A Lesson From Shoeless Joe

November, 1985. Philadelphia Flyers goalie Pelle Lindbergh is killed in an automobile accident. He was drunk the night of his death.

January, 1986. New England Patriots coach Raymond Berry reveals that several Patriots players have drug problems and that the team will undertake mandatory drug testing.

February, 1986. NBA commissioner David Stern announces that three-time All-Star Michael Ray Richardson is banned from playing in the NBA for at least two years. Richardson admits to having a cocaine problem despite twice going through the league-sanctioned drug rehabilitation center.

February, 1986. Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth gives 11 players the choice of fines or suspensions for testimony they gave in a drug trafficking case last summer.

As the young boy said to Shoeless Joe Jackson after the baseball star was implicated in the 1919 Black Sox gambling scandal, "Say it ain't so, Joe."

While neither the players, the owners, or the leagues are solely to blame for the problem, each makes its contribution. Obviously, the players are most responsible because they are the ones causing the problem. But, as the Richardson case demonstrates, the leagues and owners are not doing enough to solve the problem.

At my high school, every athlete had to sign an "athletic policy," which was a pledge not to drink alcohol, smoke, or take drugs. Anyone caught breaking the policy would be kicked off the team.

Of course, most people ignored the policy. And very few people were kicked off their teams.

We had football players playing drunk, soccer players and track team members getting stoned before meets and games. Almost no one was "caught." Many played very well when they were stoned, and the coaches never knew.

Although the athletic policy was not obeyed, the athletes should not have been held to higher standards than the rest of the school. It is not clear that we should monitor drug use by athletes when we don't check such usage by poets, actors, politicians, and the rest of society.

In 1975, Olympic distance runner Steve Prefontaine was killed in a drunk driving accident. Atlanta Hawks guard Terry Furlow died in 1980 after a drug problem. The 1983 Pan Am Games were marred by the departure of several U.S. team members who left after Games officials announced they would perform drug tests on athletes.

Radio talk show host Larry King commented last week that he's not angry at the athletes who use drugs. He feels sorry for them that the pressures of their jobs have driven them to that point.

But most people are not so sympathetic. Instead of feeling sorry for the athletes, the trend now is to condemn them because--the argument goes--their performances suffer and athletes shirk their responsibility as role models for America's youth.

However, the Patriots' drug problem was not at all evident in their play. A team that wasn't supposed to make it to the playoffs made it to the Super Bowl.

And before Stern banned Richardson, he was at the top of his game. Richardson was second in the NBA in steals, and was averaging seven assists per game this season. Judging from his play, the average fan could not have known that he was addicted to cocaine.

Even if drugs do not significantly affect performance, however, the question of whether athletes have a responsibility as role models is still important.

Last week, Ueberroth gave 11 players a little slap on the wrist for their drug use. But kids will still want to hit like Dave Parker and pitch like Joaquin Andujar.

Kids emulate athletes for their physical accomplishments, not for their lifestyles.

So athletes may not be encouraging drug use.

But they may still have a responsibility to discourage such use. A sports star has enough influence with kids in a community to affect their attitudes toward drugs.

In 1920, when the Black Sox scandal was exposed after years of underground sports gambling, the boy asked Joe Jackson, "It ain't true, is it Joe?"

Jackson replied, "Yes, I'm afraid it is."