Of course, I could be biased because I am a huge Giants fan and a Barry Bonds fan. He was on my team. He hit 73 home runs in 2001, the year of the 9-11 events. He captivated the entire country with his quest to top Mark McGuire's home run record. When so many people were in a dazed and confused state due to the attacks, Barry was chasing a record and redirecting those fears to the game of baseball. I remember watching the news, it was full of "terrorists" and "preparing for war" stories. The attention of Barry chasing the record was a break from the fear and sadness that was on every TV station.
So my question is, are today's PEDs in really cheating? I listen to sports radio on my commute to and from work every day. This topic has been brought up countless times over the years. Many fans, former players, and so called specialists have come out and voiced their opinions. People have cheated in sports from the beginning of time but I don't know if I'd call PEDs cheating. What is cheating to me? Pitchers in baseball have been caught putting different types of things (tar, vaseline, grease, sweat) on the baseball to give them an advantage. Batter's have corked bats so the ball pops off the bat when hit. Runner's have cut corners or snuck in during the middle of the race. People have lied about their age to gain an unfair advantage over their opponents. Those are examples to me of cheating. You are doing something or using something physically that gives you an unfair advantage.
Foddy and Savulescu (2007) discuss the benefits of PEDs such as it aids in recovery, increases strength, increases eye sight, just to name a few. So why is that cheating? There are many "legal" supplements designed to do all those same things for an athlete. Why aren't those considered cheating? Does getting Lasik Eye Surgery make you a cheater? If you weren't blessed with 20/20 vision and you get your eyes worked on, wouldn't that be cheating? Does taking protein shakes, designed to give you maximum protein in an easy to drink shake make you a cheater. It sure is cheaper than ordering mounds of steaks and chicken. You need protein to build muscle. What about caffeine, it has been proven to improve alertness and concentration and improves time to exhaustion? Over the years, I have heard doctor's call into the radio station claiming that PEDs and Human Growth Hormones (HGH) are the future of the medicine and health. These drugs that only rich athletes can afford now will become standard "supplements" that will enhance and prolong the lives of the average joe. So how can you cheat when you are taking something that will be considered normal in the future?
Keith Burgess-Jackson, JD, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Arlington, wrote the following in a Dec. 5, 2004 article titled "Performance-Enhancing Drugs," posted on his website www.analphilosopher.com:
"Part of me--the libertarian part--says that people should be able to use whatever substances they want when they compete. Those who don't want to risk their lives or health should take up another line of work. People who don't want to watch supercharged athletes can find another form of entertainment."
Baseball is a form of entertainment. Movies are also a form of entertainment. Are we going to take all these actors to court because they lied to us. They used a body double for stunts. They didn't really fly or dodge real bullets. No we are not. There have been so many athletes who have been caught taking PEDs, we don't know who is so-called clean or who's not. At the end of the day, we are really trying to imprison a man who was an entertainer, who played a children's sport, and an athlete who's feats gave us a break from everyday life.
Works Cited
Foddy, Bennett & Savulescu, Julian. "Ethics of Performance Enhancement in Sport: Drugs and Gene Doping." N.p. 2007. Web. March 31 2011. <http://www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/Staff/Director%20Julian%20Savulescu/Publications/BC_Healthcare/Spirit_of_Sport.pdf>
Sports and Drugs. N.p. 2010 Web. April 1 2011. <http://sportsanddrugs.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=1200>
Sports and Drugs. N.p. 2010 Web. April 1 2011. <http://sportsanddrugs.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=1200>
I really liked the direct, honest approach you took with your blog post. I agree with your view point on PED's. I personally would not take them, however I agree with what should be a PED such as HGH and steroid shots. I believe there are naive people who really believe a weight room with a professional trainer at a professional sport team's training complex is cheating. A person can take all the steroid injections they want, but if they don't eat right, exercise hard on a consistent basis and get the proper amount of sleep, no muscle growth is possible. I want to make it very clear I am against steriod use. However, I believe just about every major athlete active in numerous sports have or are taking something they shouldn't be in order to get them to get back on the field of play quicker from an injury. I believe sporting executives are fully aware of who is taking illegal performance enhancements, but turn the blind eye for the gain in revenue, which commonly far exceeds the moral right. I agree with your view of Barry Bonds. It was not illegal for him to use those specific PED's in baseball during his time and I believe he will be a scapegoat for that era where baseball got "big". Baseball is all about the numbers in the record book. I am pretty sure Ty Cobb would have his records overturned if he was in our society today. The part that bothers me is that anyone who is a serious baseball fan knows that the Baseball Hall of Fame is not full of choir boys. They are filled with some of the most morally compromised people of all time. It's funny that everyone knows that, yet they commonly state, "It's about what that person did on the field that got them in, not the off the field issues." So did Barry break records when the use of steroids was illegal in baseball? No, he didn't. The records should stand. As I stated in one of my earlier blogs, our society has gotten too sensative and too policitically correct. If baseball is going to revoke his records, they need to go all the way back and revoke all the other records from players who knowingly broke rules while playing in their respective eras.
