He's right.

It's the selective persecution. All over track and baseball, never touches Football or Basketball.

Selective listening. I've heard him reference "most of the NFL" being on HGH multiple times.

The problem is that Dan blithely excuses NFL doping as an extension of the grand bloodsport of America's Game, but he treats doping in baseball or cycling or track or basically anything else as a crime against humanity that needs to be exposed and punished to the full extent of his hysteria.

There's also the lamentable but utterly predictable fact that he's never uttered the words "HGH" and "NBA" in the same sentence.

I've never heard it brought up with the NBA, and that's a great point made by others in the thread. I have no reason to defend Bernstein, and I'm not. But I also hate when people create their own bad narrative against him, becoming hypocrites.

As far as the NBA and NFL are concerned, of course many guys are doped. Nobody cares because those sports aren't as important as baseball which connects us with the past and the history of our country.

As far as the NBA and NFL are concerned, of course many guys are doped. Nobody cares because those sports aren't as important as baseball which connects us with the past and the history of our country.

It's more about the records. Baseball builds up certain records as being important. Track certainly does. I don't even know if there is a single meaningful NFL record out there. When all these QB passing records have been beaten lately most people just shrug and move on.

Track is boring. That gives you time to concentrate on just how artificially enhanced the participants are.

This article should have been written already about the NFL, exchange Bolt for any NFL player.


http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/08/12/ ... u-know-it/

Anyway, a further point is the comparison between the athletes of today and those of the past. No educated person could possibly think man has evolved in two generations. So I think when they say "today's athletes are superior", they really aren't thinking it through. There are more people. And more of them participate in recreational sports. But if you could bring Jim Thorpe or Jesse Owens forth in a time machine and gave them whatever Bolt is taking, they might well run a 9.6.

I think that may be true when it comes to true physical evolution and such but there is more to it than just the PED's. Training, diet, preparation, recovery from injury and the athletes focus on said sport/event/whatever is superior to what was the norm in the 1930's.

The athletes baseline physical talents may not have changed by leaps and bounds but the "other stuff" has.

Anyway, a further point is the comparison between the athletes of today and those of the past. No educated person could possibly think man has evolved in two generations. So I think when they say "today's athletes are superior", they really aren't thinking it through. There are more people. And more of them participate in recreational sports. But if you could bring Jim Thorpe or Jesse Owens forth in a time machine and gave them whatever Bolt is taking, they might well run a 9.6.

Yeah, sure that's right. But whoever was here would enjoy the current methods. It's like arguing that Terry's Peeps is a better communicator than Ronald Reagan because Reagan didn't have a Twitter account.

It's the selective persecution. All over track and baseball, never touches Football or Basketball.

Anyway, a further point is the comparison between the athletes of today and those of the past. No educated person could possibly think man has evolved in two generations. So I think when they say "today's athletes are superior", they really aren't thinking it through. There are more people. And more of them participate in recreational sports. But if you could bring Jim Thorpe or Jesse Owens forth in a time machine and gave them whatever Bolt is taking, they might well run a 9.6.

I see two sides to this: At the 2011 Illinois High School finals, the winning time for class 1A was 10.79 in the 100M, that time would have placed 6th in a field of 6 in the 1936 Olympics that Owens won. The winning time for the 3A of 10.49 would have won a Bronze in that event. Aside from better training, nutrition, equipment, technology in footwear and surfaces, evolution has to be a factor as well.

Conversely, give Owens or Ralph Metcalfe access to the same training, equipment, nutrition and technology, and I'm sure that their times would improve.

"There is another place where too many still exist, however, that is as intellectually dishonest as it is willfully ignorant, where convenient blind spots and emotionaI neediness cause otherwise intelligent people to create fairylands of childish naiveté." - Dan Bernstein

And THIS from the charter member of the Theo Epstein ALS Club-Chicago Branch!

As for his assertion that Usain Bolt's achievements aren't exactly "human" , he perhaps should consider his choice of words with a bit more care. His own inner lunkhead is showing, imo.

Ben was Canadian in both the common and CBOT meaning of the word.

I think the biggest difference in athletes has been the sheer numbers of people who try to play and the full time nature of sports. In the 1940s, there just weren't that many people who wanted to play basketball, so the best wouldn't be quite as good. Also, many of them still, even once professional, had to have other jobs. Not to mention, they had to go off to war or work on the farm and you just aren't getting the level of practice that they do now.

The question is when did the generation of players in any sport become "full time". I would guess in the NBA it is the generation of Magic and Bird(basketball was on television, the NCAA tournament existed, and the NBA was at least somewhat popular). It's later for football, and earlier for baseball.

I agree with this for the most part. However, I believe the effect of the population boom on the quality of sports is mitigated, to at least some degree, by the myriad choices available to people. And not simply among sports, but pastimes in general. For example, Lipid appears to be a big, strong fellow. Perhaps we have our generation's Al Oerter right here among us, but he was lost to Track and Field via his obsession with Halo. Or the Eagles.

Would you believe Bernsy got mentioned this morning...on ESPN Radio's "The Herd with Colin Cowherd", simulcast on ESPNU, DIRECTV 208?

Would you believe Bernsy got mentioned this morning...on ESPN Radio's "The Herd with Colin Cowherd", simulcast on ESPNU, DIRECTV 208?