Do you care if athletes take performance enhancing drugs?

[GoneOffShore]

So, I've been hearing a lot recently about drugs in sports and how Congress critters are all up in arms about it. And how the NCAA is bent out of shape and the IOC has an enforcement arm.

Athletes have been doing things to go faster, jump higher, dive deeper and throw further since the dawn of sports - "Hermes, drink this magic potion and you'll beat those other guys to the finish line."
So, as long as coaches aren't giving these things to kids or animals (That informed consent thing), what difference does it make?

I'm not a sports fan, so I don't have a dog in this fight.

[GoneOffShore]

1. Hey, do I have to kick my own poll?

I at least expected popcorn - sheesh!

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Quite honestly, I don't care if they die in alcohol- or crack-induced fiery car accidents

unless they killed an innocent person in the process.

I sure as hell don't care if they fuck up their bodies with steroids.

It's all bullshit bread and circus anyway.

[BreweryYardRat]

3. Yes. It's fucking cheating.

That goes for anyone who uses steroids, HGH, etc... I lift weights as a minor hobby, and professional bodybuilders (who take everything under the sun) piss me off beyond belief.

[Truthiness Inspector]

4. I care about this

Achievement in sports is like any other achievement: play fair and try to be the best, don't cheat or it tarnishes everything and does (and should) diminish your "accomplishment."

[LSdemocrat]

5. As long as their is fame and fortune, people will take advantages

Honestly if you want pure sport, check out some amateur leagues in your area. You're deluding yourself if you think that anything high school or above is 100% clean.

[Richard Steele]

6. PILLORY their cheatin' butts! nm

[flvegan]

7. Do I care? It's not up to me.

Fans want homeruns and touchdowns. How will you break records, create drama, etc? Yeah, it was okay when McGuire was taking the "fake" stuff. No biggie.

BTW, there are a lot of folks that do a LOT worse to make millions each year. Had I my druthers, I'd rather support some guy taking a boatload of Winstrol to make his way in the NFL then I would support some asshole at Exxon taking a boatload of advantage to make his way as CEO.

I wouldn't touch it, but, to be honest, if you waved a 3 year, $25 million contract in front of me, I'd be really hard-pressed to turn it down.

[Truthiness Inspector]

9. You can't be serious

You would cheat if the price was right, and that makes it better than the Enron goons...how?

Not meant as a bash, but maybe you didn't realize what you said.

[flvegan]

17. Yup.

I'd sacrifice my body and my future if I thought I could get millions of dollars. There's a reason...

What I could do with those dollars far outweighs what I think I'm worth. I'd rather die 10 years early and let those dollars make a positive impact.

It's the opposite of the "Enron goons"

They'd die for money. I'd die for what money could do for those in need. So, the dif is me cheating for someone else, not for me.

BTW, "cheating" is a very, very blurry area.

[Truthiness Inspector]

24. Cheating is not subjective

Cheating is cheating, and everyone can come up with a "reason" why his/her cheating is special or different...and I can guarantee you not everyone will agree with the "reasons."

Cheating is dishonest, and I prefer to operate in the realm of honesty.

[flvegan]

25. I hope you don't like professional sports.

Everything from badminton to the NFL is flowing with 'roids. Yes, cheating is cheating, and I'd not be proud to be a part of it. However, again, as so many of these athletes succumb to, I'd do them if it meant what it means.

It's not special or different. What it is, is driven by the sports fanatics that demand performance and improvement over the previous years.

That's right...'roid use is fan-driven. Gotta sell tickets, gotta sell t-shirts. You want purity? Back the hell off and demand it.

[Truthiness Inspector]

28. Excuse me

You said you'd cheat if the price was right. That is what I took issue with, not a tangent about what athletes do or don't do.

[flvegan]

31. It's a statement that has gone

unspoken by many of the folks in the game.

And this (your post)

"Achievement in sports is like any other achievement: play fair and try to be the best, don't cheat or it tarnishes everything and does (and should) diminish your "accomplishment."

Is naive as far as the pros go.

SO...don't take issue with me. Take issue with those actually doing it.

