Another issue that the steroid era has brought to athletics is the record books. Records are an important part of all sports. For instance, one of the most prolific records of all time in baseball is the home-run record and the record was at 61 home runs for about a half of century. Since the steroid era has been in tact, this record has been surpassed three times in the past eight years. This to me shows that using steroids is cheating, and that all of these records that have been broken should have an asterisk under them.
Today, not only professional athletes are taking steroids, but high school athletes are as well. High school athletes look up to these professional athletes as their heroes and idols. For example, in 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were in a race for the home-run title, it was apparent that these two were on steroids because no one came close to breaking the record, let alone two in the same season. Also, these two guys as well as Bonds came into the league as scrawny individuals. In 1998, both players were two of the biggest players in the league. Younger kids watch this and that encourages them to do the things that their idols are doing. High school athletes are not even taking steroids by themselves, but coaches on these teams are encouraging their players to take steroids. Also, a lot of these high school athletes’ parents know that their own kids are taking steroids. I think that is absolutely ridiculous. I would never encourage any teenager to take steroids, let alone my own child. This has been a problem in high schools for about a decade now, since the steroid era. This is why professional athletes should be more like “role models”, and should be held to higher standards of accountability.
Steroids are something that sticks with you the rest of your life. Someone cannot just take steroids for two years and then lead a normal life. They are dangerous and could ultimately affect the outcome of your life. I would not want anyone in my life to die from something as stupid as steroids, but it happens often. A heart attack could happen to anyone of these guys at any point in time. Just last year, former all-star baseball player Ken Caminiti died of a heart attack at the age of 39. He was also a big name involved in steroids. I don’t care how much the drug would help me in my career, I would not want to die at the age of 39 and have family members go through that, all because of these steroids. There are many side effects along with the use of steroids. These side effects are present in both males and females. Perhaps the most significant side effect is mental addiction. Once an athlete has experienced the strength and weight increase associated with the use of steroids, it is sometimes hard to stop. Realizing that they cannot keep all of the gains they have acquired, mental addiction sets in.
“Roid rage” is a very common side effect of all anabolic steroids and G.H. “Roid rage” is an uncontrolled fit of anger where anything can happen, such as verbal assault, physical assault, and murder. “Roid rage” is caused because of an excess of testosterone in a person. The more testosterone one has in their blood the more likely they are to be aggressive. There are a large number of reported violent cases that involve steroids. The most common, is the cut off in traffic. Someone cuts a steroid user off and at the next set of lights the steroid user gets out of his car and puts his fist through the window and pulls out the guy who cut him off. The steroid user then fights the guy who cut him off. There have also been wife beatings, girlfriend beatings, ruined relationships, robbed banks, suicide, and murder cases due to steroids.
These are some of the reasons why professional athletes should be held to higher standards of accountability. There is raging controversy about steroids. Steroids have been used by athletes to gain an “edge” over their competition, mostly in sporting events such as baseball. Steroids. Today, steroids are still a big issue and concern. In the past few years’ professional organizations have been trying their best to stop athletes from using steroids. There are much harsher penalties for athletes who get caught and more random drug testing.
