'Roid
Rage Responsible for September 11th!
June 30, 2007
by Hal Clarke
(Look at that eye:
the man must be on steroids!!)
“Steroids sink Titanic!”
“Steroids Overtake Heart Disease as Leading American Killer!”
“Steroids killed the Radio Star!”
Paying attention to the media these days you
might think everyone on the planet is taking steroids. Put on
the blinders yourself and you may even find yourself chanting
along with the headline: Steroids are responsible for every tragedy!
It is crazy, this obsession of ours with body
image and pumping ourselves full of hormones in order to achieve
impossible strength and muscle mass. Crazier, still, our obsession
talking about it, especially when one considers all the other
insane things we personally do on a regular basis in our own lives:
sneaky dealings at work in order to earn an extra dollar per hour;
chowing down on hormone-filled meat and fertilizer fueled vegetables;
walking around in a fog on our cellular phones as invisible beams
sent via satellite shoot through our bodies; stare hour upon hour
at little glowing screens that emit low level radiation; and the
list goes on and on.
But wait: steroids are the real killer! Steroids
ruined baseball as we know it! Steroids caused professional wrestler
Chris Benoit to kill his wife, his mentally handicapped son, and
himself! Steroids, steroids, STEROIDS!
Now wait just a minute: are steroids leading
to all the crazy incidents the obsessed media keeps reporting
on or is something else at work? Are steroids ruining sports or
is our obsession with unbridled capitalism the real fuel to the
ever-growing fire drenched maelstrom? Certainly there’s
more to these stories than merely steroids.
In the case of Benoit, if he used steroids
he did so in order to fit an image of a cartoon character muscle
man. But why, so he could make lots of money as a professional
entertainer and live out his dream of wrestling professionally?
Of course! So perhaps using steroids did have something to do
with his mental state when he killed his family, but did steroids
kill them? I don’t think so. Chris Benoit killed them, and
I would imagine having a handicapped child whose mental and physical
state are extremely limited, working a profession that keeps you
on the road 365 days a year, every year, as well the common pressures
of being a husband, a father, a role-model, and a bread winner
can break down a man after a while and cause some pretty horrible
things to happen given certain circumstances. Was it right what
he did? Of course not, and no one would think such a thing. But
why must we be informed by the media and the police investigators
that steroids were found in the home and presumably were cause
for the heinous acts? In my opinion, it’s plain and simple
delinquent reporting and another example of putting the cart before
the horse in order to make as sensationalistic a story as possible.
And what about Barry Bonds, the man who is
set to break Hank Aaron’s all-time career home run record?
Did he use steroids and if he did, is he “tarnishing”
baseball for all those who “played fair?”
I agree with most, I think, in that using
illegal substances to enhance performance is wrong. But where
I diverge in my opinion is two-fold: I believe it’s wrong
only because it has been deemed illegal by the governing bodies,
and in my understanding of why using enhancements happen and why
I feel sympathy for those who do.
Technology moves faster than testing, and
there is no doubt “designer steroids” will always
have the leg up on testing procedures. Many are going to be ahead
of the curve improving their bodies in so-called “unfair”
ways no matter what happens to prevent it. When doing so means
the difference between earning millions of dollars per year playing
a sport you love or on the flip side being forced out of the game
and earning a fraction of that salary, wouldn’t you take
the potential risk of enhancement (whatever you may deem “the
potential risk”) for the opportunity to do what you love
and get paid handsomely for it? Maybe or maybe not, but many are
going to do just that and if you don’t you will be at a
grossly unfair disadvantage.
In a way it is like an incoming high school
freshman given the choice of attending a prestigious private school
where all your needs will be catered to one-on-one versus making
due with a ramshackle public school where books are scarce, teachers
underpaid and overburdened, and class rooms overfilled. Both have
a chance at “success” if they work hard and catch
certain breaks, but doesn’t one path seem easier than the
other? And in all honesty, does this seem like an even playing
field for students coming from those respective situations when
applying to college in four years? I don’t think so, but
many hypocrites will certainly give you many reasons why it is
fair. Those people are assholes.
I’ve seen plenty of co-workers, friends,
and acquaintances backstab, lie, cheat, and act much more heinously
at their own jobs than using steroids with rewards much, much
less than what we are talking about with professional athletes.
I’m not saying using steroids or human growth hormones or
even creatine is right or wrong, I’m just saying it works
and I understand why someone would feel the need to do it in order
to compete at the highest level. And where many seem to have no
problem acting deplorable in their own little worlds with hope
of rising the corporate ladder by any means necessary, it is hypocritical
to point the finger at steroids as the root of all current evil.
You want to stop steroids in sport then spend
your money elsewhere than attending major league baseball games
or WWE wrestling events and buying related merchandise. Better
that than crying about Barry Bonds and Chris Benoit when you’ve
never had the opportunity to walk in their shoes. I’m not
condoning either man for steroid use, nor am I condemning them,
but I do understand the pressures to succeed that could cause
a person to use steroids. However, until we start admitting our
own faults and get off our higher than thou pedestals, I fear
there may be no end in sight to the hypocritical witch hunt that
is as much a pop-culture phenomenon as Paris Hilton. Now how’s
that for silly company?
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