Ben Johnson. 100m, Seoul 1988. Gold Medal stripped for doping.
Marion Jones. Barry Bonds. Bill Romanowski. Lyle Alzado. Mark McGwire. Roger Clemens. The list goes on and grows daily.
As many of you know, I am against steroid use* and have written about it previously on this blog.
Many gifted athletes seem to be going down in infamy lately, more and more for using "banned performance enhancing substances".
Just riddle me one thing...how is it that the Illinois High School Athletic Association "gets it" and NJSIAA doesn't? (click here to read the article)
Kids use 'Roids.
They shouldn't.
It is bad for their health, and it is cheating (if it is written in a rule book that it is so).
If you are going to make it illegal, then you must have a credible threat to deter them from doing it (criminal justice 101 people) and suitable, swift punishment, or they will just ignore you and do it anyway, just as they are doing now in NJ.
The crux of the problem is that if you are going to have something like steroids be illegal, you need to have a threatening enforcement and punishment effort to go along with it, or you might as well just not even have it on the books.
If the NJSIAA really cares about the health of our athletes and fairness in competition, they need to "brass up" and get tough. Period.
Illinois is on the cutting edge of this...I expect other states will soon follow...as they should.
*Note: I don't think steroids (or other performance enhancers) are patently/inherently wrong. If they were: 1) not ILLEGAL/against the rules and 2) certifiably safe, then athletes should be allowed to use them. If those two factors were removed from the equation (never going to happen) then I would have no problems with their use.
3 comments:
Val Halla, very relevant. I used to hate the Steriod Topic. But I think that was because it no one was diong anything about it. Now, I am glad that people are being called to the carpet (like Clemens).
I know for a fact, that performance enhancing drugs are probably being used on every football team. I am pretty sure that kids on my football team (back in the early 90's) used Steriods.
There is no way a person can put on 30 lbs of muscle in a year.
WARNING: But I really want to let kids know about HGH (Human Growth Hormones). They are worse than taking meth or heroin (although I dont want kids taking them either). Studies are coming back now that HGH have an extreme likely hood of having birth defects in their offspring and it forms weird deseases.
And I read that most kids are taking them just to look good. But kids have a hard time looking into the long term effects of it. I am going to research it and write up an article to scare away some kids.
There are certainly a lot of ramifications to HGH and 'roids that haven't been nearly explored. That is one of my points why I am against it.
However, what really makes me the most angry about it is that it is NOT ENFORCED with vigor by NJSIAA, which basically says it is OK to cheat - and that pisses me off. Especially in regard to football.
Rules and I actually played each other 4 years in H.S. (unbeknownst to us at the time). We definitely played dudes on 'roids. That was wrong.
...I have begun to debate whether coaches who passively condone it by not doing anything when kids are suspected, shuld also be prosecuted. I got news for you though...if NJSIAA doesn't crack down, that is where this will go and I don't think anyone wants to see that.
I bet if the NJISSAAS starts prosecuting coaches, that woudl definately help the situation...because these coaches do not want to risk their jobs for some idiot kid.
And I have to correct you Val Halla, you played against kids on roids...I played with them. :-)
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