Drugs: Hurt Players and Sports
Brett Favre, Diego Maradona, and Darryl Strawberry are all big name
sport stars. They all play different sports, but all have the same problem:
they tested positive for using illegal drugs. Cocaine, anabolic steroids, and
painkillers are just a sample of drugs found in sports. Cocaine is described
this way, “It makes you feel like you can do anything, and for athletes who
long to be in control all the time, that's a strong temptation” (Coffey 1).
Anabolic-androgenic steroids are synthetic forms of hormones that produce muscle
faster (Rozin 176). Over fifty percent of the players in the National
Football League are weekend or recreational users of cocaine (Burwell 1) .
Forty-four Olympians have been caught with steroid use since 1972 (Corelli 28).
Through Favre's painkillers, Strawberry's and Maradona's cocaine, one can see
that drugs hurt the athletes as well as the sport.
First Brett Favre, who was the Most Valuable Player in the National
Football League last season, entered a drug abuse center for his addiction to
Vicodin, a very strong painkiller (Plummer 129 ). Favre had problems because
of Vicodin. Favre suffered a seizure in February while in surgery to repair a
broken bone. The seizure resulted from the abuse of the painkiller (Howard 1).
Favre states, “I went to Topeka, because the pills had gotten the best of me”
( qtd. in Plummer 129). Favre's daughter Brittany asked his wife Deanna, “Is
he going to die?” (qtd. in Plummer 129). He not only scared himself but his
family as well. Favre not has to submit up to ten urine tests a month. His
losses were internal as well. “It is kind of embarrassing,” says Favre; “I
will do whatever it takes” (qtd. in Plummer 133). He spent several weeks in
rehabilitation but was not be fined or suspended. If caught again his charge
will be a four game suspension with loss of pay.
Another famous athlete, Diego Maradona, was once considered the most
skilled soccer player in the world. Now he is considered a loser. Maradona
was banned from international soccer play for testing positive for cocaine.
Shortly after that, he was arrested for cocaine possession (Longman 1). The
fifteen month suspension ended in time for Maradona to play in the 1994 World
Cup. He was then caught with five illegal drugs in his system. One doctor
cal...
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...re greater than ever and fines are outrageous. The chance to
play and perform must outweigh the desire to experiment with drugs and suffer
the painful consequences of drug abuse.
Works Cited
Burwell, Bryan. "The NFL Confronts the Burgeoning Drug Crisis." Social Issues
Resources Series August 21, 1983, Article #54 Volume 2.
Coffey, Wayne. “Cocaine Back in Sports News, and Many Ask About Bias'
Death.” New York Daily News. May 20, 1996.
"Cornered Kicker." Sports Illustrated. July 11, 1994. Volume 81.
Corelli, Rae. "The Drug Detectives." Maclean's . July 22, 1996, Volume 109.
Longman, Jere. "Maradona's Suspension Disappoints U.S. Team" New York Times.
July 1, 1994.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Packers QB Favre Enters Substance Abuse
Program.” May 15, 1996.
Plummer, William. "Beating the Blitz." People. October 28, 1996.
Rozin, Skip. "Steroids and Sports: What Price Glory?" Business Week.
October 17, 1994.
Sports Illustrated. "Cornered Kicker." July 11, 1994. Volume 81.
Verducci, Tom. "The Hard Price of Hard Living." Sports Illustrated..
February 27, 1995. Volume 82.
SOLOTAROFF, PAUL. "This Is Your Brain On Football." Rolling Stone 1175 (2013): 56. TOPICsearch. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Walter Jerry Payton died at the age of 45. Not only did he try on the field, but he gave it his all out on the field. He broke records, got a college degree, and started a family. In high school, he started playing good. In college, he broke records and got a degree. In the NFL, he broke even more records and raised a family. The liver disease came a surprise to him and his family. They did not expect him to go all of the sudden. When he died, Tim Brown said this about him in an article, “He proved you did not have to be 6’4 and 230 pounds to be a physical football player.”(Walter Payton
With players, franchises, and fans looking the other way when it comes to PEDs it is easy to see why more is not being done to counter the issue. But what about the person who is the judge of all substance abuse cases in the MLB? The recently retired Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, was the previous enforcer of the MLB’s drug policy. The problem with the commissioner determining policy is that he collects paychecks from franchise owners, who obviously influence him to create and enforce policy in their favor. With this influence from the owners the former commissioner was either so naive, or so corrupt, that he did not believe there was a serious issue with PEDs in baseball. Bud Selig said in 2010, “The use of steroids and amphetamines
Imagine rounding the bases after hitting your 70th home run and setting a new major league record. Slapping your teammatesí hands, you hear cheers progress throughout the sold out stadium. As you acknowledge the crowd further, you hear booing also coming from the standing crowd. Why are they booing? You just set a record! Then you see a small boy pointing at you and yelling. You watch closely and see the word, “Andro” form on his lips.