[Truthiness Inspector]

34. You are the one advocating cheating

not me. As long as you think you are "justified" in cheating, then it's all okay. Well, it isn't. Remember you said you would cheat too, if the price was right.

That is not naivete at all on my part, it's called having convictions. I'm disappointed you don't have them too.

I am well aware people cheat, doesn't mean I have to join them.

[flvegan]

35. I'm not advocating, I'm a realist

Your point:
Cheating is dishonest, and I prefer to operate in the realm of honesty.

Operate without ESPN, then.

[Truthiness Inspector]

37. Your post

Your post earlier in this thread:

"BTW, there are a lot of folks that do a LOT worse to make millions each year. Had I my druthers, I'd rather support some guy taking a boatload of Winstrol to make his way in the NFL then I would support some asshole at Exxon taking a boatload of advantage to make his way as CEO.

I wouldn't touch it, but, to be honest, if you waved a 3 year, $25 million contract in front of me, I'd be really hard-pressed to turn it down."

Stop dodging. This isn't about ESPN, it's about what you posted. Everyone else does it so it must be okay...right? Right???

[flvegan]

38. Keep trying, poster.

Don't accuse.

It IS about ESPN, etc, thanks.

good luck.

[Truthiness Inspector]

39. If it's about ESPN

it must be about "dodgeball" because you are dodging your post, not very artfully, but dodging it nonetheless.

Good luck to you too.

[Rabrrrrrr]

43. I don't think you're reading very well.

Truth to tell, if someone waved $25 million in front of me with the only requirement being that I take steroids for three years - I'd be pretty fucking tempted, too. I think most people would be.

Three years of self-abuse to have money to set myself up for the rest of my life AND to help the family? And to give a bunch to charity? Or even to just live selfishly, high on the hog.

Who wouldn't do that?

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find people who wouldn't. And those that wouldn't, probably would do it for $50 million. Maybe $100 million. Which amount is still less than a number of sports professionals earn.

[PVnRT]

44. Everyone has a price

If you say you don't, you're a liar.

[Poiuyt]

8. Take away their records

Track and Field already does this.

Barry Bonds should be allowed to compete if he can prove that he's now clean. BUT take away all his home runs, let him start over from zero.

[barb162]

10. All athletes should be off the drugs

How else can it be fair.

[GoneOffShore]

11. If they all have access to the drugs, does it make a difference?

Right now the IOC is trying to ban high altitude training. Well, actually athletes who live at sea level and then sleep or spend time in rooms that have a lower oxygen content, so that when they compete at sea level their bodies use oxygen better...

[Swede]

12. Do you have kids?

Kids look up to these people.

[GoneOffShore]

19. Nope, and if I did

I wouldn't be encouraging them to look up to athletes as role models.

[Swede]

26. Yeah,that will stop them.

You know how kids love to do what they're told to.

[GoneOffShore]

30. I don't have kids but I remember being one.

My dad wasn't a sports fan and made it clear that a great majority of athletes only had "one good thing" - their athletic ability.

We got a lot of other outlets and encouragement in other areas.

I guess it all depends on how you phrase it.

My whole take on performance enhancing drugs is that our society is making too much of 'the problem'.

It's all a circus anyway, and if you let your kids know that and that sport has never been "pure" maybe the pedestal that we put sports figures on will get a little shorter.

[Rabrrrrrr]

32. Then pehaps the parents should be giving them legitimate role models

There are some sports icons worthy of emulation. But not all of them.

I find it hilarious when people bring out the "OH MY FUCKING GOD WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!?!?!?! THE CHILDREN?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!" argument.

What fucking nonsense.

Yeah, they shouldn't do steroids because kids look up to them.

:eyes:

Goddamn, I wish DU had a "fake masturbating myself" icon.

Let the kids look up to the people who are worth looking up to - and if the sports criminal asshole in question is doing steroids, then let the parents take some goddamned responsibility for once and tell the kids "That piece of shit isn't worth your hero worship" and offer them a sensible alternative, like Richard Feynman or Cy Twombly or Frank Zappa or Mark Morris or Laurie Anderson or Robert Wilson or Gustav Mahler or Charles Kettering or Martin Luther King, Jr. or Al Franken or Harlan Ellison or Gene Roddenberry or Judi Dench or Ian McKellen or someone who actually contributed something to humanity.

