FanHouse

The Michael Vick conviction may be front and center on the American sports radar, but on the other side of the world, the Australian Football League may have just as big a scandal on its hands.

Seven Network, which currently holds the broadcast rights to AFL games, aired a report last Friday about two AFL players' recreational drug habits. Here's your payoff:

The allegations in that report were based on medical records a woman sold to Seven, claiming she had found them "in the gutter" outside a rehabilitation clinic in Melbourne.

Basically, Seven aired a news story about drug use among footy stars based on their private medical records, which may or may not have been stolen. And mass media types claim that bloggers have no ethics?

As you might expect, the outrage over this report has come from every direction. AFL chief Andrew Demetriou called the report "obscene." Patrick Smith, a columnist for The Australian, called it "undiluted sleaze" and "an insult to the journalists who cover sport." AFL players are considering a boycott of Seven's Brownlow Medal presentation. Even the Victorian Health Services Commissioner said she was "personally astonished" by the report and added:

"People should be able to seek health services without fear that their private details will be splashed all over the media."

Indeed. The Victorian Supreme Court has issued an injunction on the report, so nobody can talk about its details -- which never should have been made public in the first place, really. If ESPN had done a report on an NFL star's drug use based on private records obtained through questionable means, Roger Goodell might have yanked Monday Night Football from them the next day. Here's hoping Seven gets punished accordingly.

(H/T: With Malice)