Here we go again.
Last week it was basketball’s Gilbert Arenas brandishing his six-shooter in the locker room. The week before it was football’s Plaxico Burress, receiving a prison sentence for his own private little shoot-out (with himself). The week before that it was golf’s Tiger Woods for his extra-marital escapades. The week before that…who the hell can remember?
Now, of course, baseball’s back in the news, with former home-run “King” Mark McGwire (at least, until his title was taken away by another reputed steroid-user) making the media rounds to “come clean” about his own steroid-use…and his years of denying it. (Of course, it’s just mere coincidence that McGwire’s about to start a new job as a coach for his old team, the St. Louis Cardinals, and could have expected a white-hot media grilling had he not “come clean” before then.)
McGwire’s been crying on TV. He’s apologized to pretty much everybody in America…his family, his fans, his friends, the city of St. Louis, his old teammates, Major League Baseball, the Commissioner of Baseball, etc.
It’s fitting, in a way, that Mark McGwire’s becoming a coach. Because he’s got one of the best PR coaches in the business – former Bush White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and his crisis communications firm – coaching him through all this.
I saw Mark McGwire cry yesterday on ESPN. But I’m not sure these are not crocodile tears; the man’s been guilty of – at the very least – evasion, for years. I heard him say today that he had good years without taking steroids, and bad years while taking steroids. Again, hard to believe, since his greatest years – 1997-1999 – were apparently at the peak of his steroid use. And that brings to mind another question: If he did, indeed, have some bad years while using steroids…why did he continue using them?
To me, the whole thing has been scripted better than any Broadway play. It’s the same old story. Everybody’s sorry afterward…when it’s easy to be sorry, and easy to apologize. As for McGwire, he’s already evaded the truth for years. So why would I believe he’s sincere now?
Actually, I think the one-week-blitz media confessional may indeed be an idea that’s here to stay…but not because it’s a good model. The way things are today with sports stars, it’s a pretty good bet another one will be caught cheating on his wife, or doing drugs, or brandishing guns (or pulling a Plaxico Burress and shooting himself) in the next week or so…to be followed by another scripted “apology.”
And then McGwire’s dog-and-pony show will instantly become old news.