Even though research can be done to determine if Roethlisberger has a deteriorating frontal lobe and consistent brain trauma, one cannot take back the actions that he has already committed. I believe that Roethlisberger should accept responsibility for any individual he has violated sexually or emotionally, but I believe that we as a society should work to determine if individuals, such as Roethlisberger, act the way they do because of injuries beyond their control. I would suggest that Big Ben maintains his stature on the field, but adopts a consistent monitoring system, where researchers can help him help himself through various forms of treatment.
...uck, Ray. "For NFL's invincible warriors, drug use can be a fatal flaw." 14 Sep 2000. 23 July 1998
“NFL players' medical records about to go online.” USA Today. Gannett, 2013. Web. 16 September 2013.
There are many types of steroids abused by athletes in order to increase their muscle mass and strength. Though steroids have a negative reputation, there are some that can be beneficial to athletes and certain patients. There are types of steroids called corticosteroids that have more medical uses to them and another type called anabolic-androgenic steroids that have a more limited medical use. The anabolic-androgenic are usually the steroids that are being abused by athletes (Bigelow, par.10). The use of steroids goes back to the end of World War II around the 1940’s. Doctors were giving the freed prisoners from the Nazi concentration camps that were at risk of death anabolic-androgenic steroids to help gain back their muscle mass and weight faster. From this knowledge, steroids began to be used by body builders and athletes to get more fit than they already were. It is believed that the abuse of the steroids started in the late 1940’s by weight lifters and bodybuilders, and by the 1950’s, it was spread to the Olympics (Bigelow, par.11). Any type of steroid should not be used if they are only going to be abused by being used in large doses with the intentions of increasing lean muscle mass and strength (Bigelow, par.11). After years of abuse of anabolic-androgenic steroids in the Olympics they were added to the list of banned substances and random testing of athletes were announced to start taking place (Bigelow, par.35).
One of the many questions that need’s to be answered is why do football players use performance-enhancing drugs. Rachel Olander who is a resource special...
Abstract: Since the beginning of sports competition, athletes have always looked for some kind of an edge over their competitors. They will do whatever it takes to be one of the elite and that includes injecting supplements into their bodies to make them bigger, stronger, and faster. Steroid use is probably one of the most common drug misuses in sports competition. Athletes found that with anabolic steroids one could become a better athlete twice as fast. Not until 1975 was the drug first banned from Olympic competition because of the health risks it produced. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the sports world did not allow anabolic steroids as well. With the use of steroids no longer permitted athletes began to look for other alternatives. On the rise is two substances called creatine and androstenedione, both of which are sold over the counter. These two performance enhancers have only had minimal testing done on them, excluding the long-term effects, simply because they haven't been around long enough. Creatine and androstenedione have been said to produce results like steroids without the side effects. The truth is they do produce side effects and irregular muscle growth. By banning the use of performance enhancing drugs, just like steroids, sports competition will have a much healthier and fairer environment to participate in.
disorders, and other cognitive health problems The NFL realized that there was an issue with
When you hear the names: Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong, Alex Rodriguez and Jose Canseco what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Those are the names of some of the most famous athletes in the world. They were all at the top of their game and considered the best players in their sports, but they all had one problem. They all used performance enhancing drugs such as steroids to get the upper hand. Their decisions to do performance enhancing drugs doesn’t only affect their careers it affects society in a lot of ways. It became a social phenomenon.
Drugs have been around for thousands of years but their reasons for being used has changed. Drugs were originally intended for medical uses. In ancient Egypt, physicians prescribed tannic acid to treat burns. The early Chinese and Greek pharmacies included opium used as a pain- killer, while Hindus used cannabis and henbane plants as an esthetic. With the advances in technology drugs have become more helpful yet more deadly.
Athletes And Drug Use Many people believe that drug use in professional athletics is not a serious problem, however it is more widespread and serious than people think. In professional athletics, the use of drugs is looked upon as somewhat of a serious problem, but is also very discrete and low key. Every once in a while one might see a prominent figure in a certain sport being reprimanded for the use of some outlawed drug, however this is just one of the many who happen to get caught. Athletes today seem to find no moral problem with using performance-enhancing drugs, or in other words cheating. Also, many of them feel that because they are "stars" there should be no repercussions for their illegal activity.
Doping can be strictly defined as the consumption of any substance (whether food or drug) to improve one's performance. This definition can be applied in a variety of situations, from college students drinking coffee in order to stay awake to athletes who take steroids to make them stronger. The problem with doping is where one draws the line. The drugs used in doping often have detrimental effects to one's health, both mental and physical. In the short run these drugs improve one's performance, but in the long run they can kill.