Newest Jet Has Ties to Barry Bonds

Ex-Dolphin heading north

If Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez haven't filled your quotient of steroid tainted New York athletes, you'll love new Jets linebacker Larry Izzo. The longtime Patriot, who won three Super Bowls and has been to three Pro Bowls as a special teamer, is set to testify at Barry Bonds' perjury trial. The trial was scheduled to begin on March 2, but has been postponed indefinitely.

Izzo isn't testifying directly against Bonds, but will share his experiences with Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson. Anderson, who is in prison for refusing to testify, allegedly gave Izzo performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. A court filing outlines Izzo's expected testimony.

"Mr. Izzo will also testify about receiving performance-enhancing substances from Anderson, about instructions from Anderson about how to administer the substances, about the schedule Anderson gave to him for administering the substances, and about what Mr. Anderson told him about the efficacy of those substances.''

Izzo has never admitted to using performance-enhancing substances himself, and has never drawn one iota of the breathless coverage that's met every baseball player who has been painted with the steroid brush. Nor has any ink been spilled wondering if the Patriots Super Bowl wins have been tainted by Izzo and confirmed HGH user Rodney Harrison. You'd think there would be more complaint, given the crushing amount of attention paid to which records should get which asterisks in baseball.  

The NFL doesn't seem to care much, either. The league has suspended several players for criminal offenses well before the cases made their way through courts of law, but Izzo receiving illegal drugs and schedules for taking illegal drugs doesn't cause them to bat an eyebrow.

The biggest question raised by this double-standard is whether football should care more or baseball should care less about steroids in the game.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.

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