Back on the blog after a District and State basketball schedule that took me away from the blogosphere. It was all about time.

Meanwhile, somebody discovered that professional athletes “might” be taking human growth hormone and Pac Man Jones runs with a rough crowd. Go figure.

The HGH story centered on a sting operation in Florida that revealed a connection to some NFL players. Then, major leaguer Gary Mathews’ name turned up where it shouldn’t in relationship to a doctor implicated in more bad pharmacy stuff.

The entire athletes-using-chemicals-to-enhance-their-performance story is wearing me down. The discussion has more parts than the “The Ten Commandments.” Does a lifetime ban make sense? We have drunk drivers working on their fifth, sixth, or 10th convictions, behind the wheel where they could kill somebody. We ought to issuing lifetime bans to them.

Instead we’re talking abut guys running around in short pants, playing a kids’ game, and being employed by a private company (although a union shop).

I am not condoning steroid or HGH use. It’s chemically cheating, and I can hardly imagine taking something that would make my head get bigger. Not my brain — my melon. I’m just wondering aloud here.

The lifetime ban, let’s say for a second or third offense, would definitely get some athletes’ attention. But what can we do retroactively in a universe where statistics rule and apples to apples underpins any conversation among generations.

I’ve yet to hear a comprehensive plan that fans like you and I would buy, something that could overcome the inordinate cynicism that pervades professional sports — something along the lines of “Well, they all probably take something.”

I would think “clean” athletes would not only insist on but also lead a campaign to right this rotting, stinking ship because the broad brush used to paint pro athletes usually makes them and their performances suspect, too.

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Boys state basketball hits it Thursday. I’ll try to blog from the games, where lots of local folks will follow Northwest, Central Catholic, Boone Central, Hastings St. Cecilia, Loup City, and St. Edward to Lincoln for what they hope are three days and nights of action. And a Sunday morning headache from a delirium overdose.

Here’s to reasonable weather, great hoops, and time for a leisurely bowl of pasta from the Macaroni Grill or a steak at Granite City.

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