Write On Sports LLC - "Drugs and Perception – Reality in Sports" by Anthony Amobi

Drugs and Perception – Reality in Sports

2007-03-04 13:40:02 | By: Anthony Amobi

Once again, steroid use has reared its ugly head in the world of sports. This week, according to ESPN, an illicit steroid distribution network, which may be responsible for Internet sales of performance-enhancing drugs nationwide, has been targeted by an upstate New York prosecutor. Customers include current Angels outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., former player Jose Canseco, and former heavyweight boxing Champion Evander Holyfield.

If baseball, much less any other sport wanted to stop illicit use of drugs, then Bug Selig and others in position of authority (I believe in my heart of hearts) would have the gumption to style the drug testing program held by the Olympics. The World Anti-Doping Agency has railed against baseball’s testing, and I agree with their standpoint. If baseball really wanted to stop the illegal drug use once and for all, they would not curb into the Players’ Association and just add testing for HGH and whatever else.

Someone remind me, how long has the will to win at any cost been in place?

Um, since the beginning of time.

However, if a system is not in place to stop drug use, then why would one stop doing so?

The answer is simple: Money and power. Now, if fans were really that upset over drug use, they'd stay away and demand changes to occur. We still pay X amount of dollars to see our heroes play & we’ll go to the ends of the earth to get an autograph and get close to our favorite athletes. In addition, entertainment is king.

Human beings will do what they need to get ahead, and athletes are no exception. Cheating has been going on since the beginning of time and we live in a culture that actually rewards infamy.

Are we all that surprised that cheating still goes on, and is widely accepted?

To be quite honest, a friend and fellow blogger reminded me of when Charles Barkley asserted, “Athletes are not role models, parents should be.”

I have now stopped looking at athletes as role models, as heroes or icons, & instead I look at them as entertainers. I see athletes today like wrestlers, who have a persona that may or may not be real, but I look at them as what they are – human beings paid to play a kid’s sport and do it the best they can.

However, why does the media seem to focus a lot of scorn and dismay at the hierarchy of baseball, rather than at football or the NHL, which would seem to rely a lot more on power and sheer physical movement, than baseball which seems to be a lot more anaerobic and less active (depending on position)?

Unlike other sports, baseball’s history is marketed as much as it’s present. I’d venture to say basketball, hockey and football (to a much lesser degree) market their sports’ nostalgia in order keep people in tune with the game. Simply, because of the hallowed records in baseball are so revered, a lot of fans are repulsed by the fact that an alleged cheater could threaten a record, whether they are or are not guilty. As baseball seemingly allowed players to cheat and use drugs before 2002, football already had a testing program in place since 1989, although like baseball it does not test for HGH or human growth hormone.

In the case of the public, perception is reality. Football seemed to put the brakes on steroid use; baseball allowed it to go on and on.

Many don’t see basketball as a power sport, and hockey is not on the radar. The only two sports that get scrutinized as much as baseball are track and field and cycling.

To be honest, does anyone care about track and field along with cycling except during the Olympics and the Tour de France? Does anyone get on Lance Armstrong for winning 7 straight Tour de Frances, although there having been allegations of him in the media doping? Again, I believe baseball is a target of the media, not because of the reality of drugs in sport, but because due to a history of inactivity & the perception that baseball did nothing to stop a train running off the tracks, and now hallowed records are in danger of being broken.

Athletes in the world of sports use steroids because they work. Steroids helps to build muscle strength, recover from workouts quicker and other benefits; however, the dangers of drug abuse cannot be understated and they range from baldness, infertility, to heart problems and cancer.

If you got offered X millions for your abilities and could secure your life, your family’s financial future, and possibly for generations, would you or would you not indulge in drug use? This is the ethical question that many struggle with.

I’d love for sports to be clean, and for every athlete to have the social consciousness of a Muhammad Ali or a Carlos Delgado, but the money involved and the adulation is just too much for one to resist heading to the dark side.

To be honest, I don’t care anymore – it’s just entertainment. I mean it’s not like people have stopped going to ball games or still participate in the sport.

When we stop having a Pollyannaish view of athletes, we can further understand the drug debate and why humans give into temptation.

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