Behind the curtain

Osborne takes special interest in baseball's steroid rage

I get C-SPAN on my cable system, but seldom watch it. No question, I should tune in more often, learn about my government at work. But it's tough viewing. True story: A few years back, I was asked to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee when it was briefly (and heaven knows why) looking into anti-trust implications in the college bowl system. I was one of 16 "witnesses" called by the committee. We spoke in four-man volleys over an eight-hour day. It remains the longest day of my life. I didn't fall asleep, but several senators appeared to nod off. (The subject matter may have had something to do with this. Nobody's re-election hinged on who got into the Sugar Bowl.). Bottom line, democracy is a beautiful thing, but on a daily basis, it's as boring as white rice.

But there's a hearing I would pay to watch, should it ever take place. Last week several members of Congress wrote and signed a letter asking Major League Baseball to adopt a mandatory drug testing policy to help eliminate steroid use.

On this issue, baseball needs help. Players are too big, home runs too plentiful, public trust is ebbing. Whether mandatory testing will help is another matter. Track and field has had mandatory testing for years and nobody believes that track athletes are universally clean because there are witch doctors who find or create drugs that can't be detected by testing protocols now in place. Baseball would have the same problem.

But enough of that.

One of the authors of the proposal was Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., much better known as the former head football coach at the University of Nebraska, where his team won the national championship three out of four years between 1994 and '97. In the letter, Osborne says, "Having been in athletics for a long period of time, I saw the devastation steroids can cause."

I, for one, cannot wait to hear Osborne detail this devastation. Anyone who pays attention knows that steroids abound in football and have for many years, NFL, college and high school. It has long been suspected by opponents and journalists, but never proven, that Nebraska was a hornet's nest of steroid use, turning willing, hard-working farm boys into 300-pound monsters who could bench 550 pounds and run the 40 in five seconds flat.

This much is certain: Nebraska ran a machine-like strength program long before any other school. The Cornhuskers' training table was more scientifically researched and arranged better than any other in the country, so much so that one rival Big 12 coach once told me "It's almost like East Germany, the way they do things there."

This much is also certain: Osborne is a solid, talented man who believed in the essential goodness of young men, thought of himself as a preacher in headphones and, it should never be understated, hated to lose football games. He was willing to cut Faustian deals to get his national titles. Early in his career, his very good teams, full of cornfed Academic All-Americas, couldn't beat Barry Switzer's Oklahoma teams, which pushed the admissions envelope to enroll athletes. Osborne later followed suit, bringing many good players and bad apples (i.e. Lawrence Phillips) to Lincoln. The price? He won titles and spent more time in courtrooms.

Does this mean that Osborne oversaw the distribution of steroids? Nope. It means he showed he would stretch the rules to win. Do I think Nebraska players were using steroids? Absolutely. I think players almost everywhere are getting some help in becoming big and fast and staying that way. I think it's possible Nebraska did it better than most.

We'll see. I want to hear Osborne talk. I want to see behind the curtain.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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