It's simple: You cannot erase history
Most of you are Bears fans, including those who bashed my Sunday contribution to American literature.
I wrote that Alex Rodriguez would get my vote for the Hall of Fame, just as Mark McGwire has every year he has been eligible.
Valued reader Jack Brown responded, "You seem to suggest that we should ignore any wrongdoing and say it's OK. It is not, sir."
First of all, calling me sir makes me feel old. Second of all, that isn't what I'm suggesting.
I'm suggesting that even though steroid users are scoundrels, neither they nor the Steroids Era can be banished from baseball history.
The premise that most of you are Bears fans makes me wonder out loud.
Like, if some 1985 Bears were suspected of dabbling in steroids, would you recommend erasing Super Bowl XX from the record books?
Seriously, would you pretend that the championship never happened? Would regret enjoying it? Would you insist the McCaskeys return the Lombardi Trophy?
Maybe you would. I wouldn't. Not any more than I would pretend the McGwire-Sosa home run race didn't happen or regret enjoying it.
Performance enhancers were prevalent in the NFL during the 1970s and 1980s and maybe still are.
I wrote last week that there was no reason for the Steelers to lead the Bears 6-1 in Super Bowl victories - other than ownership, management, coaching and quarterbacking.
Valued reader Mickey Snider responded that "the half-decade of rampant, unfettered steroid abuse in the late '70s" was another reason for the Steelers' success.
Then he added, "But this isn't baseball, so we all just turn a blind eye (to steroids in football), now don't we?"
Exactly my point, sir, if I may call you that. Baseball is held to a higher standard.
A book titled "Spiral of Denial" was released just before the recent Super Bowl. The New York Daily News called it, "A comprehensive analysis of steroid use in football and its impact on society."
I haven't heard much more about it. If it were about steroid use in baseball, it would have received more attention than ex-Gov. Blago and Drew Peterson combined.
Whispers - sometimes shouts - of steroid use accompanied the Steelers' 4 Super Bowl victories in the 1970s. Hardly anybody but Al Davis would deny that performance enhancers infested the Raiders' championship teams back then and beyond.
Steroids were sort of accepted in football with a wink, a nod and a smile during that period, including when the Bears recorded their only Super Bowl victory.
Were some '85 Bears into steroids? I don't know. Do I suspect some were? Yes, because they did play in the NFL. Am I the only person around here who thinks some were? That would be highly doubtful.
Yet if any Bears fans from Alsip to Zion are for rewriting the Super Bowl history book, I haven't heard them say so.
In fact, some of the same people who want McGwire barred from Cooperstown - even though baseball didn't test for drugs when he played - consider the '85 Bears to be unimpeachable.
Sorry, but I recall fondly both Super Bowl XX and the McGwire-Sosa home run race.
The Steroids Era in both sports are regrettable but can't be erased from memory, history or the Hall of Fame.