...to the public. No wonder we have the problems we do today.
==================================
Izenberg: The need to succeed makes it easy to abuse the body <B></B>Sunday, November 24, 2002
<B>BY JERRY IZENBERG </B>
<B>Star-Ledger Staff</B>
Starting with the first public disclosures, all but the dumbest of the dumb understood the permanent damage to mind and body that anabolic steroids were capable of generating.
From the moment Lyle Alzado, emaciated and dying, went public, what began as the dark, dirty secret of body-building gyms and football locker rooms was exposed for what it was.
It did not take long to understand its role in kidney failure, cancer of the liver, testicles and pancreas among male athletes, let alone its ability to act just as dangerously on females.
But still they tried it.
Then in the wake of that knowledge came a second wave of horror.
"Roid" rage
It was a steroid-induced sociopathic form of behavior.
But still, illegal steroids did not disappear
Then came the "diet supplements."
Who can forget the battle over a supplement colloquially known as andro, used by Mark McGwire (and other major-league players) during the season of the great home run chase? It was banned by the International Olympic Committee, the NCAA and most other pro sports, but baseball refused to take action because it said it "needed more study" on the matter.
If you believe that rationale, then I know a guy who would like to sell you a bridge named after George Washington and a tunnel named after Abe Lincoln. Could it be that baseball didn't want to open the door to charges of better and longer home runs through chemistry?
In a tragic and pathetic way, much of the above has roots in an unregulated industry that manufactures what it calls "nutritional supplements." Somehow, some way these folks can make and sell whatever they want without regulation from the FDA. Just as long as they do not promise it will treat or cure anything.
This comes to mind today because the NFL banned a substance called ephedrine, and now the NFL Players' Association thinks the league's penalties are too harsh. Gene Upshaw, the only players' association president in any sport to have played the game, wants penalties reduced because sometimes players cannot tell the "supplements" they have taken contain ephedrine.
One suspects this might happen through collective bargaining next year, but it was something else Upshaw said that ought to set off a few bells:
"What our guys are doing is not normal. Our guys are not going to work every day and sitting behind a desk and then going home. Our players need these things, whether it's for anti-inflammatory reasons or for joints or any number of other things. Are you telling me we shouldn't even take vitamins, either?"
Those needs Upshaw speaks of can be addressed by the NFL's medical and training staffs through a new agreement. That isn't that difficult if players learn not to listen to the guy in the locker next to them and the league is more specific about determining what supplements can and cannot be taken.
What triggers an uneasy note of warning here is Upshaw's explanation that players will always seek supplements and "that's not going to change."
Go back to steroids now and their widespread use after the knowledge of what they can do became clear...go back to andro...go to blood doping...go to all the others. There is no shortage of options.
The bottom line here is very different than the harmless search for home remedies.
The bottom line is the relentless search by athletes for a magical edge that will make them bigger, faster, increase their respiration, in effect, do things that training and routine and dedication cannot get done...do things to give them an edge they haven't earned.
Some people might interpret the above as a plea for fair play.
But this is far beyond that notion and far beyond cheating.
This is mostly about money.
When the old Eastern bloc Olympic countries changed the physiology of their women athletes to the point where they took on the voices and the physical characteristics of the bass section of the Red Army Chorus, they did it for Olympic gold, propaganda and money.
When pro football players first took steroids, they did it because they thought it would keep them on the team, make them better and, thus, make more money.
When McGwire took andro, he said it made him feel better. But he did it for the home run record and stopped after he set it.
In short, sports have long since reached the place where the reward is the spur.
So what happened to us? Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned, wholesome cheating, you know, cheating where the grounds crew wets down the infield so the other guys' base-stealer might as well be running with a jukebox tied to his ankle...where you sneak a guy inside the scoreboard with field glasses to steal the catcher's signs...where the home-team timekeeper uses a heavy thumb...where the promoter buys the officials' votes at a heavyweight championship match?
Where has tradition gone?
Where? Swallowed up by the better results from better chemistry in the never-ending search by individual athletes to emerge as the prototype of a master athletic race...to seek the edge whatever the physical cost. It has gone to potential suicide by ingestion.
This last gives the lie to every coach who looks his players in their eyes and says, "Men, you've got to be intelligent to play this game."
It's the pills, stupid.
<I>Jerry Izenberg appears regularly </I>
in The Star-Ledger.
