Posted By:
davidcyclebackIt is obvious to me that MLB can't, or wouldn't, handle its drug problems by its lonesome. In fact, it was the 2005 Congressional hearings that lead to the current, though meager drug tests and punishments. I'm confident the Players Union would not have agreed to any testing or punishment if it hadn't been for the Congressional intervention.
I thought a writer put it well when he said Fehr should spend less time protecting the drug users and more time protecting the players who don't use drugs. The more he protects drug users and drug use, the harder he makes it for players who don't want to use drugs. Blocking HGH testing doesn't help players who don't use HGH. It helps those who use. In fact, it punishes the non-users, as as it allows (some would say promotes) more competitors to cheat and put the non-users at even more of a disadvantage.
I remember a couple of years ago when someone wrote that the problem with Fehr is he thinks he's a civil rights lawyer, when he's supposed to be an entertainment lawyer. Sometimes I think the writer hit is on the head-- such as when Fehr is willing to ruin the public reputations of all his innocent clients to protect a cheat. For an entertainment lawyer representing a movie star or singer or athlete, protecting reputation and pubic persona is a big part of the job. The entertainment lawyer isn't doing his job if he lays waste to the reputations of his clients.