Karlee Ferris

CO 300

7 May 2010

Anabolic Steroid Use in Professional Football

Every young boy dreams of being a professional football player. Making a million

dollars a year, driving a fast car, and playing the sport they love is enticing. However, less than

one percent actually have what it takes to make this dream reality. A good athlete is always

looking for that cutting edge or extra something to get noticed. Anabolic drugs seems like the

simple solution. An athlete may be talented, but talent alone is not enough, and anabolic drugs

can change the outcome or future for the athlete.

Some athletes believe that the benefit to legalizing specific dosage of anabolic steroids

could lead to more entertaining games, more money, more athletic ability, as well as more

broken records. In fact, legalizing the steroids does not really affect what is currently in place.

The NHL would not have to change the testing that is already implemented because instead of

testing for no steroids, the test would just measure the amount of dosage and the athlete would

just have to make sure they were under the recommended amount. This would be beneficial to

the athletes because they would not have to face the music with the law for doing an illegal

substance. Also, masking agents would no longer be needed. Legal pharmacies would be in

charge of the drug rather than drug dealers. However, as simple as it sounds, the questions

remains, is this concept something that is beneficial?

Anabolic steroids need to stay illegal in professional football because of the physical side

effects, what it would do to the college and high school levels, and the loss of purity of the sport.

This is necessary because football is something that all of America watches and follows.

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Becoming a professional football player is the ultimate goal for all younger football players. If

steroids were legalized, even a standard amount, serious physical side effects would result. In

addition, there are high school football players who idolize these players and are willing to do

whatever it takes to be like them. If the young athletes know that it is acceptable to do steroids

then they will want to do them as well. Younger players may end up taking inadequate and

dangerous forms of steroids in order to achieve success. College football players would struggle

to comply to the NCAA rules. Many may overdose in an attempt to be the one who is recruited

to the professional teams. If professional football legalizes steroids, then the problem rolls

downhill. Should college legalize them, should high school and worse yet do the children then

begin to take these drugs? These thoughts open a whole new can of worms.

If anabolic steroids were legalized in professional sport at even a designated dosage, they

would still cause health issues for athletes. Steroids cause both physical and mental side effects.

Steroids use can cause depression, mania, and other mental disorders by the person using them or

when trying to get off of them (Steroids). Steroids can also cause aggression. Since football is

an aggressive sport to begin with, adding another factor would only cause more aggression with

increased strength (Steroids). Many people who get off steroids often go through a withdrawal

period, which can be difficult for them and everyone around them (Steroids). Steroids are

harmful for the human endocrine system (group of ductless glands that regulate body processes

by secreting chemical substances called hormones) as well (Steroids). Altering hormones can

have many negative side effects for an athlete. Steroids are known to cause "liver tumors,

jaundice, fluid retention, and high blood pressure. Additional steroid side effects include the

following:

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Men - shrinking of the testicles, reduced sperm count, infertility, baldness, development

of breasts;

Women - growth of facial hair, changes in or cessation of the menstrual cycle, deepened

voice;

Adolescents - growth halted prematurely through premature skeletal maturation and

accelerated puberty changes.

Researchers report that users may suffer from paranoid jealousy, extreme irritability, delusions,

and impaired judgment stemming from feelings of invincibility” (Steroids). These are all things

that would affect an athlete's game as well as what it could do to the team undergoing all of these

changes.

Anabolic steroids need to stay illegal in professional football because football is

constantly in the eye of the media; the Super Bowl is one of the most watched events on

television. As for the men who play professional football, they are the idols for young children.

If it were to be legal for professional football players then it would be difficult to enforce the fact

that it is not allowed for younger athletes. At this point it would be next to impossible to make

these young players believe they should take them because of the negative side effects when

their idol uses steroids. This would be hypocritical and the younger athletes would not pay

attention to what they were being told. It would be as successful as preventing underage

drinking and anyone who went to high school knew that the kids who wanted to drink would.