==================================
Izenberg: The need to succeed makes it easy to abuse the body <B></B>Sunday, November 24, 2002
<B>BY JERRY IZENBERG </B>
<B>Star-Ledger Staff</B>
Starting with the first public disclosures, all but the dumbest of the dumb understood the permanent damage to mind and body that anabolic steroids were capable of generating.
From the moment Lyle Alzado, emaciated and dying, went public, what began as the dark, dirty secret of body-building gyms and football locker rooms was exposed for what it was.
It did not take long to understand its role in kidney failure, cancer of the liver, testicles and pancreas among male athletes, let alone its ability to act just as dangerously on females.
But still they tried it.
Then in the wake of that knowledge came a second wave of horror.
"Roid" rage
It was a steroid-induced sociopathic form of behavior.
But still, illegal steroids did not disappear
Then came the "diet supplements."
Who can forget the battle over a supplement colloquially known as andro, used by Mark McGwire (and other major-league players) during the season of the great home run chase? It was banned by the International Olympic Committee, the NCAA and most other pro sports, but baseball refused to take action because it said it "needed more study" on the matter.
If you believe that rationale, then I know a guy who would like to sell you a bridge named after George Washington and a tunnel named after Abe Lincoln. Could it be that baseball didn't want to open the door to charges of better and longer home runs through chemistry?
In a tragic and pathetic way, much of the above has roots in an unregulated industry that manufactures what it calls "nutritional supplements." Somehow, some way these folks can make and sell whatever they want without regulation from the FDA. Just as long as they do not promise it will treat or cure anything.
This comes to mind today because the NFL banned a substance called ephedrine, and now the NFL Players' Association thinks the league's penalties are too harsh. Gene Upshaw, the only players' association president in any sport to have played the game, wants penalties reduced because sometimes players cannot tell the "supplements" they have taken contain ephedrine.
One suspects this might happen through collective bargaining next year, but it was something else Upshaw said that ought to set off a few bells:
"What our guys are doing is not normal. Our guys are not going to work every day and sitting behind a desk and then going home. Our players need these things, whether it's for anti-inflammatory reasons or for joints or any number of other things. Are you telling me we shouldn't even take vitamins, either?"
Those needs Upshaw speaks of can be addressed by the NFL's medical and training staffs through a new agreement. That isn't that difficult if players learn not to listen to the guy in the locker next to them and the league is more specific about determining what supplements can and cannot be taken.
What triggers an uneasy note of warning here is Upshaw's explanation that players will always seek supplements and "that's not going to change."
Go back to steroids now and their widespread use after the knowledge of what they can do became clear...go back to andro...go to blood doping...go to all the others. There is no shortage of options.
The bottom line here is very different than the harmless search for home remedies.
The bottom line is the relentless search by athletes for a magical edge that will make them bigger, faster, increase their respiration, in effect, do things that training and routine and dedication cannot get done...do things to give them an edge they haven't earned.
Some people might interpret the above as a plea for fair play.
But this is far beyond that notion and far beyond cheating.
This is mostly about money.
When the old Eastern bloc Olympic countries changed the physiology of their women athletes to the point where they took on the voices and the physical characteristics of the bass section of the Red Army Chorus, they did it for Olympic gold, propaganda and money.
When pro football players first took steroids, they did it because they thought it would keep them on the team, make them better and, thus, make more money.
When McGwire took andro, he said it made him feel better. But he did it for the home run record and stopped after he set it.
In short, sports have long since reached the place where the reward is the spur.
So what happened to us? Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned, wholesome cheating, you know, cheating where the grounds crew wets down the infield so the other guys' base-stealer might as well be running with a jukebox tied to his ankle...where you sneak a guy inside the scoreboard with field glasses to steal the catcher's signs...where the home-team timekeeper uses a heavy thumb...where the promoter buys the officials' votes at a heavyweight championship match?
Where has tradition gone?
Where? Swallowed up by the better results from better chemistry in the never-ending search by individual athletes to emerge as the prototype of a master athletic race...to seek the edge whatever the physical cost. It has gone to potential suicide by ingestion.
This last gives the lie to every coach who looks his players in their eyes and says, "Men, you've got to be intelligent to play this game."
It's the pills, stupid.
<I>Jerry Izenberg appears regularly </I>
in The Star-Ledger.