NFL Track And Field

When the dust settles over Marion Jones' admission that she used steroids, the track and field authorities will treat her the way Stalin treated his opponents: They'll make her disappear and pretend she never existed.

Jones' name will be completely wiped from the record books, and the next time the International Olympic Committee prints an official account of the Sydney Olympics, it will be as if the woman who won three gold medals and two bronze medals hadn't been there at all. Even the women who medaled as Jones' relay teammates will have their accomplishments wiped from the record books.

That's not the way American sports leagues do things. Shawne Merriman was busted by the NFL for using steroids last year and was suspended for four games, but if you turn to Page 681 of the 2007 NFL Record & Fact Book, his name is listed right there as the 2006 leader in sacks.

Why the different approaches? Why do international sports pretend their steroid users never existed, while American leagues just suspend them and move on? If anything, the NFL should be harder on Merriman than the IOC is on Jones, as Merriman was caught by the NFL's own drug testing program, while Jones was only caught by the legal system.

I don't know the answer, but I know which approach I like better: The American sports leagues. I watched Marion Jones win the 100 meters and I watched Shawne Merriman get 17 sacks and I watched Mark McGwire hit 70 homers, and I don't want to read a record book that treats my memories as fake. Jones may be a cheater, but she won five medals, and no amount of revisionist history can change that.

Bob Hayes, the great sprinter who was called "the Bullet" when he dominated the 100 meters at the 1964 Olympics and who later became a Pro Bowl wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, has been lying in an unmarked grave in Jacksonville since his death five years ago, the Jacksonville Times-Union has reported.

"It really hurts, with all that he's done as a citizen and his reputation in Jacksonville," said City Councilwoman Glorious Johnson, who was a big fan of his while growing up on the Eastside. "We could have cared more for where they laid the body to rest."...

The family says there are plans to move the casket into a mausoleum, yet five years after Hayes' death the site remains barren.

Hayes' life deteriorated after his athletic career ended, and he spent time in prison for delivery of narcotics. But Hayes has such a unique place in American sports history -- he's the only athlete with a gold medal and a Super Bowl ring -- that it's a real shame that there's no place for fans to go to pay their respects.

On a day that the United States had two unexpected winners of big horse races -- Chad Johnson showing a man can beat a horse at Cincinnati's River Downs race track and Rags to Riches showing a female can beat a male at the Belmont Stakes -- the United Kingdom also had a horse racing upset.

Florian Holginger finished 11 minutes before the first horse to win the annual Man versus Horse Marathon in Wales. The Marathon -- which at 22 miles is a bit shorter than a standard human-only marathon -- is a sporting event that started the way so many great things start, as an argument at a bar:

The event started in 1980, when local landlord Gordon Green overheard a discussion between two men in his pub, the Neuadd Arms. One man suggested that over a significant distance across country, man was equal to any horse. Green decided that the challenge should be tested in full public view, and organised the first event.

As it turns out, the vast majority of the time, the horse is superior. Holginger is only the second man to beat all the horses in the 28-year history of the event. So congratulations to Florian Holginger and Chad Johnson for showing yesterday that man can beat horse even at horse's own game. Our whole species thanks you, gentlemen.

(That picture isn't from the Man versus Horse Marathon. I'm not sure what's going on in that picture, actually, but it looks like that man might be racing that horse through a river or something.)

The British sprinter Dwain Chambers, who was banned from track and field for taking THG, is back in the news again, this time for saying the scientists who help athletes cheat with performance-enhancing drugs will always be ahead of the scientists who conduct drug tests.

So now is a good time to catch up with Chambers, who is currently a wide receiver for the Hamburg Sea Devils of NFL Europa. And there's bad news. Despite his reported 4.19 speed in the 40-yard dash, Chambers has done next to nothing for the Sea Devils; as best as I can tell from the hard-to-navigate NFL Europa web site, Chambers has yet to catch a pass this year.

And that serves as a good reminder that there's a whole lot more than speed involved in playing wide receiver. Sometimes during the NFL scouting combine you get the sense that it's just a track meet with some football drills mixed in, but all the speed in the world isn't going to turn a guy who can't catch and can't cut into an NFL receiver.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have invited 28 players to their minicamp this weekend, and when it's time for wind sprints, one of them can easily outrun the others. Justin Gatlin, the former Olympic 100-meter gold medalist who is banned from international track and field competitions because of his role in a drug scandal, is trying to earn a roster spot with Tampa Bay.

"I've got the speed thing down, now I have to learn my routes," said Gatlin, who is trying out a receiver.

Pure speed is great, but I have serious doubts about whether Gatlin will have the skill necessary to reach the NFL. I also have serious doubts about whether commissioner Roger Goodell will let it happen. The last thing Goodell wants to do is perpetuate the idea that the Olympics have more stringent standards about drugs than the NFL does, and although there might be some problems with both Tampa Bay and the union, I could see Goodell doing all he can to stand in the way of Gatlin getting into the league.

Having said that, it would be fun to see one of the fastest men in the world on the football field. For that reason, I'm hoping he at least gets to play in a preseason game.

Previously at FanHouse:
Justin Gatlin, World's Fastest Man, Tries Out With Texans
Justin Gatlin's Tryout with Texans: What's Up With That?
Will Justin Gatlin Lead the NFL in Kickoff Returns in 2007?
Cardinals Work Out World's Fastest Man