America looks to our professional athletes to live a healthy life style and if it is legal to be on

anabolic steroids then it would be thought that anabolic steroids are part of a healthy lifestyle.

Football, like all sports, has rules that are held throughout all levels. If anabolic steroids

were legal in professional football, it would be difficult to enforce keeping anabolic steroids

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illegal at the high school and college levels. It would be difficult not to allow the use of steroids

by college football players looking to be recruited by a professional team. Expectations change

if the pros use steroids because college players would need to use them in order to compete with

the competition.

Other problems with legalization of steroids exist such as, the regulation of how much

should be legal, and if college football players could take steroids how much should they be

allowed to take? This would not be as hard to check in the college level as in high school

because the NCAA has a testing program in place. This program could measure the amount and

know if the athletes were within the regulated amount. It would also cause problems because

high school football players would have more incentive to use them as well. In 2008 one study

found that “20% of high school students said that their decision to use anabolic steroids was

influenced by professional athletes and nearly 50% said that professional athletes influenced

their friends' decisions to use anabolic steroids”(Hoffman). Though this is one study and the

results are not conclusive, the numbers are still shocking considering they feel this way when

anabolic steroids are illegal in football.

Having high school level football players do anabolic steroids would be the most

dangerous because they are so poorly informed on the effects of anabolic steroids. They would

also have the potential to be doing anabolic steroids for the longest length of time, and as all

drugs they are hard on your body and the longer they are used the harder it is. For high school

level football players it would also be more dangerous because they would not have money to

afford less dangerous steroids. The younger athletics are more likely to get these drugs from less

stable sources. It would be hard to discourage the use of anabolic steroids to the younger athletes

because they are not just playing for the completive edge but for a scholarship, which is four to

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five years of free college. Money is a motivator for all people and even if it means paying a little

extra now it is not a big deal because the reward is worth it. The same goes for college students

that are playing for a shot at the pros and a pros salary.

Another problem with anabolic steroids being legalized in professional football is that it

creates an unfair playing field. It causes the athletes who do not want to do anabolic steroids to

feel forced into doing them in order to keep up with the game. Athletes would feel this way

because if one team member plays better due to drugs then what would happen if the whole team

did this. The athlete would feel pressured to use steroids for the benefit of the team because that

is the nature of sports. When sports advance you must advance with them or be left behind. In

most cases this is an advantage and often tends to create more safety and entertainment in the

sport, but if steroids were legalized it would lead to health problems for the athletes. It would be

what you must do in order to keep your monthly paycheck. It causes a lack of purity because

when America looks at our professional athletes they are put on a pedestal and the young athletes

aspire to be like them. Athletes are viewed as the people who are willing to work hard enough at

their sport to achieve professionalism. The integrity of the sport means the athlete is putting

forth 110 percent. Anabolic steroids allow the athlete to take the easy way out and it destroys the

purity of the sport. The use of steroids would destroy the illusion that all athletes have a strong

work ethic and it would take away from the accomplishment of what hard work can produce. It

would always be a question in people's minds if you are just winning because your team is using

a performance enhancing drug or because you were the more talented team. It would no longer

be a testament to your skill, but to the pharmacist who prescribed you with the drug. It would be

this way because even though you are still working it is not to the same caliber. It would make

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records that are broken be discounted because the people before them could have possibly done

the same if they were given the chance to take performance enhancing drugs.

Anabolic steroids would cause so many problems for athletes of all ages. Keeping it

illegal in professional football is most important because NFL rules are what the other levels will

follow. Anabolic steroids can have no place in the NFL. Children are our future and as adults

we are responsible for teaching them good habits and the habit we do not want them to do is to

use steroids. A child of a professional athlete should not witness the decline of their parent when

the anabolic steroid begins to create the unwanted side effects. No child wants his parent to die

early! With all the information available it is imperative that anabolic steroids must remain

illegal.

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