"I'm not here to talk about the past."

Mark McGwire before Congress (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

This entry's title is the answer Mark McGwire used over and over to the question, "Have you ever used steroids?"

It's also a clever answer to the question, "Do you know of any players who have used steroids?"

I'm not making any assumptions about anyone or any sport, but the temptation for any pro athlete or aspiring pro to use performance-enhancing drugs is and will be strong precisely because performance is a professional athlete's primary means of income. The purity of the game can easily take a backseat to the need to pay the bills.