ReplyDeleteThe question was not if its “legal or cheating”, is it ethical and NO its not. The Lasik comparison is clever but very inaccurate and uneven. Lasik correct an impairment that would otherwise been corrected by glasses or contacts. Lasik allows people to see the playing field, court, or rink in the same 20/20 vision. You can’t make that argument with steroids and if you can you are just blind and have zero sportsmanship. The taking protein and other supplement is also a flawed statement. So if your child was in high school and said dad/mom can I start taking protein and other supplements, you would look at your kid and say hell no let’s get the roids. There not safe and not fare for any competitive sports. Its against the rules is the bottom line of the ethical question whether or not you believe it’s the same as supplements or not. Reggie Bush had to give back his Heisman and vacate win because he took money from a booster. That was unethical. The games we love have rule and they must be followed to protect the integrity of the game and to set the example for our children.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Maynardccc-
ReplyDeleteLike said in my blog, I maybe biased because I am a Giants fan. I do not condone any drugs that could potentially do harm to one's body. I would not let my child ever take any steroids. I will however state a case for PEDS with you just to play. What makes Steroids or HGH different than any other medical advancement?
My simple argument was, are PEDS really cheating if everyone is doing them and to a certain extent, should using today's science progressions be considered cheating? So Bonds took steroids and so did Roger Clemens. Bonds hit some balls on Clemens and Clemens struck him out a few times. If they were both cheating does that now make is fair? Who got the unfair advantage?
I'm not sure of the stats but do I do recall that when the Mitchell Report came out, there was a staggering amount of players on the list. I also remember when players who were on the list were asked about it, a majority of them claimed to be on PEDS/HGH to heal from an injury. Does that make it a medical advancement? If you take something to heal faster, is that cheating? We have surgeries today that prolong careers was wasn't around 20-40 years ago. The Tommy John surgery requires taking ankle tendons and putting them into shoulders. 16 years ago when I first got into Radiology, I had never heard of the procedure, now it's fairly common for average people who want to continue playing golf, tennis, softball, etc.. How does this tie into PEDS? Well, many of these professional athletes say they can't get over an injury or they want to "prolong" their careers so they "juice up." Different to you and me but to them, same logic, it's a medical advancement.
Steroids are bad right? That doesn't stop doctors from prescribing it for tumors, rashes, and all the way to cancer. In my hospital, I have a friend who is a muscle researcher and he basically told me that steroids are hormones. When used in large amounts they are very dangerous and bad. So why not control it? If a baseball player has a doctor who says it's okay for them to use, is it still cheating?
Have you watched the movie Food Inc? The food we eat today is filled with steroids, hormones, and chemicals. I bet the grocery store today has some unfair advantages to the grocery stores from the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. Athletes back then were way smaller and not nearly as fast as the modern athlete. Look at pictures of NFL linemen from the 60s vs today's NFL players. We have running backs and even quarterbacks that would dwarf a 60's linemen. These kids are coming out of high school like this. The food we eat is steroids!
Okay so even if everyone is on steroids. Performance enhancing drugs doesn't give a person athletic ability. These drugs are not an easy way out. Hard work and effort still need to be put in to be successful, even when on performance enhancing drugs.
Finally, as in my initial blog, these are professional athletes who get paid millions of dollars to entertain us. If they want to harm their bodies by taking un-safe amounts of drugs, that's on them. I can't find the ESPN article but a few weeks ago I was listening to the Brian Kenny Show on ESPN radio and he said the average life span of an NFL player was 55 years old. It was attributed to the weight gains, food, and body collisions they endure every season. They along with boxers, wrestlers, MMA fighters put their lives in danger to entertain us. If they are willing to earn millions of dollars and put their lives on the line by getting hit in the head or taking PEDS, that's up to them.
As a consumer, I want to see the home runs, I want to see basketball players jump higher and faster, I want to see violent collisions on the NFL field, I want to see freaks. It has nothing to do with being blind or having zero sportsmanship. In the end, everything can be seen as cheating.