One thing you can be sure of with stories like Michael Phelps smoking weed and ARod testing positive for steroids is that it brings out the worst in sports writers. Suddenly, they become amateur psychologists, telling you who's a narcissist or how time away from competition is bad for athletes.

Jeff Passan has no special insight in Alex Rodriguez's motivation for taking steroids, and George Vecsey has no idea what's best for Michael Phelps. Passan's article is particularly full of this kind of speculative character assessment:

He's a raging narcissist, consumed so much by the idea of himself that his actions made it crumble into an ironic pile of rubble. It's sociopathic, in a way, the single-mindedness of it... Rodriguez adored the attention and adulation, even if some of it wasn't cast in a flattering light. He could stomach that. He was A-Rod, beacon of hope, the real unicorn amid all the frauds with oversized horns.

And Passan's not the only one. For more overreaching, click here and here.

Why not just comment on the facts? ARod was apparently one of the 104 players to test positive for steroids in 2003. This will be a particular headache for baseball because he's likely eventually to surpass Barry Bonds on the all-time home run list. It'll also be a further headache for ARod who's done a poor job of managing his public relations. And as I mentioned it makes you wonder how many other stars were on the juice.

Purporting to tell us the true nature of ARod's, T.O.'s or any other athlete's character as if you're his psychiatrist is a habit sports writers should kick.