Doping and the Dopes who don't get it

I'm going to take the time to post a little note that's been bouncing in my head about performance enhancing drugs in sports (aka doping).

Bicycle racing in America is irrelevant for the most part except for the days that Lance Armstrong or whatever American rider is behind/takes the lead and the day they finish in the Tour de France. Well this year, it was made totally irrelevant by entire teams being disqualified for taking banned substances.

I recently read the Game of Shadows by Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru of the San Fransisco Chronicle. This book servers partly as a the biography of Victor Conte, the history of his Bay Area Lab Cooperative (BALCO), and a sort of who's who of professional sports that Conte was involved with.

This isn't so much aimed at the athletes as much as it is the sports writers and fans who say such things as "it wan't against the rules" or "it doesn't matter". WRONG. Each sport in American has something called the morals clause meaning that the team can void the contract if the player gets involved with something illegal. Guess what? Posession of these drugs, doctor/pharmacy shopping, being involved in distribution of the drugs, as well as conspiricacy to do any of the above would be just some of the FELONIES committed by the athletes. That does not excuse the felonies or ethics/license violations of the doctors and pharmacists, but we don't know who some MD or PharmD is, we do know who our favorite players are.

So violation of the morals clause isn't enough for you? What about the fact that most of these are horomones, either peptide or glucocorticoids derived from cholesterol. These will radically effect your own endocrine system, reproductive system, and give leave you open to a higher chance of cancer? From what I know the only time any of the so called anabolic steroids or HGH should be subscribed is for conditions of primoridal dwarvism or in the case of muscle reattatchment surgery. Even than, it is at a does that is 100-1000x less than what is being taken by these cheats. Yes, so this is more directed to the players unions, if you don't want to test, than fine, you provide for medical costs for your players future cancers, testicles shrinking into nothing, sex changes for females, as well as behavior problems that can't even be predicted do to hormonal imbalance. It was so bad for NFL players of the 70s and early 80s that they had to instigate testing. They woke up, and moved onto new drugs that need to be detected and removed from the game. With diet and exercise, yes, players can be 6'8" and 330 lbs, but they don't look like a body builder or professional wrestler.

So players/public health and contractual reasons aren't enough, how about integrity of the game? Sports is usually about competition and overcoming either an opponent, time, distance, field/course, history, injury etc. By giving yourself an edge that you can't have naturally, why should I appreciate you?

That's one reason, beyond growing up, I would never go back to watching professional wrestling. First, the results are fixed. Second, they're all on something, and those bodies aren't capable of being like that withoug working out 8+ hours a day 24/7/365. How can being on the road 50 weeks a year get you that way? It can't without the wonders of pharmacology.

I gave up on baseball along time ago because it was boring. You didn't do anything. And when you got the chance to do something, I hadn't done anything in so long, my body couldn't respond. That's why I got into football. I've trained for 3-4 hours a day eating into my sleep schedule. It kept me active and alert. Track and field keeps one really moving. After 90 minutes of practice one is exhausted, add to it another 40 minutes for field events, and 30 in general weight training and I wonder how or if I ever did homework in high school.

What should be done about these cheats? First this is just as bad as gambling, gambling with one's life. They should be banned from the game, all test results and prescription trails handed over to the FBI/Police and clean them out and put them in jail. Next, their records should be either have asterisks or double daggers placed next to it. Finally, contracts and endorsement bonuses should be sought by their teams and corporations like NIKE and REEBOK. That's right, get your money back.