Selig’s “list of 104” shows his complicity in steroid mess

As Yahoo’s Josh Peter points out, the old Budster, as MLB commissioner, knew a lot more about steroid use a lot earlier than he’d like to admit:

While Mark McGwire was playing the clumsy Cardinal at the 2005 Congressional hearings, commissioner Bud Selig proved an artful dodger, managing to avoid disclosing that Major League Baseball had seen a list of 104 players who federal authorities believed had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. …

In early 2004, after records were seized that federal authorities believed could identify which players had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the so-called “survey testing” in 2003, MLB and the players’ union cut a deal: MLB postponed any testing of the 104 players until the union notified them that they had tested positive in 2003 and were vulnerable to government search warrants. …

After the 2005 Congressional hearings, MLB had yet another opportunity to disclose it had seen the list of 104 players who federal authorities believed had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. (The number differed from MLB's contention that up to 83 players had tested positive because federal authorities used stricter standards for positives than MLB, according to a source familiar with the results.)

Baseball was less than forthcoming with lawmakers in September 2005, when a congressional committee launched an investigation into whether first baseman Rafael Palmeiro had committed perjury at hearings in March of the same year. The image of Palmeiro pointing his finger at congressmen and forcefully denying under oath that he had taken steroids was startling; so was the news only six weeks later that he tested positive for stanozolol.

That said, when does the NFL get put under the Congressional klieg lights? Ignoring the fact that Congress has more important work to do than monitor professional sports this tightly, why isn’t steroid use in the NFL getting scrutiny?