Now They're Scared...

Since it's been three years since they submitted or considered a budget, it seems United States Senators have a lot of time on their hands and not enough to keep them busy. They have apparently spent some of that time reading the sports page and have just learned that National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell has handed down fines and suspensions in light of a recently revealed bounty-for-injury scheme amongst the defensive players and coaches of the New Orleans Saints.

So Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is going to chair a hearing of a Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee that's going to "put on the record what sports leagues and teams at the professional and collegiate levels are doing to make sure that there’s no place in athletics for these pay-to-maim bounties." Witnesses from the National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the National Collegeiate Athletic Association who have real jobs will be asked to take time off from them so they can reassure the United States Senate that they think paying players extra money to seriously hurt each other is a bad idea and will not be tolerated.

Sen. Durbin did not mention calling any witnesses from the Women's National Basketball Association or other professional and amateur women's sports leagues. It would be wrong to infer from this that the senator is OK with female athletes maiming each other for extra money, I am sure. It might be less wrong to infer that the senator believes that the amount of attention he can draw to himself from including those organizations would be enough less that he does not want to endure the actual work that might be involved in listening to their testimony.

While speaking on the floor of the United States Senate to announce the hearing, Sen. Durbin said he himself had a bum knee from his own high school football playing days. He offered no similar causative event that would explain his bum head.