Performance Enhancing Drugs For Sports Essay

Why are performance enhancement drugs use in professional sports? The use of steroids has been a major problem among sports and has caused lots of controversy. Although these professional sports organizations such as the NFL, NHL, NBA and several others have spent time and money investigating athletes for uses of performance enhancement drugs, nothing has been done to erase records or record breaking statistics. In order to cease steroid and other performance enhancement drug users from cheating there need to be more involvement of severe punishments and stripping away all records, awards, and statistics. During my composition review I learned a great deal of information that I previously was unaware of. Period, the use of steroids in professional sports has ruined the game for avid sports fans, and competing players.

It was in 1987 that the National Football League started testing players for performance enhancing drugs. Even though the NFL has been drug testing athletes for PED’s for that long, unfortunately athletes still decide to take the drugs even if they will get caught and have consequences. In addition, the use of PED’s by professional athletes have been a problem sin at least the 1960’s. Also, athletes risk their health in bad ways when they take PED’s. Performance enhancing drugs are not beneficial for athletes because of legal issues and suspensions, a possibility for an athlete to end their career and ruin their reputation,and long term health risks.

With new types of technology people have started to believe that athletes should be allowed to take performance enhancing drugs. They believe that these performance enhancing drugs improve the performance level of athletics, which will help give the audience something better to watch (Gendin). Others also believe that without steroids “[T]here would be far fewer home runs; smaller, slower, less muscular athletes and no new records for the next few decades until human development and equipment technology compensated for the absence of these drugs. There also would be fewer fans, reduced ticket sales, less ad revenue, less lucrative TV contracts and smaller stadiums built. The benefits of performance-enhancing drug use exist at every level of

Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) are known to be used widely throughout sports, and they have aided many famous players in their success. An example of this is at the time of the “steroid era” (1980s-2000s) in baseball, when well-known players like Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and many others used PEDs to hit a crazy amount of home runs that broke records (“The Steroid Era”). Some players feel as if they need to use PEDs in order to earn a spot on the team because of how much an advantage is gained by using them (Rosenberg). What I think about the controversial topic of whether PEDs should be legal is that the health risks, the bad example it shows, and it making sports unchallenging is enough to show that it should stay illegal.

Future athletes need to be educated and understand that performance enhancing drugs are wrong and violate the rules of sportsmanship (Survey Reveals). Many professional sports associations, including the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and even the International Olympic Committee (IOC) take the use of performance enhancing drugs, or PED’s, by athletes and coaches very seriously. They have imposed harsher consequences and have created more frequent testing protocols. All are developing stronger methods to prevent use of in the years to come.

While supporters of performance enhancing drugs have many valid arguments, better evidence supports that they should not be used. The first argument is the person using them has an unfair advantage. Columnist Michael Bamburger for Sports Illustrated wrote that athletes seem to rely more then ever on banned performance enhancers (1). Then just talent, and pure blood, sweat, and tears. Mark Asanovich the strength and conditioning coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers discourages the use of any performance enhancers and say?s,

For many years athletes all over the world have strived to increase their capability to succeed in a sport or sports they play. Most train hard, push their limits, dedicate their time solely on sports, others on the other hand, try to succeed with little amount of effort possible. What is being eluded to is the use of illegal steroids in sports. This is an issue all over the world in not only professional teams but also college teams or even high school teams. These steroids give athletes an advantage over all of the other athletes in the world by increasing their physical and mental capability to almost super human levels. Steroid use should remain illegal.

Over the years, sports have changed dramatically. One major change has been the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED’s). This is a very controversial issue in all levels of sports today. Some people think this is a good thing to allow, while some think the complete opposite. Whenever sports were first becoming very popular, the use of PED’s were not available. There were no drugs to alter an athlete's performance on the field or court because the technology was simply not available to produce these. Although the drugs were not available, the sports were still interesting to watch and the athletes still played at a very high level. They did not need drugs to make themselves better because no one was using them which made the playing field

“Should performance enhancing drugs be allowed in sports,” by Thomas H. Murray. Thomas Murray was President of the Hastings Center from 1999 to 2012. He is also involved in the World Anti-Doping Agency and a former member of the Sports Medicine Committee. Thomas Murray is against the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports. According to Thomas Murray, “performance-enhancing drugs in sports can have the potential to cause a public health catastrophe.” People should realize “Steroids and stimulants have caused problems in the Olympics for decades”(Murray). With the use performance enhancing drugs being so widespread the Tour de France nearly collapsed. It not only is widespread in cycling, but also in baseball and many other sports. The argument is “that what one athlete chooses to do can affect everyone in that competition” (Murray). Professional athletes are role models for

Is the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports dangerous? To what degree do these drugs really enhance strength, size, training ability, and muscular performance? Not only are the answers to these questions still unclear, they are the subjects of deep controversy.

High jumpers would have longer hang times than a 60-yard punt. Weightlifters would clean-and-jerk midsized sedans.” This quote supports why performance enhancing drugs shouldn’t be banned because it shows that it would be much more exciting to watch if athletes were allowed to use performance enhancing drugs. Runners would finish in world record time and weight lifters could lift large cars and pull giant trucks. This would make the sports much more entertaining. This would be great for the sport because it would invite new views and attract a large crowd. Next, in the article it states “To me, the idea of allowing athletes to freely use performance-enhancing drugs borders on absurdity. I don't want to see competitions decided according to which athlete is most willing to take chemical risks with his or her body. But my resolve weakens with each convoluted case of suspected PED use.” This quote proves that there is no point in allowing athletes to use performance enhancing drugs. Also, it shows how fans don’t want to see athletes getting all drugged up for an event because that defeats the purpose and gives no point in

The use of performance-enhancing steroids in sports is forming a problem. The sports that they play end up being cheated by these frauds. This is a disgusting epidemic. For example, “The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recently estimated that over half of a million 8th through 10th grade students are abusing AAS, and that many high school seniors do not believe their use constitutes a health risk” (steroidabuse.com). The problem exists in professional sports and below. Steroid use in sports is becoming more common and is dangerous to the games that it cheats.

Although many people would say that using steroids was used in order to get: bigger, faster, stronger, and also recover faster from a workout. So this would be very beneficial for a professional athletes that is looking to get stronger, or even to recover from a hard workout in the gym. Even though this might be very exciting to tell a person that would like all of these benefits, but also standard people shouldn’t be able to use performance enhancing drugs. On the contrary, if the person is getting paid millions of dollars then they should be able to use performance enhancing drugs. Likewise, performance enhancing drugs should be illegal for anyone that isn’t a professional athlete. Although a lot of people would say “ using steroids

To further the argument, performance enhancing drugs must remain against the law to protect the athlete’s health and well being. If today’s athletes are going to be so careless and take these drugs, we as a society must step in and take control of what these athletes are putting in their bodies. And if they continue to break the law by taking performance enhancing drugs, then they must suffer the consequences by possibly being banned from the sport for an extended period of time or a lifetime ban, which is would a result of their salaries and livelihood, endorsements and possible prison time. We must take this issue with more than a grain

Imagine a day when sports are played by a bunch of superhumans that cheat their way to the top, and don’t work hard. If steroids and other supplements keep getting used like they are; eventually the games will be meaningless. The players will all be like superhumans. Many people are taking steroids and supplements to become better than others and get an advantage. Jimmy's basketball team was taking steroids to not have to work hard and still get an advantage, but then other teams started doing it too. This evened the playing field, so they took more than was healthy, and so did the other teams. This made them unhealthy and they did not even get an advantage. PEDs and other performance enhancing supplements should be banned in all sports,