Editorial: Steroids in sports

Friday, Dec. 14, 2007 | 7:25 a.m.

The long-awaited report on the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball was released Thursday and had few surprises. The use of performance-enhancing drugs is widespread, and the sport has done a poor job of policing itself.

The report linked more than 80 past and present players, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire, to steroid use.

"Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades - commissioners, club officials, the players' association and players - shares to some extent the responsibility for the steroids era," said the report's author, former Sen. George Mitchell. "There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on."

Baseball has long turned a blind eye toward drug use in the game, and Commissioner Bud Selig promised action. He should follow Mitchell's recommendations.

Mitchell called for the sport to set up an independent drug-testing agency and urged management and the players to work together to clean up the game.

That could be a tall order given the contentious labor relations in the sport, but it is necessary. Mitchell noted that the athletes are role models.

"Hundreds of thousands of our children are using" performance-enhancing drugs, he said. "Every American, not just baseball fans, ought to be shocked into action by that disturbing truth."

Every professional sports league should pay attention. It is beyond time for sports to clean up its act.