PEDs in pros could influence college, high school athletes
We live in a golden age of steroid use in professional sports. No matter how many times you hear that the “steroid era” of the ‘90s and early 2000s is over, there is still widespread drug use across Major League Baseball.
In a 2014 poll of 143 players taken by ESPN, the consensus estimated almost 10 percent of Major Leaguers are using some time of performance enhancer. Considering that there are roughly 1200 players in the league at any given time, 10 percent is a lot.
Every few months a story breaks of another MLB player getting busted for steroid use, and people are getting tired of hearing about it. The frequency with which it happens has lead some to call for a cease-fire in the league’s war on drugs. That is not the answer.
Fans who look at the performance-enhancing drug issue from an outsider perspective often say they don’t care what kind of PED cocktail baseball players are putting in their bodies if it leads to 500-foot home runs and 100 mph pitches. Those fans say it’s the player’s choice.
But if MLB relents on its drug policy, it will become less and less of a choice. Players that have held off for as long as they have would be forced to begin whatever controlled regimen the league office approves if they wanted to keep up with their juicing peers.
It is for this reason that MLB’s new drug policy as of this year is completely necessary. Before the start of the 2014 season, the league added more comprehensive testing and stricter bans for violators. Under the new rules, first-time offenders would be suspended for 80 games, rather than the previous 50 games. But the most controversial provision of the new policy is the postseason ban. It hits Major Leaguers right where it has to by removing the possibility of playoff action for any and all offenders caught during the season in question.
It is worth noting that this new deal comes at the urging of current players that don’t want to see the league devolve into a juice bar where you would have to jeopardize your health long-term just to make the same living you’ve been making.
While the casual fan still may have no sympathy for professional players disregarding the words of every doctor on the planet, the real issue with the steroid controversy is the trickle-down effect.
If high school and college athletes see a professional league begin condoning PED use in any way shape or form, their natural reaction will be to implement that structured regimen for their own personal use.
The vast majority of these amateur athletes pumping their bodies full of harmful, unnecessary drugs won’t make any sort of professional league, meaning they’ll have done irreparable damage to their bodies for virtually no reason.
It is because of this that Major League Baseball must keep fighting the good fight against all forms of performance enhancers, and refuse to bend to any sort of call from factions of uninformed fans to allow limited use.
And the next time you think you want to declare the steroid era over, think of the case of Aaron Rodgers. The Packer’s quarterback rushed to the defense of Milwaukee Brewer Ryan Braun, and put up a year’s salary on his fellow Wisconsinite’s innocence. As most sports fans know, Ryan Braun was far from innocent.
The steroid era is undefeated folks, never bet against it.