What’s wrong with the steroid controversy
Steroids are cheating! Steroids are wrong! They hurt the integrity of the game and call records into question! All of those statements are wrong to a great extent. There is only one real legitimate objection to steroid use in sports, in my opinion. First, let’s look at the false beliefs that are clouding the issue, and frankly, preventing a solution.
Steroids are cheating
The common argument against steroids is that they giv eplayers an unfair advantage. But why? Checmical enhancement is often put forward as the reason. But protein shakes are also chemical enhancement and there’s no controversy over those. The protein in a protein shake comes form a lab, not from the protein tree. Players who can afford highly skileld personal trainers and training equipment definitely have an advantage on players who can’t, but no one cries foul about that. Steroids are not cheating simply because they help build up muscles. But we’ll revisit ‘cheating’ again later.
Steroids are wrong
This is just a simplistic argument. If steroids were absolutely wrong, then they wouldn’t be prescribed by hundreds of doctors for legitimate causes. There is nothing inherently wrong about steroids.
Steroids hurt the integrity of the game
Again this misses the mark. Babe Ruth never took steroids, but he also never worked out, followed a highly-tuned diet, or watched video of opposing pitchers and his own swing. He just hit 714 Home Runs in a league that didn’t allow some of the best players int he world to play because they had too much pigment in their skin. This argument has had the most exposure. Ther is one small way in whihc the integrity of the game is affected, and it’s not the one that deals with the record books. Let’s deal with that next.
Steroids are illegal
That is the only legitimate argument against steroids in any sport. They’re agains the law. They’re against the law because improperly taken, they can cause severe damage to your health. They are not against the law because they’re cheating. If steroids didn’t threaten your life, they would be as legal as protein supplements, and just as controversial. They are only cheating, insomuch as law-abiding players don’t take them, so scofflaws cna get an advantage. This is as much cheating as the guy who gets to work faster because he speeds and drives on the shoulder while you stay in proper lanes and drive the limit. The speeder is risking other lives and his own, so is arguably more of a danger to society than a steroids user. Steroids only threaten the integrity of the game insomuch as not every player has legal access. It’s not a level playing field. That argument is true.
The solution nobody wants
All the ‘solutions’ to the steroid problem involve the sports regulating themselves. No sporting league is expected to have their own police to enforce speeding rules, domestic abuse, or assault and battery. These are all offenses that players have committed that are not handled by leagues (except for possible fines), but left to law enforcement. But whenever criminal charges are brought up in relation to athletes and steroids, it’s usually in the context of granting immunity. This is fatal to the elimination of steroids in sports. If players feel they are above the law in this regard, then they will continue to find ways to avoid detection and take illegal substances. if they feared that even if they passed tests, they could be busted for sale or posession like any other citizen, then there would be a real deterrent.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not recommending police be stationed in the clubhouse necessarily, but that we need to stop focusing on the overdramtic bogus accusations of lack of integrity and cheating and focus on the criminal aspect and enforcement of that by authorities. Either that or legalize steroids.
