So yet another former NFL player has recently admitted that he used performance enhancing drugs. NFL draft bust Tony Mandarich said he used steroids at Michigan State and faked a doping test before the 1988 Rose Bowl. While he claimed that he never used the drugs in his brief 3 year stint in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers (he was addicted to alcohol and pain killers instead), we are only left to scratch our heads and wonder what ends athletes will go to in order to “be the best” and “win.”
You have to be wicked stupid to do steroids. WHY? Because you are making a deal with the devil: You are trading the promise of near-future “success,” (this success is only an illusion because you’re cheating to achieve it) for your emotional and physical health in the long run. Is winning really that important to you? By itself, cheating is bad enough! But to cheat in such a self-destructive way? I just don’t get why anyone in their right mind would do that! Of course, anyone in their right mind wouldn’t do this!
I’m not naive. I certainly understand why high school, collegiate and professional athletes do steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. They want to be the best, feel pressured to stay competitive using any means possible and/or might lose their starting job if they don’t get stronger, faster or improve their stats.
I don’t care what the reasoning is behind this stupidity. Why would you want to put your body at risk and shorten your life just so you can temporarily perform better, make the team or break into the starting line-up? And what about your sense of fair play and good name? Do either of these mean anything or are we all so blinded by the fool’s gold glitter of winning that we send our good judgment packing.
Look at what’s happened to Marion Jones, the disgraced multiple gold medalist. How must it feel to be inside of her skin right about now? She has to be living a personal torment that will stay with her a lifetime! Now, whenever she is recognized around the world, instead of being adored and idolized as a heroine, she is recognized simply as a fraud and a cheat. Is winning that important to you that you would risk the threat of this kind of public recognition and humiliation?
The sad state of affairs here is that there are probably a lot of athletes out there who think that they are probably smarter than Marion Jones, that they can get away with it. Nothing like taking wicked stupidity and bringing it to the tenth power!
