Why Steroids Are Good For Sports
| 28
|
by Dukeboy999
Let me start off by saying that I do not support the use of steroids. I also think that Barry Bonds is a horrible person, not only for lieing about obvious steroid use, but just being a bad overall person when dealing with others. Did I mention he cheated on taxes, lied to a federal grand jury, and cheated on his wife? Anyways onto the main point of the article, steroid use in sports. I have given up hoping that steroids were a thing of the 90's and that most athletes don't use them. Here are the basic facts: most athletes do use them in some form or another positive test or not. Most athletes that do use steroids, do it in a way that is undetectable.
There is one main reason why steroids are good for sports, and deep down, beyond the desire to preserve old records, and basic integrity, every sports fan has one basic want. To see harder hits, longer home runs, and faster runners. Besides the fact you go to a football game to see your favorite team play, why do you go? To see guys run faster, jump higher, and hit harder than you have ever seen. You love it when the star running back turns the corner and outruns the secondary for 80 yards on his way to the endzone. You love it when the reciever goes over the middle and gets drilled by a linebacker so hard his helmet falls of. And you love when a guy jumps four fet off of the ground to make a game changing interception. If all of a sudden that 80 yard run turned into an 8 yard run, that big hit into an arm tackle, and that big pick into a normal incomplete pass, would the game be nearly as exciting?
Most people don't go to baseball games to see bloop singles, a bunch of walks, and slow fat outfielders who never seem to make great plays. You go to see oversized men hit homeruns further than you ever though possible. You go to see Joel Zumaya throw it faster than most pitching machines could ever dream of. You go to see the star outfielder run into the wall at full speed and make a catch to save the game for your favorite team.
The point is, is that without all of these exciting elements, sports just wouldn't be as exciting to watch. And the more of these exciting moments that occur, the more people want to watch sports. It is like, when Joe Smith is flipping through the channels and sees a Nascar race. Joe doesn't really like Nascar, but he loves seeing things go faster than he thought was possible. And because he is normal, he cant help but get excited when 6 cars slam into each other going 200 miles an hour. If there were ways to make the cars go faster, and crash harder (granted the drivers were safe of course) Joe would want to see it. The same goes with sports like football and baseball. As good people, with integrity, most people want to think that the sports they hold dear are clean. But they also wan't to see athletic feats they never thought possible by a normal human being.
I know that I have respect for all of the old timers and their records. But I also know that they were playing in a different era, and that today players are just plain bigger faster and stronger. For this reason, I keep the old timers seperate, and don't even try to compare them to todays players. Yes, Babe Ruth dominated his sport like no other person ever has. But athletically, Barry Bonds is just stronger and faster. And personally, once I have gotten over the moral issue I am starting to like what steroids are doing for sports. I have no sympathy for the athletes whos bodies are being destroyed by the drugs, or who are getting hit so hard they are never the same. They know what they are getting into with professional sports, and know what the effects of the drugs are that they put into their bodies.
In the end, every sports fan wants to see harder hits, longer home runs, and faster players. It just makes the game more exciting and it is human nature. I am over the fact that it is a huge moral issue. You know what a bigger moral issue is, that Michael Vick, one of the leagues biggest stars, is involved heavily in dog fighting. That players get away with doing drugs like cocaine and heroine (Lawrence Taylor) and can still be idolized. That wife beaters (Santonio Holmes) can go on playing without so much as a second thought. But steroid users, who are just doing everything they can to make the sports we love more entertaining, are outcasts in society. Im not saying that steroid use is right, but it does make sports better for the fans. It does make more money for the sports, and just makes the sports healthier overall. After all, isn't that what sports are all about?
