Found this editorial on the net about steroids:
HOLOCAUST OF THE JUICE
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
If someone in the broadcasting profession has a bit of common sense, they'd give Tony Siragusa his own show.
Fox is showing the Chicago-Minnesota game after the Falcons embarrassed themselves and our metro area today in Tampa. By the way, that over-paid bust who wears #81 for the Falcons is now PEERFUL Price. He is clearly not peerless. Or Dimeadozen Price. It works.
Anyway, Dick Stockton, the Fox announcer for the Bears/Vikes game sends it down to "Goose" on the sidelines for a report:
SIRAGUSA: It started out sunny today, but it's gotten progressively colder as the game has worn on. Minnesota started to tighten up, and now it's like they're in a block of ice.
STOCKTON: What's it down there on the field now? 33 degrees?
SIRAGUSA: Nah...It's 32.
Hire Dick Stockton to lead the band and ask stupid questions. Winner!
It's amazing to me that while we watch the 13th week of a sport where everyone down to the kicker on the pro and college level are on juice, (and if you watch any of the high school championships on TV, some of those teens as well) and everybody is all up in arms about Barry Bonds. There's no question he took them, but the key question is not why or if he took them. Would anyone like to know why the district attorneys in the BALCO case are leaking grand jury testimony?
Here's what steroids don't do: They do not warrant the real damage done to a culture by a corrupted judicial system that believes that end zone dances belong outside on the courthouse steps. Steroids don't help hand/eye coordination, so contrary to what the eternally bitter Hank Aaron will tell you, his career home run mark will be shattered without question and without disgrace by Bonds.
Steroids are used for rapid recovery which leads to strength. What would you have them do? Ingest mega doses of over-the-counter anti-inflammatories? Sure, the athletes would be ****ting out what's left of their stomach linings and liver, but that's a small price to pay to curry favor with the political notions of hysterics who start their arguments with, "Look what happened to Lyle Alzado." Who? Mary-Kate Olsen in a Raiders uniform? You can't stop body image psychosis with laws.
Want to end the whining and carping from the liberal hypocrites known as the American sportswriter? They love it when Giambi and Bonds are knocking it out for home team, but they'reshocked..shocked! when they discover that steroids were in the mix. Does anyone believe that the people paid to keep a close eye on a sports team can't see it, when any casual fan sitting in front of a 20" television can? Their real bitterness comes from missing the boat once again. Can't play sports? Report on them. Can't report on them? Moan how you were deceived. In Giambi's case, the personal perils of steroid use are readily apparent. He made a deal with the devil and his steroid use got him injured. But he's made his money, helped sell some tickets, and who's hurt?
You really want to solve the "problem" of steroid use in baseball? Repeal the batting helmet for steroid users. Put some fear back into the plate appearance. Oh, and discourage minors and women from watching sports. Problem solved. Most of the piety and confusion about what the business sports is all about stems from a romantic notion of pro sports as a laboratory where children are taught the virtues of sportsmanship, hard work, and community service. Knock it off, already. Make the kids play sports instead of watching them. They're too fat and lazy as it is. Everyone wins.
Yeah, you'll lose some revenue, but it's a wash when you factor in how much money and time is wasted on public relations programs and enforcement of rules designed to con the consumer that pro athletes can be off-the-shelf muses for national inspiration. You don't see the porn industry complaining about their profits. Last I checked, their fan base was still pretty much a solid "adult males" club. They've got a lot of inspiring people in that business without embarrassing us all by publicly building houses for the poor. When was the last time you saw a hot slut in Juicy Couture and heavy eye liner serving gravy on a soup line at Christmas?
Taking away the tools of a professional whose living depends on physical strength is absurd in pro sports when movie actors get paid as much while taking all sorts of supplements illegal and not, starve themselves, and get elective surgery on their breasts, asses, faces, torsos, all in the name of career research and development. Bonds used steroids to help him jack homers? Well, I heard a nasty rumor that Tobey McGuire used computers, cables, harnesses and steroids to become Spiderman...twice! Look into that. You think Aerosmith took "performance enhancing drugs?" Maybe they didn't know what exactly was in the needles at the time.
If Arnold Schwarzenegger never took steroids, would he be governor of California today? No. He wouldn't even be the Burgermeister of Graz. So spare me the before and after photos of Barry Bonds. No one cares, and nothing will be done because the owners of these teams make more money from schmucks who want to see home runs than from the public interest nags who don't.