Essay 2

Alek Stemen
Mr. Boczkowski
Intensive Reading and Writing 109.02
6 February 2008
Essay #2

This blog I read was by Adam Newton a sports fanatic who gives his view on what he thinks on this whole steroid controversy. At the beginning he says that he had never really been part of organized athletics until he had reached high school. But throughout his younger years he watched sports with his family and friends. He talked about how he was never really the athlete who stayed out on the field after practice, or workout in the weight room for the whole day he just basically was there did what he had to and just left when everyone else did.

Now a days he watches games with his brothers, friends, and roommates where they have heated debates he says. Mainly it is how the United States Congress is not doing what it can to take care of this whole steroids situation. He states that steroids have been around sports for around these past fifteen years. Football and baseball are the two main sports that are directly involved with steroids but with the harsh punishment of football penalties players don’t get in trouble with them along with basketball too. Baseball is the main sport where steroids are the most caught. Also he states that it is basically grown men trying to get an edge on one another and must bear the consequences of their actions.

Then he goes into this metaphor where he uses an office and basically says that if someone breaks the rules and does whatever he or she wants in order to produce high-quality work that is enjoyed by your consumers and co-workers and asks if that is cheating just because you are breaking the rules. To me I think that if you break the rules to make a consumer or co-worker happy then it is okay to do.

After that he basically talks about how shitty the MLB and Bud Selig did in getting steroids out of baseball. Also says that he wants steroids out of all professional sports and that the punishments should be greater. He states that the Mitchell Report is the closest thing to intervention that we have witnessed with a public institution. He thinks that baseball should have harsher penalties for steroids. And he ends with saying that the whole sports entertainment business is all fake athletes instead of the raw natural athlete.

To me this is a good point of view from someone who came from a limited athletic background. He made a lot of good points which I agree with. With me coming from a very strong athletic background I have seen some things that this guy may not have seen. Coming from a school enriched with sports I was around them all the time whether or not participating.

Steroids in my mind is a way of cheating yourself because the results you see at first will look good but at the end the end up turning bad just from the affects it does to your mind and body. I have seen steroids around me before because they don’t normally drug test in high school and people will do whatever sometimes just to get that edge on others. I had always watched sports growing up especially with my dad and always wondered how these professional athletes got to be the size they were. I hadn’t really heard about steroids until the late 90s when they were talking about Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire and the monster seasons they had in baseball that year.

I think that sports should be all natural working out to be the better athlete. You should work to gain the edge without using roids. I know of people who use things such as like whey protein and like creatine and all those other pills and powders which to me is perfectly legal. All those do is just hydrate you and helps build muscle faster so that you get the results you want faster. I have used a protein powder before and I can see the difference after awhile. It is amazing what a little hard work can do. I mean look at UFC fighters those guys train for hours at a time and for years to get at the best physical shape possible for them and the sport that they are competing in.

Finally I think that steroids should be taken out of all sports and if caught they should have the harshest penalty there is. And if you work hard you should have the advantage over everyone so that everything is even and there are no cheaters.