Professional sports are very special in the United States. One reason for this is the spirit of competition. However, steroid use taints this competition. If steroids were to be completely eliminated from sports, the competition would be much more special because athletes would compete with their hearts and will, without an extra boost. Also, since not everybody can be a professional athlete, the elimination of steroid use, in my opinion, would make the fans appreciate the game more and make them feel more relatable. Hopefully someday, fans will be able to watch their favorite sports in such a fashion. Steroid use by professional athletes is bad because doing so can damage an image of an athlete (if the offense is made public), create …show more content…
Unfortunately, not all of these dreams come true. Therefore, I think it is wrong when the athletes who are gifted enough to achieve their dream choose to use steroids. Hazards of Steroids There are many health hazards for both men and women who take steroids. Male side effects of taking steroids include shrinking of the testicles and breast development. For females, the risks include growth of body and facial hair, development of deeper voices, and changes in the menstrual cycle. Overall risks of steroids are tumors to the liver and kidneys, cancer, and high blood pressure, all of which can cause death (NIDA). Even though steroids enhance performance of an athlete, the risks by far outweigh the benefits. No trophy or championship is worth the possibility of a life threatening disease or an end to life altogether. An article dated in 2004 by ESPN gives an example of how tragic steroids can be to a sport. "The 1996 National League MVP (Ken Caminiti), who later admitted using steroids during his major league career and for years battled a drug problem, died (of a heart attack) at the age of 41" (ESPN). Although Caminiti battled many demons that included additional drug abuse besides steroids, it is still troubling to think that a professional athlete can have his life taken away at a relatively young age. Also unfortunate is the fact that Caminiti appeared to be cleaning his
Furthermore, steroids are terrible for the sports world in general. Athletes who abuse steroids cheat the game and themselves. “The use of performance-enhancing drugs by professional athletes, or doping, has been acknowledged as a problem since at least the 1960s” (Performance Enhancing Drugs In Sports Fast Facts). Many superstar athletes had their reputation completely ruined because of being caught of cheating the game they play. Steroids are ruining professionals sports the more and more athletes decide to abuse performance-enhancing
Have you ever notice how some athletes are getting bigger then used to be. For example Barry Bonds was in shape but he was not very strong. Then all of the sudden he was really big and strong. That did not happen because he worked really hard in the gym; it was because he injected himself with steroids. Because of the fact that he injected himself he set the record for most home runs with 756, which put him past Hank Arron. Barry Bonds went from a contact hitter to a power hitter. Without steroids Barry most likely would have never broken Hank Arron’s record. This situation shows the power of steroids and how they affect sports like baseball. Steroids affect all levels of sports. You may not think about it but some kids in high school
With all the money and fame at risk in sports, it should come as no surprise that some of these athletes make unethical decisions to ensure a higher success rate and in turn more money for themselves. The unethical decisions made by athletes involve their choice to use anabolic steroids. Sports are officiated in fairness where the same rules apply to both teams. Athletes who use steroids gain a strength, speed, and performance boost. The increase in physical attributes for an athlete allows them to have an edge against athletes who do not use the drugs. Athletes that engage in performance enhancing drug use are cheating in the sport, but it is difficult to blame them given the incredibly large salaries a successful athlete potentially could make. The average NBA player has a five million dollar salary, the average MLB player has a three million dollar salary, the average NHL player has a 2.4 million dollar salary, and the average NFL player has a salary of 1.9 million dollars. Athletes must perform very well to earn these multimillion dollar salaries and anabolic steroids allow an athlete earn these large sums of money because of positive effects the drugs produce for them. Steroids have a low cost but high reward ratio; a couple of hundred dollars spent on an anabolic steroid cycle could easily help the athlete make hundreds of thousands of dollars in return with the boosts in the performance for the sport they play. This
Steroids are used for sports, or any sort of body building. Athletes use steroids because they believe it gives them a more competitive edge on other athletes. They do not fear the consequences of what could happen to their body. Athletes only think of the upside to what they are getting. Some examples of athletes that have used steroids are Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Lance Armstrong, to name a few. Many people speculated Barry Bonds taking PED’s, but when he was tested ,there was nothing found. Then the idea of undetectable steroids came up. “When told that he has never failed a steroid test, as others have failed, they argue that some steroids are undetectable.”( Coleman,18). Steroids may have lifted Barry’s career, but there will always be a dent in his
The abuse of steroids among players in Major League Baseball is corrupting the image of America's Pastime as well as endangering the health of those who use the illegal substances. The lack of testing and punishment for the use of illegal substances like steroids in the Major Leagues portrays a negative image to aspiring young athletes. They see their role models using steroids and becoming better athletes rather than seeing suspensions for the illegal behavior or the negative health effects.
Today in the United States, millions and millions of kids, teens, and adults watch and play in the sport of baseball. It is probably the number one sport looked upon and what is happening to it is a bit discouraging. Players have started “cheating” by using steroids to help them play stronger and better. They are in league where you have to be the best at what you do to play, and if your using drugs to cheat your way in, then it ruins the ethics of the game of baseball.