That "but what about the children?!??!?!!?!" makes me laugh my ass off! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Ariana Celeste]

33. damned straight dude

:thumbsup:

[Rabrrrrrr]

40. Thanks! Little pisses me off more than "THE CHILDREN?!?!?!?!"

handwringing bullshit, as though adults should have to change our lives because some piece of shit yuppified self-focused asshole parent can't parent precious little Jakota or Bajennifer or Nawanker properly.

[GoneOffShore]

45. Ah, Rabrrr

You expressed it far better than I could have.


And with a laugh.

I hate that "What about the children?" stuff.

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. If you let them slide on performance enhancers

then sport becomes less about "the human drama of athletic competition" and more about who's got the best dope or the best "doctor."

What's next? Robotics? Eugenics?

"We can make him... hit .450!"

I don't want Roboball. :thumbsdown:

[Horse with no Name]

14. I think if they allow performance enhancing drugs

That the record books need to be locked. Nobody should be able to challenge ANY of the sports greats records by cheating.
Start a new set of record books for the cheats. Leave the TRUE sports greats records alone.

[flvegan]

20. Allow?

So then, you actually believe that this is a new thing, eh?

The sports greats? C'mon...not all, but many, did it the same way.

[Horse with no Name]

21. I don't buy that Babe Ruth or Jim Thorpe or Lou Gehrig or Hank Aaron, etc

used performance enhancing drugs...sorry.

[flvegan]

22. No?

Let me know what you know about illegal drugs in those days.

Oh, wait...Arnold used "legal" steroids until the were banned. That would have been in the 80's.

You, btw, should look into Ruth's usage. What he tried. Let me know what you find. I hate to crash the party, but the enhancement of performance has been around since day 1.

You don't have to buy it. It's there, regardless.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

41. I'd like to know how Ruth took steroids...

decades before the first synthetic steroids.

Last I checked, booze wasn't a performance enhancing drug.

[GoneOffShore]

23. Delete

[dixiechik]

15. Do you care if athletes take performance enhancing drugs?

...but then they are TRUE athletes, are they?

[GoneOffShore]

16. They've been doing it for years.

Only now just getting the publicity.

Read some of the biographies about baseball players chewing benzidrene. Bowls of uppers in the locker rooms.

[petronius]

18. I couldn't care less

I would ban them in high school, but if informed adults choose to run the risks I figure it's their business. It's stupid, but I'd leave it up to them.

Now, if the league has rules against performance-enhancing drugs, then I'd consider the use to be cheating and I'd punish it - but I don't particularly feel one way or the other as to whether those rules exist...

[reyd reid reed]

27. Damn straight, I care.

The performance-enhancing drugs fuck up the body, so not everyone takes them. If everyone doesn't take them, then it's not a level field and those who do use them to try and gain an advantage are cheating.

There's also the question: if the professional athletes take them today, then how much longer is it going to be before the 15-year-old kid who dreams of played for the NFL or MLB starts to take them so that HE can gain an advantage? Hell, it's already happening...

and it's wrong.

Period.

[genie_weenie]

29. Being a sports fan is peripheral

Young men and women see the only way to succeed and make large amounts of money is to subject their still developing bodies to harmful substances. Additionally, a portion of which aren't even medical grade junk which the pros buy.

[mark414]

36. hell no

i want to start seeing 100 homer seasons and pitchers batting .400

[terrya]

42. No, I don't.

They know the risks by now. If they still want to take them, whatever. Not my problem what some ridiculously overpaid athlete does with his body.

[Crabby Appleton]

46. yes, it's cheating

[seemunkee]

47. Professional cycling would collapse

The Tour de France would end up with a bunch of kids on tricycles.

[Rabrrrrrr]

48. Yes, our hero Lance Armstrong wouldn't be able to be a hero...

and it would all fall apart.