Bigger, Faster, Stronger

The movie we watched in class last week was one of the most informative and interesting documentaries I have seen in a long time. Underneath the obvious message that steroids can and will ruin your life in many ways, there was a strong message that America is obsessed with winning and its impression much more than it cares about character. Several people that were on steroids were interviewed and they proceeded to state how they were happy on steroids because they liked being that strong and powerful, regardless of the side effects. They were so single minded and oblivious that they were convinced that what they were doing was right. And that mindset seems to come with some Americans. We tend to be so caught up with winning and succeeding at any cost that we completely miss the vision of what is right. In the lives of these steroid users, everyone around them used it, so to them, they were no different then the person next to them. And when everyone is doing it, it seems less wrong. With their skewed up view of the enhancements, and the fact that everyone around them is also using, they have completely lost sight of the fact that steroids ruin lives. And when people would try to convince them that steroids were bad, they would not budge their stances. It is the mind of Americans and sometimes it tends to get WAY out of hand.

Steroids and Such

Steroids are terrible for the body in so many ways. They ruin your long term physical health, they make you be considered a cheater, they alter your mental health and make you extremely short tempered, and much more that doesn't need mentioning. Since steroids are illegal and banned in basically every sport, no athletes should be using them. But new ideas and new supplements are constantly being designed and discovered and athletes are finding ways around steroids all of the time. The tests keep having to improve to keep up with the times and more and more enhancements get banned each and every year. So the question is, when are they going to give up and just make steroids legal? Since there seems to be no way to really keep athletes from using them.
Steroids should never be legal. If the government and league officials were to allow athletes, or anyone for that matter, to treat their bodies in such a horrible way just to have an advantage in competition, it would be making a huge mistake. The harms that can come from taking steroids heavily out way any glory steroids can bring. There is no way that the higher ups can bring themselves to support this wrong doing. They would basically be sending the message: it is more important to win than to take care of your body. That is not okay.
However, on the other hand, what if keeping up with the time does get too hectic? What if there is no way to really keep players from using the new and improved, undetectable performance enhancer of that time? The answer to that is, just keep doing the best to enforce steroid prevention. And if there is ever any giving up, do it by simply not changing the tests and failing to keep up with the times. But do not legalize performance enhancers. No one wants to see a juiced up and LEGAL America.

Ethics and Values

Ethics, to me, is a very subjective and interesting topic. Questions like "What is right and what is wrong?" or "What should have happened there?" intrigue me so much, especially when it comes to sports. Players make questionable ethical decisions in sports games all of the time. The most obvious and common to me is when a soccer player flops and fakes an injury just for a minor foul call. Should he fake the injury and potentially get the call? Or should he keep playing through it and if he gets the call it is just an added bonus. In my personal opinion, the player should always play through the "questionable calls" and earn the goal and the victory. To me, if I do win by faking a foul or persuading the referee or doing something besides actually earning the victory, it doesn't feel like a real W in my mind. But that may be just me.

The story of Paul Brown and his high school football team is definitely an interesting one. This happening seems to be so rare that it is worth repeating. The team uniforms had a picture of a regulation sized football on the front of their jerseys and the picture looked real enough so that the defense could mistake it for the real ball. So when the ball was snapped, all of the players would hold their hands near their jersey's like they were holding the ball and the defense wouldn't know where the actual ball is. Who thinks of something like that?!?! Yes, it is genius. But in my mind, it is completely unethical and wrong. I know it was not against the rules then, but the players and coaches had to feel like they were cheating. And if I win a game with that cheating taste in my mouth, it does not feel even close to a real victory to me. What coach Brown did was completely wrong in my book and him and all of his players should feel guilty for "bending" the rules so much like that.

I am excited for the next ethics discussion on Wednesday, this stuff really revs my engine.