When you were a kid, didn’t you want to play a professional sport? What would you give to be one of the best athletes in the world? Would you risk your reputation? Your health? Would you be willing to die? Although many studies have come out saying that steroids diminish one’s health, people still take them hoping to be the best. Imagine if you were a 28 year old who left college early because a pro team “guaranteed” you that you would play in the big leagues. Yet you just got stuck in the minors, and the only way you could get to the big’s was to take a pill that made you super-strong and super-fast. It would make sense to just take it. But what if that pill shrunk your testicles, hurt your heart and vascular system, and made
After doing research on the use of steroids and their effects I have came to the conclusion that steroids is only bad thing if it is abused. Just like any other drug. A lot of people don't know what to do with the good things in life. While all the negative effects of steroids are told to us we are ignoring how steroids can actually help us. Especially in Athletes. Many people believe that athletes that “juice” are cheating. In reality they are not cheating because they are doing just what they think will help them improve and make them the best at what they love to do. There is always room for im-provement and creating all those negative side effects such as irritable and dangerous behavior is right and okay for athletes to
Famed writer Grantland Rice once wrote, “When the great scorer comes to mark against your name. He'll mark not won or lost but how you played the game” (World of quotes, 1). That buoyant attitude of selflessness and heart has slowly diminished throughout the course of time. Now, George Allen’s booming voice, former coach of the Washington Redskins, runs throughout head of America, “Only winners are truly alive. Winning is living. Every time you win, you’re reborn. When you lose, you die a little” (Harris, 67). It is with this frame of mind that athletes are pushed beyond the edge of reason. Although peer pressure and pressure from coaches are central reasons why one may use steroids, most users begin using in order to improve their self image or excel in sports. Ethics, integrity, and legality aside, some athletes will stop at nothing to attain “that extra edge”.
Many athletes feel like they have to take steroids to keep up with everyone else and be competitive. ?If you don?t, you weren?t as strong as everyone else, you weren?t as fast as everybody else,? stated Jim Haslett in an interview with Sam Farmer of the LA Times. Haslett, now coach of the New Orleans Saints and former linebacker for the Buffalo Bills, goes on to say, ?That?s the only reason to do it. Everybody?s looking for that competitive edge? (Farmer 1). Aside from professional sports, many high school and college athletes feel the pressure to take steroids to gain an edge. They feel like they won?t be able to perform at the next level without steroids. All many young athlete have to do is look at today?s sports stars to see the size, strength, and speed it takes to be a successful professional athlete. Unfortunately, most of the athletes that the young people are looking at have taken or are currently taking steroids. It is then only rational for kids to think that if they are going to be the best, they need steroids too. Only the best of the best in professional sports get the biggest contract, the top agent, the covers of the magazines, and, seemingly above all, the priciest paycheck. Many athletes feel like they can only lift so much and run so hard until they can?t get any
The problem with today’s society is that steroids are everywhere and companies are finding ways around the steroid label by producing drugs that contain the same ingredients but are labeled differently. Professional athletes are also becoming big icons for people and many athletes are using steroids to enhance their performance. Athletes are supposed to be role models and by getting involved in these kinds of things people see it as an ok thing to do. Steroids are common everywhere, baseball and football players are constantly finding ways to take these drugs. Pro wrestling
Steroids are a hot topic of debate and controversy in the world of athletes and sports. Steroids fall under the umbrella of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and are a dark cloud that have been hovering over the sports world for a long time. In the world today, steroids are the most relevant in major league baseball. Many baseball players, such as Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, and Mark McGwire, just to name a few, have ruined their reputations because of steroids. There are repercussions for PED use in major league baseball, which have cut down on the substance abuse by players but have nowhere near eliminated the problem.
Professional sports are a competition between the greatest athletes in the world. And when I go to a game, that’s exactly what I expect to see. Sports are entertainment. There is no room for purity and respecting the limits that athletes had in the past. Modern athletes should utilize all the resources that they have available to them. This includes steroids, which enhance an athlete’s performance. After all, performance is what really matters.
With the ever increasing difficulty of “making it” in professional sports, many athletes look for a way to get ahead of the competition and they find this “power up” in steroids. Whether it be to hit a baseball farther, tackle an opponent harder or run faster, there really isn't a right or wrong answer to why athletes feel the need to take performance enhancing drugs. However, with an increasing danger to the physiological state of these athletes , steroids are becoming in many peoples minds too dangerous to take.. The real question is if these types of performance enhancing drug should be allowed in athletic competition.
In the past three decades, steroids has been becoming a serious problem more than ever in the athletic field. Steroids are anabolic drug "to build" growth hormones that include the androgens (male sex hormones) principally testosterone and estrogen and progestogens (female sex hormones). Steroids were first developed for medical purposes. They're used in controlling inflammation, strengthening weakened hearts, preventing conception, and alleviating symptoms of arthritis and asthma. Unfortunately research has shown that steroids have been abused in almost every kind of sport. Although steroids contribute to a muscular body, usage should remain illegal because they physically deteriorate and mentally destroy the body.