Ryan Howard & Ryan Zimmerman Are Suing Al Jazeera

Remember right after Christmas when the Al Jazeera Network released a documentary about steroids in sports while releasing the names of Peyton Manning, Mike Neal, Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Howard and Taylor Teagarden? Well the Guyer Institute-Gate hasn’t quite taken off like the Biogenesis Clinic debacle but that hasn’t stopped the players involved from throwing their weight around in terms of lawsuits. Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman have filed defamation lawsuits against Al Jazeera after naming them specifically in the Guyer Institute and steroid documentary.

The name of the documentary is “The Dark Side” and it showcases that steroids are still prevelant in not only Major League Baseball but in all North American sports. In the documentary Howard and Zimmerman claim that Al Jazeera has damaged by “outrageously false and defamatory statements recklessly made by the cable news network” according to the lawsuit they filed on Tuesday of this week.  Both Zimmerman and Howard are seeking damages in excess of $75,000, the maximum allowed in a civil case filed in federal court.

This is going to get ugly before it gets resolved. Stay tuned. 

To the Phillies Fan Base: The Yankees Fans Feel Your Pain

We all watched the Al Jazeera documentary showcasing that steroids and performance enhancing drugs were still prevalent in sports, and not just Major League Baseball. The documentary showed that many athletes in the NFL and in MLB are still using steroids and are blatantly getting away with it. If you haven’t seen the documentary it’s on the blog for you to see. The Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies cannot be happy about seeing their players mentioned in this documentary, Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard respectively, especially the Phillies who are simply waiting out the Howard contract and hoping to unload it to an American League team as they rebuild. If the Phillies fans need a shoulder to cry on it can definitely be a Yankees fan’s shoulder because us here in New York know exactly how you feel.

Let’s just assume for the sake of this article that Zimmerman and Howard really did steroids, and I venture to say that the Phillies are hoping its true anyway, this could spell the end of Howard’s tenure in Philadelphia. Howard is set to make a whopping $25 million in 2016 and another $10 million in 2017 if and when the Phillies buy out the final year of his contract and has played below replacement level in recent seasons. Meanwhile Zimmerman is signed through the 2019 season with $62 million remaining on his contract and barely played to replacement level in 2015. If either men are suspended their teams will benefit twice. We don’t know the timeline in which the steroids were being used but you would have to think the team would benefit from the performance that was enhanced by the drugs and now the teams will benefit from the suspensions as well.

The players are not paid while on suspension for drugs and steroids thus saving the Phillies roughly $12.5 million in 2016. The teams get off free while the players get all the punishment and such, this is likely to change soon I think. The team has absolutely no incentive to keep the game clean. They benefit from the performance boost or the injury recoup time and then they benefit fiscally when the player is suspended. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?