Braun suspended but not for long enough

                                                                                                                               AP
Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun speaks during a press conference
at spring training on Feb. 24, 2012, in Phoenix.

     Here we go again.
     Milwauee Brewers star Ryan Braun has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the 2013 season and postseason, Major League Baseball announced on Monday.
     Braun, the National League MVP in 2011, will miss at least 65 games for violating the league’s drug program and labor contract.
     It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
     Braun’s suspension comes less than two years after the former University of Miami star reportedly tested positive for an elevated level of testosterone in his urine in October 2011. Braun appealed the 50-game suspension he was facing at the time and became the first MLB player to challenge a drug suspension and win, after questions were raised about how his sample was originally mishandled.
     Despite the fact that Braun won his appeal, his name was never truly cleared.
     Time after time, Braun denied any use of performance-enhancing drugs to the media and maintained his innocence throughout the entire process. Earlier this year, he claimed that his relationship with Tony Bosch, the operator of Biogenesis, the Florida clinic linked to providing PEDs to more than a dozen MLB players, was purely to use Bosch as a consultant during his appeal for the positive test in 2011.
     “We won, because the truth is on my side,” Braun said nearly two years ago. “The truth is always relevant, and at the end of the day, the truth prevailed.”
     Yet, as his 65-game suspension was announced Monday, the 29-year-old didn’t fight it. In fact, he publicly accepted his punishment, stating that he has “made some mistakes” and is “willing to accept the consequences of those actions.”
     It sounds like a much different tune than the one he was singing in 2011. What changed between two years ago and now?
     Presumably, the MLB had much more evidence on Braun this time around. So much so that instead of putting up the slightest fight, Braun caved and accepted his punishment. Odds are nobody will ever know the exact evidence MLB had against the 2007 NL Rookie of the Year, which will remain private as a part of the deal Braun struck with the league.
     The most troubling part of the ordeal isn’t that he was accused of taking PEDs in 2011 or that it occured during the season in which he won MVP. It isn’t that he was caught and suspended this year. And although sometimes the cover-up is worse than the crime, it isn’t that Braun lied about it, either.
     The most troubling part is the punishment levied by the MLB. 65 games. The rest of a season in which the Brewers sit in last place in the NL Central and have no hopes of making the playoffs.
     Essentially Braun gets the rest of the year off to go do whatever he wants. Sure, it’ll cost him about $3 million of his $8.5 million salary this season, but what’s that to a guy who has already made nearly $20 million in his career and is set to receive $105 million by 2020?
     It’s not much more than a slap on the wrist in the big scheme of things. An expensive one, but a slap nonetheless.
     If Major League Baseball really wanted to rid itself of performance-enhancing drug use, then the punishments must get serious. Even the players agree.
     “I talked to a lot of the guys and we think the penalties aren’t harsh enough, really. They should step up the penalties even more,” Mariners pitcher Joe Saunders told the Associated Press on Monday. “That will really set the tell-tale sign that if you cheat and do get caught, you’re going to lose a lot of money. Braun’s deal that he made or whatever, it’s going to last 65 games. To me, it’s not enough. Next year he’s making even more money. I think it should have been a year’s suspension, at least.”
     The MLB prides itself way too much on history and its legacy, so there’s no way commissioner Bud Selig or anyone else in charge will take away home run records or MVP awards, although they probably should.        Realistically, that probably wouldn’t help either.
     Consider Lance Armstrong, the former 7-time Tour de France winner, who later admitted to PED use and had his titles taken away. He still considers himself a champion.
     And many of the players in the MLB consider Barry Bonds as the all-time home run leader, despite Bonds lying to a grand jury about his alleged steroid use.
     For history’s sake, these marks should be made blank. For the sake of the sport, more drastic measures are required.
     The bottom line is the only punishment that will affect players in the future is simple: money.
     Sending Braun on a 65-game vacation during a lost season won’t change anything. Make him repay some of the contract money or bonuses he earned while using performance-enhancing drugs, or give him a longer suspension than what’s left in a lost season.
     If not, then the message the MLB is trying to send is clear: if you cheat, lie about it and later get caught, the worst that will happen is a short vacation.

Paying NCAA athletes could be troublesome

                                                                                                                                AP
Texas A&M quarterback and former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel
currently faces scrutiny for allegedly profiting off autographed memorabilia.

     With the start of the college football season right around the corner, speculative talks are heating up. Experts are now discussing who will play well, who won’t and who will win the Heisman Trophy, among other things. One topic, which will inevitably come up, is if the NCAA should take a look at paying its athletes.
     During a time in which Johnny Manziel faces scrutiny for allegedly signing autographs and receiving payment for them, perhaps no time is better for discussion than now.
     If the NCAA paid college athletes, would that not get rid of most of its rampant problems dealing with improper benefits and violations?
     It’s a question that the NCAA faces many times a year, and a question that may never have a clear answer.
     The only problem with that? College athletes do get paid.
     There’s no way critics can justify that college athletes don’t get paid when their respective universities provide full scholarships, room and board, book costs, lab fees and whatever else comes with being a college student. However, many advocates for paying players insist that the money the NCAA provides doesn’t cover the necessary needs of living.
     It would be one thing if Manziel or others accused of similar actions actually needed the money they received, but stories of athletes making money off of their fame rarely end in that player finally being able to eat that week.
     Instead, they end up making bad decisions over greed that hurt their schools and themselves.
     Two years ago, Ohio State was put on probation because some athletes from its football team were caught exchanging team memorabilia for free tattoos.
     The following year the Buckeyes went 12-0 but were not bowl eligible because of its infractions from the previous year.
     If the NCAA elects to pay its players, how do they determine how much? If they pay all colleges athletes the same, then what’s stopping someone from seeking even more cash from outside - and illegal - sources because they think they deserve to make more money than their teammates?
     Then again, perhaps the university will pay each player by his value to the team. How then do they reasonably justify paying the star quarterback more money than an offensive lineman, despite the two investing the same amount of time during practice and in games? There’s more trouble to be gained by paying college athletes than if the NCAA keeps the system the way it is.
     Also, critics argue that it’s not fair for players to have to attend college, go to class and adopt a student-athlete lifestyle in the first place before they can turn professional. What the naysayers don’t understand is that nobody is making these players do anything. If you’re the best high school basketball player in the country, there’s nothing that says you have to enroll in college. With the new age requirement nowadays, players can’t jump straight to the NBA ranks, but there are other options. Go play overseas, enter the NBA’s Development League or if being a student-athlete is so unfair, join the job force until you’re old enough to enter the draft.
     Don’t enroll in college and then break NCAA laws by taking money because you don’t think you’re receiving the proper reimbursement.
     Keep in mind, these athletes agreed to cooperate with NCAA rules when they became college students.      It’s not as if there was unreadable fine print that tricked them into that situation. They knew what they were getting into when they signed their Letters of Intent.
     Going to college should be a time in which students of every variety, including athletes, hone their skills and become better at what they choose to do in life.
     If someone wants to become a writer, then they choose to attend college because that experience gives them the best chance at learning how to write. They can find ways to puts words on paper without college and even become a best-selling author, but that’s unlikely to happen without some sort of training.
     For athletes, they should spend their time doing the same thing. Worry about getting better each day, then when their time in college is over, they won’t have to worry about money.