Should performance enhancing drugs be legalized?

Performance Enhancing Drugs / Wordonfire.org

Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) are very prevalent in sports, but only a small majority of players are caught using them. PEDs are considered to be unsportsmanlike in their use because of the unfair advantage that they offer. In addition, there are many risks in taking them, like psychological issues and permanent nerve damage. Knowing the risks, multiple players still use these drugs to gain an upper hand.

With so many players getting caught using PEDs, some have come to the conclusion that PEDs should be allowed in professional sports. In Major League Baseball alone, 31 athletes have been caught doping and in the National Football League over 20 athletes have also been caught doping. On a global scale, the Olympics and the Tour de France potentially face a great doping problem.

“Eighty percent of the Tour de France medalists between 1996 and 2010 have been similarly tainted by doping',” according to a 2013 USADA report on Lance Armstrong.

By legalizing PEDs and allowing all players to use them, the drugs could be monitored and regulated. This would allow players to take the drugs in safer and more knowledgeable conditions, leveling the playing field for all players. By doping, players could hit harder, run and react faster, putting the game on a higher level.

Extreme records could be achieved and this is shown through top athletes who have taken PEDs, like seven consecutive winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong. Even though legalizing these drugs seem like it would make the game better, it wouldn't fix all of the issues that already exist. In addition, it would bring forth new problems.

If PEDs become regulated, they are still dangerous and can injure players. After seeing their heroes take drugs, it may influence children to take drugs as well. There are many side effects to taking drugs like heart and circulatory problems. Knowing these severe risks, it is hard to justify the legalization of these drugs

Allowing PEDs to be available to all athletes may not even level the playing field, since some players have a moral code against using drugs or are scared of the risks it presents. Sports are considered to be so sacred because they showcase the pinnacle of human skill. By taking drugs, it would no longer be about how far a human can push himself, but on well we can create them.

“We want humans to do superhuman things -- but only in a very human way. Yes, you can try to make steroids legal. That doesn't mean they will ever seem OK,” Michael Rosenberg wrote in a 2010 Sports Illustrated article.

Written by Justin Wu and Kofi Odame 

The two faces of social media

Social media is a convenient way to talk to others and stay connected even if you are miles away from them. It is great tool and people all over the world use it everyday, but athletes have to be on their guard whenever they post something. Social media can turn the player's life upside down in a second, but if the they learns how to use it effectively it will be one of their greatest weapons.

With amazingly fast internet speeds and fans that follow the player 24/7, any information the player releases will spread over the internet within a few minutes. A single misinterpreted post can lead to a world of trouble for athletes and it will usually end up in losing popularity.

Keeping feelings inside is actually not as easy as it looks especially when you are furious at someone else. A player may lose a game and just flip out on the other team and post insulting comments. Even if they just yell something insulting. someone in the stands might be recording the game and even post what they heard. Players have to be careful of what they say and post both on and off the field.

In high schools and colleges, the school and the coach will try to limit the use of social media. They aren't trying to stop the use of social media, but they will so what they can to stop it from becoming a problem. "We don't want to dictate to them what they can do on a daily basis," Coach Steve Pederson from Pittsburgh University said. "These are smart, young people we are dealing with. We just try to educate them on making good decisions, how to make good judgments."
 
In certain cases athletes are to download an app that allows the school/coach to see what they have been posting online. If something inappropriate is found on the athlete’s page he/she is usually asked to immediately take it down. Sometimes the coach will even take away the athlete’s privilege to use social media and ban him/her from using it at all.
 
Social media plays a huge role in an athlete’s life as it can both hurt and help him/her. Depending on how well the athlete can manage social media he/she can become more popular without any trouble. Kevin Long, the CEO of MVP Sports Media Training and U Diligence said "If it's not something that would be OK with your mother if someone sent her a link to what you wrote, then there is probably a better way of saying or not saying it at all.” Social media can be a helpful tool or it can be a life changing problem depending on how you look at it, but as long as athletes are smart and careful they won’t have any trouble using social media.

The age of social media and sports

Zack Ryder / thatguygil - Flickr

Social media helps athletes in a number of ways. Many athletes use it to attract attention, get news, and stay connected with people.

The WWE rewards wrestlers who build up a fan base on social media. One instance of this is Zack Ryder’s recent climb in the business. Ryder began making Youtube videos that many fans enjoyed. His Youtube fame got to the point where fans would hold up signs for him in live events that he wasn’t a part of. This persuaded the WWE to put him in more matches and when it came to their annual Slammy Awards event a few months later, Ryder won the Trending Star of the Year.

