This story appears in ESPN The Magazines September 5 NFL Preview Issue. Subscribe today!IT SOUNDS SO inconceivable, naive, delusional, but it was only a decade ago that Alex Rodriguez was the antidote to a ruinous generation of drugs and greed. He was the choice of the really smart baseball men, such as Theo Epstein and Brian Cashman, both of whom traded for him, and a paralyzed commissioner such as Bud Selig, who tolerated Barry Bonds holding the home run record because soon enough Rodriguez would shatter it and make the game whole again. He would make them clean.Alex Rodriguez only made it worse. The Golden Boy wasnt so golden after all. Following a bizarre week in which the Yankees held a retirement ceremony for him even though hed never announced he was quitting, Rodriguez was discarded without much care. Even the pregame celebration before his final game as a Yankee was curtailed by thunder, lightning and rain, fitting for those who found him less of a True Yankee than the rest. That wasnt thunder, former Yankees player and coach Lee Mazzilli said of the biblical thunderclaps that preceded the downpour. That was George. The Yankees 1996 championship team was being honored the next day, but for Rodriguezs night, only Mariano Rivera joined him on the field. Former teammates Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter were not present. Neither was his old manager, Joe Torre. Thats called a message pitch.Point the blame at Rodriguez, who admitted using PEDs, but no amount of reveling in his inglorious end can undo the enormous collaborative effort that has created baseballs current dystopia. Rodriguez, along with Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire, is part of the Mount Rushmore of discredited legends that represents the true legacy of the steroid era: It isnt that they arent in Cooperstown. Its that nobody cares.The all-time home run list was once led by the most recognizable foursome in sports -- Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson. That leaderboard stood for nearly 30 years, until Bonds, who hit his 500th and 600th home runs just one season apart, passed Robinson in 2002. Sammy Sosa hit 60 home runs three times and won the home run title in exactly none of those years. While baseball took the money and laughed at warnings that it was undermining itself, the consequences would be felt later, with Rodriguez amassing 3,000 hits, 2,000 runs and 2,000 RBIs -- something only Aaron had done -- but leaving the game utterly uncelebrated, inside baseball and especially out.The Rodriguez epitaph will be a one-sided story about the phenom who was part of the top millionth percentile of talent and blew it all. Yet Alex Rodriguez will in the end be no different from the industry in which he performed for the past two decades, a game that has lost its way, seemingly intent on undermining all that made it special.The game, like A-Rod, took the money (it is now close to a $10?billion industry), ignored the spread of steroids and lost out on the good stuff. Its records are now as worthless as those in the league it is so envious of, the NFL. It decides which team will host the most important games of the World Series based on an exhibition game. It plays its championship in the worst weather because its leaders refuse to compromise on money and adjust the schedule. It plays at least one game every day between teams that play under two sets of rules. And because baseball cannot decide whether it wants to be truly modern, the games leadership allows it to stand weakly in the middle, playing a full season of baseball, simultaneously rewarding and penalizing teams for not coming in first place by staging a one-game playoff, as if the baseball season were the NCAA tournament.Baseball wants the world to be proud of its drug-testing program. Meanwhile, it deals with an All-Star team of steroid-tainted players who thus far need a ticket to enter the Hall of Fame -- Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Manny Ramirez and most certainly Rodriguez -- by disciplining virtually none of them and hiring nearly all -- laying the weight of accountability on the Baseball Writers Association of America. If not knowing himself was the self-destructive fatal flaw of Alex Rodriguez, it makes perfect sense that he felt so much at home playing major league baseball. College Jerseys Cheap . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. NCAA Basketball Jerseys China .J. -- Seven games into a disappointing season, New York Giants defensive catalyst Jason Pierre-Paul is getting the feeling hes back. http://www.cheapncaajerseysbywholesale.com/ . LOUIS -- Theres no telling how these wacky World Series games will end. Cheap College Football Jerseys . -- Charline Labonte couldnt have asked for a better homecoming. Cheap College Jerseys Wholesale . -- Matt Ryan needed one of the best games of his career to lead the Falcons and their depleted offence out of their three-game losing streak last week. The Latest on Week 1 of the NFL season (all times Eastern):12:25 p.m.Left behind by the team bus, two members of the Buffalo Bills opted to take Uber to the stadium for the opener against the Ravens.Linebacker Jerry Hughes posted a video on Instagram showing him and linebacker Zach Brown in a car, supposedly en route to M&T Bank Stadium.A Bills official said the two players could have waited for a second team bus leaving from the hotel.- David Ginsburg in Baltimore.---12:20 p.m.With Jimmy Garoppolo starting for the Patriots, Carson Wentz behind center for the Eagles and Shaun Hill or Sam Bradford -- who really knows? -- throwing passes for Minnesota, the first week of the NFL season will play out Sunday with plenty of uncertainty about what to expect.Other players expected to be absent in Week 1 include Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski and Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles, while some are returning from injury, including Green Bay wideout Jordy Nelson and Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.The early games include: Tampa Bay at Atlanta, Minnesota at Tennessee, Cleveland aat Philadelphia, Cincinnati at New York Jets, Oakland at New Orleans, San Diego at Kansas City, Buffalo at Baltimore, Chicago at Houston and Green Bay at Jacksonville.dddddddddddd.Games expected to start after 4 p.m. Eastern include: Miami at Seattle, New York Giants at Dallas and Detroit at Indianapolis, with New England playing Arizona on Sunday night.---12:10 p.m.Tampa Bay made three late additions to its roster count. Wide receiver Cecil Shorts, running back Peyton Barber and linebacker Josh Keyes, all added this week, are on the active roster for Sundays opener against the Atlanta Falcons.Shorts, who also played for new Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter in Jacksonville, was signed following his release last week from the Texans. Shorts experience was attractive to Tampa Bay, which lacked proven backups to starters Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans.- Charles Odum in Atlanta.---AP NFL websites: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL Chiefs Jerseys China Cheap Nike Chargers Jerseys Cheap Nike Raiders Jerseys Wholesale Cowboys Jerseys China Cheap Nike Giants Jerseys Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys For Sale Wholesale Redskins Jerseys China Cheap Nike Lions Jerseys Packers Jerseys China Cheap Vikings Jerseys Free Shipping Cheap Panthers Jerseys Hoodies Cheap Saints Jerseys Free Shipping Cheap Nike Buccaneers Jerseys Cardinals Jerseys China Cheap Rams Jerseys Hoodies Cheap Nike 49ers Jerseys Seahawks Jerseys China Bears Jerseys China Cheap Nike Bills Jerseys Ravens Jerseys China Wholesale Falcons Jerseys China ' ' '