So here’s my rant on doping… I don’t care. Here’s why I say that: I like seeing athletes perform incredible feats. I love seeing a cyclist ride up a mountain at the same speed that I go down hills with the wind at my back. I love seeing moon-shot homeruns and pitchers throwing 100 MPH+ change-ups. I enjoy watching 300 pound linebackers chase down runningbacks and gently lay them down to the ground ;). I like seeing bodybuilders with arms the size of watermelons. I like seeing powerlifters squat with over a 1,000 lbs on their backs the way I squat with an empty bar. I like it all.
But, although that’s part of it, that’s not why I don’t care.
I think people are hypocritical if they say they want a ‘clean’ sport, regardless of what that sport may be. PED use has been around for a while, but people tend to ignore it. Attendance to MLB rebounded nicely in 1998 after the 1994 strike, due to the HR chase put on by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa; both were chasing Roger Maris. People hate Barry Bonds now, but they sure filled up the stadiums to watch him hit a ball. A-Rod may
be a pariah now, but the size of his contracts sure speaks to the demand for his services. All of them are tainted by either suspicion or admittance of PED use.
I was glad Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s all-time homerun record. Outside of San Francisco, I may have been one of the few rooting Barry on and that says a lot because I’m an Angelino and by default, a Dodger fan, AKA a Giants hater. Here’s why I wanted Barry to break the record:
- People are hypocrites. They gladly rooted McGwire and to some extent Sosa on, but I remember the vitriol against Bonds. It could have been due to his bad attitude, his alleged PED use, but I also think there was something else at play…
- Racism. Sure, he broke Hank Aaron’s record, but let’s not forget the hate mail and death threats Hank received when he broke Babe Ruth’s record. In turn, Barry also received similar threats.
And, speaking of hypocrisy, Tour de France fans outside of America (meaning most of them) hated Lance Armstrong and accused him of doping without ANY proof. We obviously know better now, but the point is that they cheered Richard Virenque, an ADMITTED DOPER! Did people care about doping itself? I don’t think so. It was just an easy potshot against Armstrong and they used it. All the naysayers can crawl out and say, “see, we knew it all along!” I think that’s B.S. If a Frenchman won the Tour now, would they do to him what what they did to Floyd Landis and now Lance Armstrong? I think they would quadruple quintuple check every single sample and use whichever one came up clean. Cycling has a long, long, long history of drug use. Doping predates the Tour itself! Sure, Lance doped. But there was a doping epidemic and Lance was just the best at cycling while cheating. Hell, even amateurs who have nothing to gain monetarily wise dope!
This is still one of the best sport commercials ever made:
In the same vein, did MLB owners really not know what was going on during the awesome single season HR record chase by McGwire and Sosa, or when Barry was chasing Hammering Hank? Same goes for the NFL, NBA, and every sport organization. To me, based on what I see in the stands and owner’s response, the answer is an emphatic, “NO!” As long as people fill the seats and lineup at the stands, they don’t care. Sports is a business. Sports is entertainment. Ultimately, sports is money.
I love watching Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Do I worry about the health of the fighters? Yes and no. I’m very torn on this, but I see it this way: these are grown men and women who have weighed the risk against the benefits of winning. If they’re OK with it, shouldn’t I be?
MMA and other combat sports are tricky, though. These people are training to hurt other people. PEDs no doubt make you a better fighter and in turn, someone who
can inflict a lot more brain damage. Anderson Silva just joined the long long list of fighters getting popped for taking steroids or other PEDs. So did Jon Fitch, who previously swore he would never take them. Anderson is an interesting one due to his dominance in the sport. Did he destroy all those opponents who fell by the wayside while he was clean? His legacy sure is up in the air now.
However, when it comes down to it, I am not overly concerned. The facts are out there: you fight, you play football, you take drugs to enhance your performance, you risk shortchanging yourself in the long run. If you know this and decide to do it anyway, then this is on you. If athletes ‘risks’ using steroids, EPO, HGH, Testosterone, Insulin, or some other substance, then that means to me that they have weighed the risk of any health risks against improved performance and made a choice. Why should I care? Of course I would prefer it if all sports were clean. But they’re not!
For the ‘purists’ who want to protect records: athletes today have legal supplements and improved training regiments that make records of the past worthless. Who cares about protecting legacies? Was Babe Ruth really clean? Who knows! Minorities weren’t even allowed to play baseball against him so in my opinion, his career homerun record was worthless anyway. I’m glad Hank Aaron broke it and I was glad Barry broke it again.
A recent article on the BBC caught my eye. In it, a German documentary claimed that 99% of all Russian athletes dope. Read it here.
I don’t think this problem is going anywhere. The reward to risk ratio is too high.
People use kids as an excuse to ban doping. Please spare that argument! If your kid is idolizing an athlete, then the problem is with you, the parent. Here’s a look at sport ‘idols’:
- Lance Armstrong – doping
- Kobe Bryant – rape allegations
- Ray Lewis – murder trial; acquitted
- Anderson Silva – doping
- Ray Rice – domestic violence
- Wanderlei Silva – doping
- Chael Sonneon – doping
- Barry Bonds – doping
- Alex Rodrigues – doping
- Mark McGuire – doping
- Sammy Sosa – doping
- Pete Rose – gambling
- OJ Simpson – murder trial; aquitted
- Penn State / Joe Paterno / Jerry Sandusky – pedophilia, rape
- Michael Vick – animal abuse
- Aaron Hernandez – murder trial; ongoing
And on and on and on… Do not make idols out of athletes and don’t be surprised if you favorite player is caught doping. I don’t, I’m not and I don’t care.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of great athletes who are honest and seem like great people. However, they should not be idolized or treated like heroes. Heroes are parents who sacrifice for their kids, teachers who try to improve people, and leaders who try to better society. Athletes? They are physically gifted and play games. They’re making a living and that’s all.
Is it cheating? Yes, of course it is. Cheating is wrong, so I’m not condoning anything when I say I don’t care. What I am saying is that I will save my righteous indignation for wrongs that really matter. These are games and they don’t matter much to me.
