Full disclosure: I am a graduate of the University of Georgia, class of 1983. I bleed red and black. It is fair to say I am an avid Georgia Bulldog fan. Nevertheless, I'm quite sure that my school allegiance doesn't color my judgment in this matter, based on the available facts, not emotion. That caveat aside, I will say that it is nothing less than a travesty of justice that Kolton Houston remains ineligible to compete on the football field. And that's not just my admittedly biased opinion. ESPN's Outside the Lines told the basic story, a rather depressing tale of how one young man has been forced by this monopoly that controls every aspect of collegiate sports to pay, and continue to pay, for the mistake of a medical professional made almost four years ago. The NCAA has unchecked power over the lives of people such as Kolton Houston, a young man who reportedly dreamed of wearing the Bulldog uniform since he was four-years-old. And as Lord Acton famously said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Once upon a time, all the way back in 2010 a high school athlete was injected with a forbidden anabolic steroid to facilitate healing from shoulder surgery. No doubt, somebody made a bad judgment call. Compounding an error in judgment into a tragic mistake, the injection went into fat instead of muscle, causing Houston to test positive years after that one-and-only treatment. As a result of that error, Houston has become the most tested athlete in the history of college sports. The evidence remains incontrovertible -- … [Read more...]