Chris Broussard & Rob Parker react to the news that All-Pro wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins will face a six-game suspension in the upcoming 2022 NFL season for being caught using performance-enhancing drugs.
While the ramifications to the Cardinals' season are dire after this announcement, Chris Broussard can't help but wonder why the concern has been more about the damage to the Cardinals' season and not the damage to competitive balance in the NFL. Broussard broadens his point by acknowledging how several other sports like baseball, track and field, and the Olympics see the use of PEDs as a career-ending heinous 'crime' and reason enough to keep an athlete from the Hall of Fame or have their records expunged.
Chris Broussard: "If this were Mookie Betts or Mike Trout or Usain Bolt or a cyclist, it wouldn't be about, 'oh, what is the team or sport going to do without him?' That person, that athlete that violated the PED policy would be vilified. His legacy would be destroyed. Lance Armstrong's legacy is destroyed. Alex Rodriguez has reinvented himself as a broadcaster but, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, they're not in the Hall of Fame. Why the difference? Why in football is it a slap on the wrist and nobody seems to care but in baseball, track and field it is a death sentence to your legacy?"