Big-league steroid use not the real issue

Steroid use by big-league players has to be the worst-kept secret in sports.

Thursday's report naming Roger Clemens and numerous other star athletes was surprising only in the details and pervasiveness of performance enhancing drugs in professional baseball.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig promised quick action on 20 recommendations brought forth by former Sen. George J. Mitchell, including a more independent drug-testing program, more public reporting of results and other points.

Action is long overdue; players should not be expected or allowed to endanger their health in order to be competitive.

But the real issue is not the multi-million-dollar athletes involved in the baseball scandal. They're adults who are capable of making their own decisions and living with the consequences.

The real issue is the message steroid use sends to athletes in college, high school and lower grades.

Young athletes and the parents who push them excessively need to learn the lesson that winning by cheating, especially through the use of dangerous performance-enhancing drugs, isn't winning at all.