According to Dictionary.com, a sport is defined as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess, often of a competitive nature, such as as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.” However, when athletes start using unorthodox means to increase their physical prowess, the sport in which they play faces a real challenge.
When illegal drugs are used to enhance an athlete’s physical ability, the entire make-up of a sport changes.
The use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs has for far too long been able to penetrate the deepest levels of many professional and collegiate sports. In many leagues, including the MLB and NFL, steroid use is prevalent. However, the people in charge of these leagues seem to consistently turn a blind eye to the use of steroids.
Whether it is because they would rather not deal with the hassle or don’t want to expose their league’s greatest athletes as cheaters, they are blatantly ignoring steroid usage.
Steroid usage conflicts directly with what a sport should be: a fair competition. Every athlete’s ultimate goal is to achieve the peak point of skill in their sport. Fair competition dictates that besides genes, everyone has the same opportunity to become the best through hard work, practice, dedication and game performance.
When steroids are introduced, the game is no longer fair. Some people have created advantages over their opponents, not by working harder, but by cutting corners.
My personal opinion on the use of steroids is that it must be either completely illegal, so that not a single person, no matter who that person may be, can use them. Or, I believe that if athletes are not going to stop using steroids, all athletes should be given the option of using them; at least that way it will be fair.
Fairness is what dictates my position. It must be fair one way or another: either no steroids, or let everybody use steroids.
A sport’s integrity is undermined when the playing field suddenly becomes unbalanced. It means that if a certain team wins a championship over another team, but the winning team all uses steroids, they don’t deserve it. At the same time, steroids and performance-enhancing drugs only increase an athlete’s muscle size and endurance, not necessarily their skills in a specific sport. If an NFL linebacker uses steroids, it will allow him to put more force into his hits, but will not necessarily improve his overall tackling because it has no effect on his form.
Another factor playing into the debate over steroids is how badly they affect the body in the long run. Players who use steroids are far more likely to develop heart problems and also have an increased chance of joint and bone problems. According to Gain-Weight-Muscle-Fast.com, potential side-effects of steroids include, “accelerated male pattern baldness, decreased sex drive, reduced sperm count, breast development, and testicle shrinking.”
If athletes are willing to sacrifice their bodies in order to play well at their sport and potentially become multi-millionaires, they know the consequences. But please, do not make all the fans suffer through the completely bogus promises to stop steroids and the entire ruckus over steroid lists (Major League Baseball), if you are not going to enforce the rules you have laid down.
The truth is, professional leagues do not care very much about their players; the only thing they want is more entertainment, which translates into more money. That is why steroid usage is overlooked in so many sports, because a guy on steroids is entertaining when he is making plays normal humans cannot hope to accomplish.
I believe we have indeed come to a fork in the road, and we must go one way or the other in order to ensure the safety and integrity of sports. We must either embrace and create super humans to perform incredible feats for the entertainment of millions, or fight to preserve the true spirit of human competition.
