What's the Big Deal About Steroids?

I understand they are illegal not just in sports but in general, but even so. What is the big deal? All of a sudden, fans, journalists, coaches, and "straight" athletes are talking about how disgusted they are. I heard one talk radio host say his 10 year old son's life was ruined, because he found out his hero, Alex Rodriguez, took steroids. If that's all it takes to ruin your kid's life, then you are a shitty parent who doesn't take enough responsibility. Hey, someone needs to say it. Now, more than ever, we should really heed Charles Barkley's words. Athletes are not supposed to be role models for your kids. That's your job, not theirs. Ten years ago, it was the same media members glorifying stars like Mark McGwire during his home run record chase. Back then, they were willing to overlook his unavoidable weight gain, veins popping out of his neck, and acne. Journalists could have done something about it way back then, but they chose to accept it instead of asking questions. The level of hypocrisy is astounding.

It's about time for everyone to realize that sports figures are not some larger than life representation of reality. These days, it's rare to find a pro athlete that has finished college. Athletic ability is their forte, but I'm not going to let my kid take grammar lessons from Delonte West. And like any profession, athletes are looking for a leg up to be more competitive. It happens in some form in every industry, so what makes it wrong for athletes? Any given athlete can declare he is clean, but every player I see is an automatic suspect of using. In my own view, this doesn't bother me. As long as I'm helping to pay for their exorbitant salaries (which is a whole different catastrophe), they might as well be juiced up super freaks. If I wanted mediocre talent by average sized people, I'd go to a high school game and pay 5 bucks to get in the gate. The entire reason you are paying $30 for a bleacher seat at an MLB game is because you get to see the biggest, scariest muscles in the game crush a ball 500 feet out of the yard. Accept the facts and move on. Unless you never once paid to go see a pro sporting event, you are in no position to act offended. You wanted to see extraordinary feats of athleticism, and the athletes did everything they could to give it to you. Now you blame them for it.

I'm 27 years old. When I was 16, I started realizing something was probably up. There's a disconnect here, because as far as I'm aware, sports writers are in the locker rooms day in and day out. It is surprising to me that this issue of steroids never occurred to them. They were so busy burying their noses in every athlete's ass that they didn't realize that very ass was being pumped with needles. Now, these same writers put together scathing editorials on the same athletes when in truth, the writers were the ones not doing their jobs properly. Cheating in sports is nothing new, they just chose to ignore it at their convenience. I love people now saying, "I can never watch sports the same way again." Really? Are that many people really that naive? I have no problem if testing becomes a huge part of the game, but it doesn't make sense to me to do it at such random intervals. What's the holdup? If you want a clean game, test every player before every game. What's this once every couple months bullshit? Piss in a cup with officials watching before every game all season long. Boom, problem solved. What's the delay? But when guys like A-Rod start declining in production, don't complain. This is how you wanted it, remember? I liked it better when all of them were juiced up, but I seem to be the minority here. A bunch of guys taking 'roids has no effect on my life, and I don't see why it does for so many others. Maybe I'm just missing something.