Professional athletes are often on the road which causes some athletes to feel lonely. “It’s good to stay in touch with friends, family, and fans,” said Aaron Brown, a sophomore shooting guard at Temple University, to SLAM. Social media is an easy way for athletes to stay connected to these various people.

Social media already has the capability of spreading news faster than newspapers. In fact, Twitter can now boast how it alerts athletes faster than their agents on topics as big as a trade. Craig Breslow, now a pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks, tweeted, “I can no longer denounce the relevance of Twitter. It broke the story of my trade ... to me.”

Social media is an athletes stage for a different type of preformance and it effects them in many ways. Many athletes are targeted as prey through social media, but as Howard Ferguson (1990) wrote in his book The Edge, “Mediocre people play it safe and avoid criticism at all costs. Champions risk criticism every time they perform.”

Athletes tweet away

Credit to Morpurgo

There are plenty of examples of athletes getting into trouble on social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. Most of the time, an artificial, insincere apology follows. Then, the story fades away into the bellows of the past within the next couple of days. As more athletes get into trouble over what they say, more coaches and agents are banning their players from Twitter or filtering what they post.
 

Athletes have said stupid things on Twitter since it first became popular, and they will continue to say such things on Twitter until it fades away (if it ever does). A lot of the time, they do not realize that seconds after they post something on Twitter, thousands of fans can see it and it could be damaging to their reputation or image.

Stupid or insulting things posted on Twitter rarely damage a professional athlete’s image permanently. When an athlete posts something offensive on a social media site, all they have to do is say “Sorry” with an explanation afterward which mostly consist of something like “I wasn’t thinking” or “I realize now that what I said could have been offensive”. After that happens, most of the time the story is over and everyone is forgiven.


With all the players who have gotten fined for what they tweet, there has only been one well-known instance of someone losing their job. That person is Larry Johnson, former Pro-Bowl running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. After lashing out at one of his coaches and insulting one of his fans with a gay slur, he was released from the team after 32,000 fans signed a petition asking the Chiefs to fire him. No amount of apologies could have gotten him out of that situation.


Social media rarely has a permanent, negative effect on an athlete’s image. If anything, it draws more publicity to them and makes them have even more followers because everyone wants to see their post.

Social media, a change for the better?

Many people use social media such as Twitter and Facebook, for these are ways to send and receive information faster than newspapers. However, when sports start to ban social media, many questions arise wondering if social media is good or bad for the sport.



Some major social media used by many



Manchester United is a soccer team that banned the use of social media. Many of its members’ Facebook and Twitter accounts were closed right after the policy came down. Manchester United said that banning social media keeps the teams reputation safe and protects inside information without it being revealed to the public. Shortly after Manchester United’s ban, their rival Manchester City also banned the use of social media.

However; soccer is not the only sport being affected. The National Football League and The US Open also ban the use of any social media during a game. Andy Roddick, who plays in the US open said, “I think its lame the US Open is trying to regulate our tweeting. … I understand the on-court issue but not sure they can tell us if we can.”

This seems that social media is a bad influence on sports, but there are others that argue social media has positive influence. Many sports fans using Twitter or Facebook check on their favorite players and see how they played in recent games. They could also have a chance of talking to favorite player. Sports teams also can use social media as a chance to generate revenue. The Jets used social media and gained many fans by giving away prizes such as tickets to games.

Sport fans say sports teams should just adopt the way social media is going to affect them, because of its positive results affecting both sports and sport fans alike. Adam Ostrow, chief editor of Mashable said, “Social media should be viewed as a fantastic compliment to sports that is good for both fans and the TV networks, but at the moment, it seems that’s anything but how it’s being perceived.”

Social media and it's affect on the sports industry

In a generation influenced by social media, websites such as Facebook and Twitter are strong tools in advertising. The cause of this is that news can be posted through mobile devices quickly and easily. With this option, athletes are able to present opinions and promote public events to their fans. These interactions through social media networks offer fans a voice in the sports industry and can share their thoughts to the athletes using Twitter.

Social media's reliable ways to spread information and give fans an option to communicate with athletes has positive effects on the sports industry. Depending on a player’s involvement with Twitter and Facebook their popularity will increase. With a large fan base, players see higher sales in their merchandise such as jerseys and other apparel.

