Blog Unit 2
The ethics of performance-enhancing drugs is a subject that is border line out of control in today’s sports. Barry Bonds grand jury trial is going on right now for perjury in relation to doing steroids. Manny Ramirez is retiring this week for testing after testing positive for the third time. The list goes on and on in football and baseball mostly and If you watched baseball in any compactly then you’ve seen signs like “Babe Ruth did it with hot dogs” when it came to Barry Bonds breaking the home run record. The argument has been made WWE style wrestling but kind of a horse of a different color in that it has a pre determined out come and is all just choreographed moves, so the steroids are just for size and visual for the fans.
The two sports I am focusing on are football and baseball and feel that they should be mentioned in different breaths because they are two very different situations. Baseball had the steroid era that had no specific time frame but is center around 1996 when Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa were jacking home runs what seemed like every game, but this was after the work stoppage of 1994 that a lot of fans lost interest. It you would like to read about it to expand your perspective the here is the link http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/313375/how_steroids_saved_baseball_pg2.html?cat=14.
In many way the performance enhancing drugs has made the sport more fun to watch but less creditable to judge. While as a baseball fan you have to appreciate what this era did for the sport you also must frown at the people that tainted the sport. These baseball icons became villain over night thanks to BALCO inquires and while there records stand they must have the asterisk that says “tested positive for steroids or other performance enhancing drugs”. These player have made us suspicious of any player playing at an elite level; Albert Puljos is playing at a level never seen before and has done so for years and when they tell his story people put in that he hasn’t test positive YET. The drugs take away from the sport and taint our record books.
Football a different story because it has gotten more popular every year it seems and never has had the fall off that base ball had in the 90’s. It just seems that football fans and voter don’t care about the steroids or performance enhancing drugs at all. Two years ago Brian Cushing got voted defensive rookie of the year after testing positive for steroids and suspend for the next season. There was a revote after they found out he had tested positive and he still won. Julius Peppers did the same thing and Shawne Merriman was voted to the pro bowl the same year that he was suspended for taking the drugs. So while it is not right, it is not as cut and dry as baseball. One player can’t and won’t determine the game. One line backer on steroids is doesn’t not change the game; one pitcher (Rodger Clements) on steroids and have all the difference in the world.
I find myself struggling over the issue of performance-enhancing drugs in sports. Where is the line drawn between what is acceptable and unacceptable. Of course some of these are illegal drugs, acquired illegally, but some are legally obtained. There has been many advancements in the equipment of different sports over the years, giving the players abilities that were not available in the past. Many athletes take “legal supplements” such as creatine, protein powder, and dietary supplements, yet these are not considered to be “performance enhancing” drugs, just supplements for the body. Athletes have always sought any advantage they could gather against their competition and rules have been put in place in all sports in an effort to maintain a level playing field. It is my opinion that as long as the specific sport has a rule, it should be followed by all players in order to maintain a standard. If a player does not follow the rules of his or her sport, then they and their team should be disqualified.
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