The Doctor Test

Earlier today, Canadian doctor Anthony Galea was charged with several drug-related offenses. Specifically, he's accused of smuggling HGH and other PEDs across the US-Canada border. What makes this story so newsworthy is that Galea has treated numerous prominent athletes -- Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Woods' names top the list, although both have denied that he treated them with any sort of banned substance.

Immediately, I'm tempted to cast judgement, if only because I saw a picture of Dr. Galea. You're seriously going to tell me that the dude on the right there is some sort of doctor?

When lawyers have their picture taken, they're usually in a nice suit, and the background is usually some sort of office or other location with a shit-ton of books so that they look smart. So when I want to go see a doctor, I'll look for one who's advertised as wearing a white coat or a suit. I don't want the dude from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition treating my bum knee.

I want my doctor to look more scalpel and less Slap Chop. I want my doctor to call me by my first name, or by saying "Mr." and then my last name. I don't want my doctor to refer to me as "bro," "dude," or "Big Papi." My doctor doesn't need to be a cool guy. He just needs to be good at what he does. And I would prefer it if "drug smuggling" wasn't something that he did.

It seems like the government has done its work here, and at least right now seems to have a pretty good case against Galea. Since they were his patients, A-Rod and Tiger are being scrutinized for this too, and I believe the criticism they're receiving is completely fair.

They both deny that Galea gave them steroids -- at this point, we can make assumptions, but we don't know for sure whether this is true or not. However, even if they never got any sort of illegal treatment from him, they chose to associate themselves with him. Athletes of that caliber don't choose doctors haphazardly. They had to have some sort of idea what he was doing. If they didn't want the scrutiny, they could've chosen to see someone who wasn't always running off to the 49th parallel for shady business meetings.

This whole thing reeks, and now that Galea's been formally charged, this is only going to get worse in the next few months. Get ready for a show.