Sport

The impact of professional athletes using steroids extends far beyond the personal lives of the professional athletes and the professional integrity of the professional sports leagues.  This is because professional athletes are public figures, because whether they like it or not they are portrayed as heroic figures and emulated by youth, and because steroid use by adolescents can lead to serious physical and psychological problems.  William C. Rhoden in a recent editorial argues that professional athletes are given a mere slap on the wrist when caught abusing steroids and that this sets a poor example for others.  His main criticism is that the professional sports leagues benefiting from these athletes continue to pretend that the steroid abuse has effectively disappeared when this is not the case.  This reaction paper will argue, built on the type of data derived from this study, that steroid use among professional athletes is a critical public health issue and that athletes and professional sports leagues should not be able to behind  assertions that enough is being done to address this public health crisis.

As an initial matter, the article clearly demonstrates that many athletes have abused steroids in order to obtain competitive advantages and that the media has profited handsomely from reporting on these scandals.  What emerges from even a cursory analysis of this trend is that fame and profits can be generated from steroids both directly and indirectly.  Professional athletes are allowed to offer too many excuses for cheating and for improperly influence impressionable youth.  Some of the stock excuses seem to be that the athlete didnt actually know he was using steroids, that he was merely compensating for an injury, or that professional athletes are paid to perform and not as role models.  These are all rather disingenuous defenses, or excuses, and they all skirt and thereby attempt to evade the fundamental issue.  The fundamental issue is cheating in a manner that is unethical, unhealthy, and that can possibly lead to negative psychological effects.  A tax cheat is not suspended from work for sixty days a tax cheat is indicted, afforded a trial, and sentenced to prison if found guilt.  Athletes using steroids are taking the money of fans and spectators under false pretenses this is, quite literally, a form of financial fraud.  The sale of tickets and the sale of merchandise, largely motivated by an appeal to the future aspirations of impressionable youth whom adore their sports heroes, are never refunded as a result of this type of fraud.  Fraud in sports is granted an exception from the normal principles of American criminal law for some reason.  The apparent reason is that the act of taking steroids only harms the athletes and the reputation of their teams and the sports leagues.  As this scholarly article demonstrates, however, the harm is much more widespread and the athletes and the professional franchises and leagues should be held accountable.

There is an additional troubling issue which is only indirectly alluded to in the scholarly article.  More precisely, the article implicitly notes the connection between mass media treatment of professional athletes using steroids for a competitive advantage and the influence on high school students.  This is important, if not mentioned enough, because high school boys may seek to use steroids simply to look stronger and more athletic without actually wanting to gain a competitive sports advantage.  This is a type of spill-over effect that can flow from the soft treatment given to professional steroid users.  The steroid issue therefore has much broader impacts than those specifically studied in the scholarly article.

In the final analysis, this article clearly demonstrates that both the use of steroids by professional athletes and the ways the mass media sensationalizes these scandals negatively impacts adolescent understanding of steroids and their decision-making processes meanwhile, Barry Bonds is probably sailing in his multimillion dollar yacht, Mark McGuire has been hired as a coach for the St. Louis Cardinal, and Alex Rodriquez is making more than twenty million dollars a year despite his admissions regarding steroid use.  Responsibility needs to be taken away from professional sports leagues, which have economic conflicts of interest, and this type of fraud and drug use needs to be treated in the same way as other frauds and drug crimes.  The youth deserve more than slaps on the wrist.