Pro athletes and performance enhancing drugs...a lose-lose
| Steroids, growth hormone, water pills (diuretics) and the like are an integral yet dangerous part of sports today. Professional level and pre-professional (euphemistically called amateur) level sports of nearly all flavors are infected with the scourge of better performance through modern chemistry. I will not bore you with a description of the potentially dire health consequences of these practices. That technique has been tried before with similar results (Remember those crash and burn films in high school driver's ed class? That didn't work either.). Life is a series of daily evaluations of risk vs. reward. The reward is perceived as significant and immediate. Yet the risks are considered poorly defined and remote. Simply put...many will choose to buy now and pay later. If athletes will readily risk their health, I wonder if they will value their reputations any more highly? Why? Because they will get caught and scandalized. Records and championships will be tarnished. Their potential Hall of Fame inclusion will be history. Chances for endorsements will dry up. Opportunities for high profile 'retirement' employment will evaporate. The fallen star will be the poster child for everything that is wrong with sports. This secret is a chain that is only as strong as its weakest link. As soon as someone who knows (regardless of their participation) gets jammed up for any reason other links of the chain (people) will get offered up during the process of cutting a deal. It's not only the supplier that may talk. Don't forget the ex-girlfriend, divorced wife, nit wit that got dismissed from the entourage, body builder 'dude' that you 'know' from the gym or anyone that knows any of these potential traitors who then happens to catch a charge. A few words to the wise. Shady doctors who get their offices raided by the Feds will not 'man up' and do the time. And these well educated 'dealers' make particularly credible witnesses against you at trial. |
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