating commentary of the mistakes being made off of it.

I fail to understand why a senator from Pennsylvania needs to investigate whether or not one professional football team was videotaping another. The NFL kicked Bellicheck's ass with an unprecedented fine, is someone going to have to go to jail over this too? Then, the other day, congress said they want to begin investigating what is going on with horse racing!

I guess my point is this.

Our economy is crap right now. That is not being political, it is just seeing that gas is rising five cents a day with no end in sight. We are in a war that is costing the country billions and the plan for the future in Iraq is as cloudy now as it has ever been. The rug, proverbial and in many cases literal, is being pulled out from many.

Use your time, energy, and investigative skills on these problems and the countless others that plauge our country far more the grainy videotaping of defensive hand signals.

Commisioners of professional sports, who I will be the first to criticize for some of the dumb decisions they make (I still want to punch David Stern in the face for ruining the Suns lone real shot at a championship), have the best intentions for their sports in spite of themselves.

So Arlen, how about a little more time on Capitol Hill and a little less time on the sidelines. You are not helping.