Chaps My @$$
I was just watching the end of a show on steroid use. (Yeah, there's not much on here.) They talked to a guy in a gym who was saying that athletes dope because we, as consumers, demand that records be broken. We demand performance beyond natural capability. We demand that they dope.
Now I'm pretty pissed off. Bullshit! I recognize that I'm not a typical "consumer," particularly when it comes to sports. However, I don't agree with his premise. I want to see the fastest human, not the best steroid cocktail. I want to see a competition of man against man (or woman, whatever), not man's drug regimen against man's drug regimen.
If you're gonna try to cheat the system, don't try to pass the blame on to the people you're cheating. That's just bullshit. If I copy off the guy next to me in a test, I can't blame my parents for expecting me to pass. The blame falls entirely on me for cheating. If there is any dishonesty I find more distasteful than any other, it's intellectual dishonesty.
Now I'm pretty pissed off. Bullshit! I recognize that I'm not a typical "consumer," particularly when it comes to sports. However, I don't agree with his premise. I want to see the fastest human, not the best steroid cocktail. I want to see a competition of man against man (or woman, whatever), not man's drug regimen against man's drug regimen.
If you're gonna try to cheat the system, don't try to pass the blame on to the people you're cheating. That's just bullshit. If I copy off the guy next to me in a test, I can't blame my parents for expecting me to pass. The blame falls entirely on me for cheating. If there is any dishonesty I find more distasteful than any other, it's intellectual dishonesty.
posted by Beav @ 4:58 AM
6 Comments:
At 6:49 PM,
Soo Mi said…
I tried to explain it to my son thusly:
Humans jump, but can't fly. Some humans choose to practice jumping until they can jump really high.
If there was a pill that could make a human jump so high, it's like flying, is that fair to the people who just practice? No. Why? Because it's not 'natural' ability.
It's like lip-synching your way through a concert. Also not what the people came to see, otherwise we all would have just laughed at Milli Vanilli, saying, "Oh, you guys!" instead of watching their career die instantly.
Cheating is cheating. Steroid use is why I no longer pay money to see professionals play. I don't care if Hank Aaron's record gets broken, so long as it was broken by someone using natural, genetic talent, just like Aaron did in setting that record.
I'd love to bitch-slap everyone who's taken a steroid for performance enhancement. Bitches.
Here's something to chew on: Mister does not agree with me.
/do I sound agitated?
At 10:50 AM,
kevin hall said…
It's sad to see good, well trained athletes throw away their health like that and, basically lie to the public. Good to see a Milli Vanilli reference.
Problem isn't the athletes. I know, hear me out. When a proffessional athlete is injured, not necessarily badly, happens all the time, the athlete goes through physical rehab. This is done by doctors. There are legal steroids. We use them ourselves for some illnesses. They get better ones.
There are some types of steroid that are illegal to use in some places and in some arenas. But, where do we draw the line? Who decides which are okay, and why? When an athlete gets injured, it's a good opportunity to improve beyond their natural performance.
I think it is a damn shame when the athlete makes that decision. No kidding. But the problem is a lot deeper and more dynamic than jocks juicin' up in a dark corner. If there's money to be made, it's pervasive cheating.
I feel worst for the jock himself and the kids that don't know that it's not natural. They all want to be that Jock!
At 8:47 AM,
Soo Mi said…
I'm with you, Kevin. It's like any "civilian" who gets a nice fat RX for pain killers who can't get off them.
However, most civilians aren't idolized by fans, and that's what makes celebrities different from regular joes. They have a bigger public responsibility whether they like it or not.
They have the power to influence people, especially children. Many celebrities claim they didn't ask to be role models, and yet they are because of the career choice they made. Nobody is famous without fans, even the bad guys everyone loves to hate.
It's my opinion that celebrities should have higher standards in the public eye, stats be damned. It's more important to me for someone in the public eye to be cleaner-living.
But that's just me. There are plenty of people out there who prefer great stats. Otherwise, there'd be a big stink over those baseball yahoos still in the hall of fame whose careers have been tainted by steroids.
Honestly, if you're going to leave those losers in the HoF, you might as well as let Pete Rose in. Cheating is cheating, and to allow some but not others is just as stupid.
At 8:56 AM,
drac_vampire said…
I think a lot of the problem is the "better living thru modern chemistry" that we've seen become more prevalent since the 80's. If your 3 yr old is running around like a demon, give him ritalin obviously he has ADHD..couldn't be that he's 3 and has energy to burn. Teenager depressed...Ritalin, that's the answer...not the fact that MOST teenagers are depressed. Sleeping pills at night and wake up pills in the morning. So why not steroid use for the atheletes. IMHO, it all comes down to scare tactics. Is your child/teen/sig other different get them under the best mind control available. We don't want any free thinkers around here, they may discover an actual cure for cancer. I think steroid use is the same thing, performance not high enough, here take this pill and have a good trip down the Rabbit Hole.
To quote Dennis Miller:
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong :)
Drac
At 10:56 PM,
K said…
All good points, and in medicine I can say first-hand that there are many people who take steroids and don't even realize they are doing it (Kev, at least one if not all of the meds Leah got for her rash were likely steroids, they can't be beat for knocking out inflammatory response). Some athletes either don't want to know how they are being treated or are told they are better off not knowing (after all, the people paying the bills are often the people who only benefit from a healthy player at any cost). Still, they are the idiots making a choice, no matter what the choice is.
That being said, it is kind-of a chicken-and-egg thing. Everyone wants to see great games, thrilling match-ups, broken records. It is the "my side is better than yours" mentality. Most of the sports fans I know are very opposed to steroid use and think the users are dumba$$es. but they still love to see the faster runner, the higher slam-dunker. Yes, they choose to do the steroids, but would they (and the team owners and TV personalities and coaches and advertisers and networks) make so much money if the game still looked like it did 15 years ago? Sad thing is, we will never know, because this problem has changed the face of sports forever, and for the worse.
The greatest thing about the "I wanna be like Mike" craze when Michael Jordan was king of the court was that kids were inspired. He became a true sports role model. But his level of play was so unattainable, how could anyone compete?
And another effect of this, more practically speaking, is these amped-up idiots are bringing themselves and the fans a more injury-filled playing field, they are healing less easily, and they have an over-inflated sense of their own abilities, which everyone knows can cause injuries.
So no one wins.
At 6:44 AM,
kevin hall said…
You can't uninvent the gun, I guess.
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