Even though the athletes have better ways of spreading their thoughts through the internet, there can be negative effects of doing this. With the world spending time on social media, athletes have to be aware of how they are addressing their opinions. If their post is offending to anyone, it will spread and negatively impact the player’s reputation.

Players even have to watch what they say about their opponents. There have been numerous situations where the players have said insults toward the opposing team and caused conflict. For example, in the past week there was a college basketball fight that started over Twitter. At first it was just the players talking trash, but it escalated from there and all the anger poured out during the game.

Social media will always have ups and downs. If athletes appropriately express their opinions to the public they can avoid conflicts, but if they feel free to express their thoughts they may run into trouble and face consequences. However, players and coaches are able to share advice with their fans and even advertise their team’s merchandise.

What Does Losing Feel Like?

         When you play a football game on someone else’s field the odds are against you: a new climate, unfamiliar territory and a hostile crowd. If you are motivated by the love of your city, however, anything is possible. September 23rd was going to be a rough day. Just two weeks earlier two American jet liners had slammed into one of the most iconic buildings in New York City, the World Trade Center. Both the Giants and the Jets had lost their previous games and were really in a slump, but they needed to win this one for New York City.

         The Giants had always been a good team, but the Chiefs would be one tough team to beat, and the emotions running through the player’s heads wouldn’t make it any easier. Many people thought that they wouldn’t even be able to emotionally pull it together. Hank Gola for the New York Post predicted that the Giants would lose to the Chiefs 17-14. The odds were seriously stacked against them and there was no doubt that it would be an intense game.

         However, when the Giants took the field, they saw something different; the terrorist attacks had sent shock-waves throughout the country, and it showed. Kansas City residents were holding up signs saying “KC loves NY,” and they are not known to be the friendliest of crowds in the country. This was something that the Giants did not expect, and maybe it helped them, because when they took the field, they crushed the Chiefs 13-3.  The crowd erupted in applause; Chiefs fullback Tony Richardson said, “They deserved the applause [because] it was their backyard, they actually saw it, they’ve been down to the site. Some of these people were their friends, their neighbors.” The Chiefs knew very well that this victory would mean a lot to the Giants, and all of New York City. “They were playing for their city and their state,” said Chiefs defensive end Eric Hicks.

         All of the players were ecstatic, and proud that they had won one for New York. Kerry Collins of the Giants said, “It was nice to know that, on some level, we had a positive influence for the events going on.” Shaun Williams for the Giants added, “It was important for our city to have something to smile about. It was important for them to have something to feel good about again." The Giants knew that this had meant something for New York City, and so did the Kansas City Chiefs, but the Jets winning the same day made the taste of winning even better.

         Coming out of a slump is no easy job, especially when bad emotions are raging, and on top of that, they had been crushed by the Colts just two weeks earlier. It would be tough for the Jets to come out ahead of the Patriots, but somehow they won. The Jets coach Herman Edwards definitely had something to do with it. Prior to the game he told his team, “People who can deal with inconvenience, those are the guys who are successful.” Taking the field equipped with their coach’s advice, and with their pride and passion for their city, the Jets were able to extract a 10-3 victory out of the Patriots.

         Winning the game was no easy task. However, the Jets did it using key defensive elements. The Patriots had turned the ball over four times during the game; two of these times were when they were in the red zone. On the Patriots last drive, perhaps the most important play of the game, Jets’ linebacker Mo Lewis crushed quarterback Drew Bledsoe as he tried to scramble for extra yards. This forced him out of the game and gave the job to the Patriots’ backup quarterback, Tom Brady. Brady failed to score and the Jets ended up conquering the game.

         The Patriots knew that this was a sensitive game. During the game, the Patriots honored the firefighters and police officers that had died during the terrorist attack. They even had Joe Andruzzi’s father and three brothers, New York City firefighters that had participated in the rescue operations at the World Trade Center, on as honorary captains. During the game over 60,000 American Flags were given out to all of the fans, and many people donated to the Red Cross. The Patriots played this game light-heartedly, "You've got to have fun playing this game, or it doesn't mean anything. No matter how much you get paid, you've got to have fun," said Patriots cornerback Ty Law. Football was one of the many ways that Americans would learn to cope with the unspeakable tragedy of September 11th.


Contributed to by: Greg Sakas, Timothy Jacobs and Amora Meas