At what cost the championship???
(I decided to change the title) I was watching television the other day, Real Sports with Bryant Gumble. I’m not an obsessed fan of any sports. Although I love Football (what some Americans refer to as Soccer), I also love Volleyball, and sometimes I’ll watch a basketball game. My favorite sport now that I’m thinking about it really is Track and Field, oh yeah, I enjoy Tennis too. Anyway, sometimes I tune in to Bryant Gumble’s or Bob Costas’ HBO programs to hear their spin on things and to see what’s going on in the sporting world.
One of the topics of discussion for a long time now and even more lately, is athletes and drugs. My husband and I were talking about this on Friday evening while relaxing with a cold one. The facts that so many athletes take some form of drug to enhance their athletic performance.
My hubby said that he really couldn’t blame them for doing so because of what is expected of them. The management expects them to win, the team expects them to win, the fans expect them to win and so the athlete themselves expect to have the best performance in order to win. To win he said, takes a lot out of these guys (and gals). They don’t always have a good day, and sometimes age is a factor. Yeah I said, age and any injury they have. They definitely won’t be performing at their best if they are injured.
To this effect I wondered out loudly, is taking a drug enhancement to boost one’s energy and/or level of performance cheating? If this is cheating and of course a lot of people do say it is because it gives an athlete an unfair advantage over his/her competitor, then what about those who take vitamins and supplements of any kind? Is that not also cheating? Because vitamins will also make the person taking them healthier and have more energy to deal with the rigors they put their body through?
But then again, maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way? I guess some would say that vitamins are not really drugs. OK, so they’re not. I take vitamins too now that I’m working out regularly. I find that they do help me to have more energy and keep me feeling a lot better. But then again, the endorphin alone from the exercises does that to me!
Seriously though, the use of steroids and other drugs being used by some athletes should it be cause for concern? Should the authorities make such a big deal about it? Isn’t the media and the authorities (we call them the government) making too much about the drugs and not looking into the reasons why the athletes have to take them?
Yes I know that these athletes are role models and they shouldn’t let their biggest fans, children, think that taking steroids is the way to go. The moral arguments of this I totally understand. And by the way, I am not endorsing steroid use by athletes or saying that I approve of it, but I understand why they would do it. I can’t imagine what these people go through, being at the top of their game, being almost like “gods” and treated as such. Then suddenly because of injury or heaven forbids, age, they no longer are on top of their game. I can’t imagine how they feel. Like failures? Like the earth should open up and swallow them? Perhaps they do get ridiculed by the team owners and management, and sometimes by their own teammates, and also by their fans. Fans that once adored them and look up to them, now treat them like crap and say bad things about them. Fans can be fickle (not to mention team owners!) And don’t even get me started on the media. Oh boy, the media that is there to tear apart anyone who is a public figure, their lives open and upside down at the hint of impropriety or heaven forbid, he’s lost his game! This is a lot of pressure folks.
So is it any surprise when these athletes because of drug screening tests done randomly will try any which way to cheat on this as well? To try to beat the system that will “out” them if they are ever found out. They try every means necessary to keep their steroid or drug enhancement use a secret. Some people have drunk vinegar before a drug test just because they think it will hide their drug use. Or how about the one who used a pregnant woman’s urine? Or putting some type of substance under their fingernails and dipping it in the urine sample so as to throw off the drug tests? Some people hide samples of other people’s clean urine so that they can make the switch.
Now there’s the case of an athlete, Ontario Smith of the Minnesota Vikings, who was caught with a prosthetic penis and dried pee and all the accouterments to make them real, in his possession at the airport. Yep, a life-like penis that would be used by Mr. Smith to fool the people doing the drug screenings. So when he was asked, “Mr. Smith, are these your plastic privates?” I guess he was caught with his pants down! This device is called the Whizzonator and is made by some company out there to be used not just by athletes, but by any regular Joe worker out there who is a drug user and wants to pass his employer’s drug screening test. All I have to say is WTF?! Now they’ve really thought about everything!
But wait, no that’s not everything, now there will be Gene Therapy where an athlete’s genes will be altered so that he can become the SUPER-ATHLETE!
Yikes, I’ve seen and heard them all. Let’s look at the different things that are out there, hormone injections, blood doping, steroids, designer steroids, and any other type of enhancements? I dunno, perhaps I missed one? And now to add to it we have gene therapy.
Wow, we’ve come a long way baby! Congress is of course involved now, questioning the companies who manufacture these items and scrutinizing athletes who are involved. Some athletes have even had their championship medals, trophies, and titles stripped from them because they’ve been outed as a drug abuser.
Shouldn’t there be more to this though? Shouldn’t someone be questioning the athletes why they do it and see what other alternatives, apart from retiring or quitting is out there?
Will there be any true athlete left in sports; will the good ones suffer for the few bad ones? Some people might even say well, if the athletes in days gone by could be at the top of their games back in the day, why can’t these in present day? Are we sure about that though? How can we be sure that one of those super athletes of baseball, basketball or football (American football) didn’t use drugs to help him or her back in the day? There were no drug testing then and the government wasn’t scrutinizing the athletes then too. So how can we be so sure?