Unless you have been living under a rock the last couple of months, you have heard a lot of news about the Mitchell Report on steroid use in professional baseball. You have also heard about the Congressional hearings on Major League Baseball that have taken place and will be taking place over the coming weeks. 

You may have also heard about Senator Arlen Specter and Congress's interest in the NFL's destruction of the tapes shot by the New England Patriots during the signal stealing scandal which took place against the Jets.

Now, with all of this news circulating about Congressional hearings on steroid use in Major League Baseball and now the Federal Government's interest in the NFL, no one is asking the most logical question of all. Since when has the Federal Government taken over control of professional sports in America?

There are already NFL and MLB commissioners in place. There have already been testing policies implemented, fines and suspensions handed down and other thorough investigations done by the NFL and MLB into the use of steroids and the "Spygate" tapes. Do the NFL and MLB really need government intervention into their professional sporting leagues? Do we, as citizens and sports fans, want to see our Federal Government taking over control of professional sports?

Let's just look at some quick facts. There have been 3,943 soldiers killed in Iraq in a war that is nearly four years old and is still showing no signs of an end. There was a net loss of 17,000 jobs last month; home foreclosures have jumped 90 percent in the past year and our economy has slowed to a one-percent growth rate last quarter, all clearly signaling the very real threat of a major recession.

Healthcare costs continue to rise at an average rate of seven percent per year. Worker's wages rose 3.7 percent last year. With an inflation rate of 2.6 percent that indicates a real wage increase of only 1.1 percent.

Our fourth grader's test scores ranked 12th in the world. The test scores of our eighth graders ranked 14th, showing an obvious decline in the quality of our education system. There are over 12 million illegal immigrants in America right now. These are just a few of the many serious issues our country is facing at the moment. 

Now surely and unequivocally, Congress and the Senate must have more important things to worry about than what happened to Bill Belichick's tapes and who is lying between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee.

As a sports fan, I am concerned about government's recent interest in professional sports. As a citizen, I am utterly concerned that my government is spending time worry about professional sports when there are far more important problems they need to be addressing.