By Logan Ratick ‘13
EE Co-Editor-in-Chief
Performance-enhancing drugs: this term has become infamous in the professional sports world over the past decade.
In 2005, former Major League Baseball outfielder Jose Canseco released a novel titled “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big.” Thanks to this tell-all book, sports fans were introduced to the prevalence of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports, primarily baseball. Canseco was not afraid to use names of high-profile athletes who juiced alongside him. He mentioned that his former teammates, and frequent all-stars Jason Giambi, Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, and Juan Gonzalez, were all using performance enhancing drugs to play at a higher level. Canseco mentioned dozens of other names, and over time, accusations were made and admissions were announced.
Major League Baseball experienced a stretch of several years after this novel in which some of the games greats were forced to admit the shame they brought upon it. Players such as McGwire, Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte, Gary Sheffield, and Canseco have all admitted that they in fact were PED users. Others, like Melky Cabrera and Guillermo Mota, have been suspended for failing drug tests administered by the league. As for the others, players such as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds have been brought to court with evidence that they too were a part of this prominent cycle, but they have adamantly denied such accusations.
What brought this pressing predicament out of the water was the Mitchell Report from 2007. In 2006, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig appointed US Senator George Mitchell to head a committee that would investigate the usage of performance-enhancing drugs in the league. After a 21-month investigation in which he worked closely with Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee, two men who were responsible for providing steroids to multiple players around the league, Mitchell compiled a list of players who failed drug tests and were clients of these two men.
When the Mitchell Report was released, over 80 MLB players were connected with PED use. Clemens, Bonds, Manny Ramirez, A-Rod, and McGwire were just a hand full of stars whose reputations were tarnished by these findings. Finally, the public had figured out how extreme baseball’s “steroid era” truly was.
PED use is not just limited to Major League Baseball. Athletes have been caught in all major sports leagues, including the NBA, NFL, and NHL. Most recently in football, it was reported that Baltimore Raven’s linebacker Ray Lewis used a banned substance to help him recover from a torn triceps suffered early in the regular season.
After a couple of years without frequent large scale exposures, 2013 has shown resurgence in the PED problem. On January 4th, world-renowned cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to having used banned performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions during his career. In his admission to Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong mentioned that he it would not have been possible to win seven consecutive Tour de France titles without the edge the drugs gave him. Not only that, but he threatened to ruin the lives of people who exposed his secrets.
Then towards the end of January, an article in the Miami New Times reported that a man named Anthony Bosch owned a clinic in South Florida that supplied PEDs to a plethora of Major League Baseball players, including Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon, and Nelson Cruz as recently as 2012. The new faces on this list were Gonzalez and Cruz, who were never associated with PED use prior. Colon and Cabrera were both suspended last year for violating MLB’s drug rules.
The name that will continue to float around for years with PED’s will be Alex Rodriguez. Here is a man who back in 2009, admitted to taking steroids throughout his time with the Texas Rangers between 2001-2003. It appears that he has lied to the public and has continued his PED use for over a decade. Rodriguez, once a feared hitter, is now recovering from his second hip surgery and has seen his statistics drop significantly over the last few seasons. He has brought just as much shame on his sport and career as Lance Armstrong did to his.
Rodriguez currently has 6-years left on his contract, with $114 million set to come his way excluding milestone incentives. If the league proves that he was in fact taking PEDs in recent years, he could face a 50-game suspension, which would probably keep him out for the entire 2013 season. The Yankees are even trying to find a way to terminate his contract, as he will only decline performance wise and bring shame to the organization.
All of these PED scandals have brought up many points for debate. What should happen to athletes who break the rules? Should PEDs be allowed since many athletes are using them? Hopefully these ideas will get you to think about how you truly feel on the subject.
It is time for professional sports leagues to take a stand. If a player is caught taking a performance-enhancing drug, they should be banned from the league. No second chances, it is virtually impossible at this point for an individual to think that doing drugs does not violate league rules. It is not fair to the players who are clean, as the cheaters have already received fair warning about consequences, and could learn from the mistakes of others. The other alternative is lifting the ban on PEDs and just accepting the fact that athletes will use them. Either everyone should be allowed to use them or there should be no place for gaining an unnatural advantage.
It has become increasingly common that high school and college athletes are found cheating by these methods. When a teenager sees that their favorite athlete is juicing, it must be okay for them to do so as well, right? This is peer pressure and the thought of “If everyone is doing it then I should as well.”
It is time for the commissioners of the world’s sports leagues to take a stand. They must do so now or the next generation of professional athletes will carry on the tradition of cheating and giving their sport a black eye, or professional sports will lose the appeal that has made them so popular.