Steroid Use in Professional Sports :: Athletics Drugs Papers

Steroid Use in Professional Sports For fans, the issue of steroid use in professional sports is one of growing concern. Professional athletes were once hailed as roll models for young Americans, now there is an asterisk next to many names once idolized. Is he legitimately getting bigger, faster, and stronger? Is he one of the league’s best, strictly due to his talent and work ethic alone? Or is he one of â€Å"those guys†? Maybe former NBA great, Charles Barkley, had it right when he said, â€Å"I am not a roll model.† But maybe, just maybe, these men and women have a responsibility to the kids who adore them to do the right thing; to compete at the highest level with absolute legitimacy in the way they go about doing it. Maybe they are roll models and because they are, they must conduct themselves in a way that is respectable and â€Å"right†. The problem of steroid use in professional sports is perpetuated because the current testing policies in such leagues as Major League Baseball are n ot strict or comprehensive enough to curb the benefits athletes gain from steroid use. They have sub-par policies and are conducting sub-par testing practices. Since we cannot count on the athletes themselves to rid the leagues of this problem, the leagues need to take steroids on and defeat it with stricter regulations. Testing of steroids is simply ineffective in professional sports and until something is done the negative influence it has upon America’s youth will continue to grow. Anabolic steroids, which can be taken as a pill or as an injection, are a derivative of and mimic the effects of the male sex hormone testosterone. Both men and women naturally produce testosterone, although women make very small amounts in comparison to men. Testosterone's role in the body is two-fold: first, it maintains the male reproductive system, including production and maintenance of the male sexual characteristics of a deeper voice, greater amounts of body hair, larger body size, and greater muscle mass. Second, for a short period of time at the onset of puberty in young men, testosterone production rises dramatically to stimulate the bulk of the male physical maturation process which leads to full bone growth, deepening voice, and growth of facial hair. It is this ability to promote muscle growth, increase lean body mass, and decrease body fat that entices teenagers to take anabolic steroids.