First of all, players in all sports have moved on from Steroids to more advanced drugs that are either on the no-testing list in their CBA or are currently undetectable with the testing that is being used at present. It's become just like track and field.
To answer a question someone had earlier that I don't think was answered...yes, Mitchell is on the Board of Directors for the Boston Red Sox.
Mitchell had no subpoena power so all of his evidence is basically from people that decided to "snitch".
As far as a current free agent being on the list and having his market value hurt...I don't think so...unless the suspensions are significantly longer than the 15 games that has been mentioned. You have to remember, these teams all want to make money and many want to win...they will sign any player that they think can help them make money and win...period. Why do you think baseball in the 90s didn't raise any concern with the inflation of homeruns (the first 90 years of the century there were about 10 guys that ever hit more than 50 home runs in a season and the last 10 years of the century there were about 10 guys hitting 50 home runs every year)? The answer...the homerun was increasing attendance / viewership and making them more money.
As for the NFL not having a problem with this stuff...PLEASE! I can think of two players (Shawne Merriman and Rodney Harrison) that were busted just last year right off the top of my head with no research. The difference with the NFL is that they have serious clout with their broadcast partners and they lean on them to report these things briefly and then sweep them under the rug. For those that don't believe that...I ask you to recall a short-lived series called Playmakers on ESPN...the NFL was not happy with the way the show portrayed professional football players and when several players started to say that it was very accurate in terms of portraying the lifestyles of pro football players...BAM...the NFL leans on ESPN to cancel the show, which they did.
Today, it is my understanding that ESPN is going to have a 4-6 hour "extended" SportsCenter just to cover this report. If it was a report on the NFL, ESPN would probably have about a 30 second spot on SportsCenter and that would be it...the bottom line is that their NFL relationship is so lucrative that they do not want to do anything to damage it.
With respect to this Mitchell report today I predict a couple of things...you will see that taking steroids does not automatically make you a power hitter (there will be a lot of "punch and judy" hitters on the list) and you will see that pitchers are also "juicing"...probabaly at a higher rate than position players.
