Summer of Scandal

Scandals these days aren't limited to Hollywood and Washington. All you have to do is turn to the sports section.

• Michael Vick, Atlanta Falcons quarterback, pleaded not guilty to federal charges of allegedly holding dogfighting matches on his Virginia property. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hasn't decided whether to suspend Vick or to put him on a leave of absence, but he did bar the quarterback from attending training camp while a league investigation is underway. With a court date set for November, it's unlikely Vick will play this season. Even if he does, animal rights activists would be in his face and Atlanta's football fans don't want anything to do with him. Would anyone want Vick if he were acquitted?
• The FBI is investigating claims that former NBA referee Tim Donaghy allegedly bet on games, including the ones he officiated. Though this is a black eye for the NBA, we might get answers as to why certain teams win and others don't. Or why certain players get calls and others don't.
• The Tour de France? Let's not go there.

The longest-running current sports controversy involves Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants. He has 753 home runs, two shy of tying the all time career home run record set by Henry Aaron. Unless you live in San Francisco, no one seems too thrilled at the prospect of an allegedly juiced-up ballplayer taking aim at a cherished record once held by Babe Ruth.

Bonds has been dogged by allegations of steroid use for several years now, but there's never been any real proof that he took anything to enhance himself. And if he did, well, baseball certainly missed the boat on that one, didn't they? There's only been a drug-testing policy since 2004.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig faced the Shakespearean question of whether he should go to San Francisco to witness Bonds' history-making homer. Selig did make the trip, which was unusual since no other commissioner witnessed in person Roger Maris' 61st homer in 1961 and Aaron's 715th in 1974. Aaron, now an executive with the Atlanta Braves, has said he would not attend any of Bonds' games.

Records are made to be broken. Like it or not, Bonds will get his record, probably inside the friendly confines of AT&T Park in San Francisco. And we'll all be watching it on Fox or ESPN.

There are no heroes any more. We have athletes who behave like thugs. Police officers who think they are the law. Politicians who ignore the needs of the people. Soldiers who go to war defending the ego of a delusional president instead of the country they represent.

All we have to believe in is ourselves.