After the recent news about Alex Rodriguez’s alleged dip in the pool known as PEDs today, I was inundated with tweet after tweet and Facebook status after Facebook status of how much A-Rod is a “fraud”, he should retire, and he should void his contract and get out. I read bleeding heart statuses that went on for sentences long declaring A-Rod a stain in the Yankees’ “proud history” (let’s not talk about the wife swapping, Steve Howe, Babe Ruth wild escapades and Mickey Mantle taking a steroid-filled needle in 1961 among others, but okay) though the same people said very little about events that are considerably worse in comparison. I even read tweets that he should be “dumped in the Hudson.” Killed… because he took drugs.

Athlete worship in many ways has gotten out of control. We all see a ridiculous amount of double standards presented in the media every day and, sadly, a great number of people eat it all up without any discernible thought. Worse, many of the double standards put a mask over legitimate issues that have not been dealt with in any capacity, like the rise of domestic violence and DUIs in sports, especially in baseball.

Well, let’s pull off that mask and expose some of these athletes for who they are: flawed human beings who have done worse things than take drugs to play baseball.

Here is my intro that will accompany all my articles of this series:

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Currently, in baseball, there is no current player hated more than Alex Rodriguez. Due to double standards, his upward stupidity, and a host of other factors, Alex Rodriguez has taken the greatest fall than any other player in baseball currently due to the drug culture in Major League Baseball. However, despite numerous players in the same sport and different ones have used PEDs and have gotten caught, confessed, or mask, A-Rod has unfairly taken on the heat of hundreds of athletes all across the sports realm who have done the same thing, if not, worse.

Rodriguez isn’t exactly the most redeemable character himself. Aside from drug usage, he has cheated on his wife, gotten a divorce, played poker, and did other questionable things on the field that got him more dishonor than others due to his fame and money. However, morally, the people I will be listing have committed actions that a reasonable person would consider to be more dangerous and morally reprehensible than what A-Rod has done… unless you think taking HGH is morally worse than hitting a vulnerable person (DV), putting yourself in position to potentially hurt or kill another living thing (DUI), or actually killing someone.

#1: Jason Kidd

• Google “Jason Kidd domestic violence”: 72,800 results
• Google “Jason Kidd DUI”: 136,000 results
• Google “Alex Rodriguez steroids”: 546,000 results

In January 2001, according to the Smoking Gun, Jason Kidd was arrested in Arizona for punching Joumana in the mouth during an argument. Despite taking 6 months of anger management classes as a result of his assault plea, Joumana and Jason got a divorce in February 2007. Joumana alleges Jason of cheating on her with multiple women as well as accusing him of “years of physical abuse”, even while pregnant. Speaking about one of the cases of abuse, she also claimed that Jason “broke her rib and damaged her hearing by smashing her head into the console of a car.”

In July 2012, according to ESPN, Jason Kidd was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor of driving while intoxicated. A police spokesman said Jason was involved in a single-car accident in which his car struck a telephone pole and went into the woods around 2 a.m.