LeBron, Pujols, Tebow, Tiger: What If They Aren’t Clean?

Let me get this out of the way first.  I have no reason to believe any of these athletes are on steroids or performance enhancing drugs.  In fact,I enjoy watching many of these athletes because they seem to be doing things the “right” way.

Major League Baseball has been hit with a PR nightmare the past couple of years thanks to high profile players getting busted with PEDs like A-Rod and Man-Ram.  Even though Major League Baseball survived big names getting caught cheating, some think Albert Pujols is the player that baseball should rally around because he is clean.  This leads me to wonder which star athlete would be more damaging to their sport if they were busted with steroids: Tiger Woods, LeBron james, Tim Tebow or Albert Pujols? The obvious answer seems to be Woods, but I think it is a very close race. 

Woods has bulked up big time over the years and could you imagine how big of a nightmare it would be for T.V. ratings if Woods was on the juice? I am a firm believer that athletes can get big without cheating and Woods is one of the most competitive athletes I have ever seen in sports.  There are many fans that watch golf just for Tiger so that sport would take a huge drop in ratings if this ever happened. I know that there is no way I would be as interested in golf if Tiger was no longer a part of the game. Woods has earned almost $900 million in prize money, endorsements, and appearance fees during his 13-year career so he has to be number one in this debate.

James is a physical specimen listed at 6-8, 250lbs. He has been a man-child since his high school days so there is no reason to believe he is anything more than a person that was blessed with a huge build and great motor to get bigger and better.  Major League Baseball is the one sport that everybody mentions with steroids.  However, you can’t convince me that every basketball player is clean.  I trust NBA commissioner David Stern and how he runs his league, but the NBA’s popularity would drop dramatically if James was ever busted for steroids.

Tim Tebow is one of the best college football player ever.   If he wins another Heisman Trophy and another BCS National Championship, you have to consider him one of the best college athletes ever, period.  There have been plenty of college athletes that have been busted for steroids over the years, but the face of college football would tarnish Florida’s dominant run under coach Urban Meyer.  Tebow is a great ambassador for the sport off-the- field and he has a very clean image, but athletes have fooled us before.

Albert Pujols is having a dominant, MVP season for the St. Louis Cardinals.  He batted .332 with 32 homers and 87 RBI at the all-star break.  Former Atlanta Braves third baseman Terry Pendleton won the NL MVP in 1991, batting .319 with 22 homers and 86 RBI.  Yes, the times have changed in baseball, but Pujols is on pace to possibly win the triple crown.  I would put Pujols second on this list because could Major League Baseball really survive the biggest star in the game getting caught with performance enhancing drugs just like A-ROD and Manny Ramirez did? If Pujols cheated this whole time, which current player would you consider clean? Like Tebow, Pujols is a great ambassador  for the game off-the-field so I will give him the benefit of the doubt. While I believe that these four athletes all are telling the truth and are clean athletes, it is an interesting debate.  I would list Woods, Pujols, Tebow and James in order of the athlete that would be the most damaging to their sport if it ever came out that they were using performance enhancing drugs. Here is hoping this never happens.