The admission by New York Yankee superstar Alex Rodriguez that he used performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003 while playing for the Texas Rangers is just the latest in a sorry stream of admissions about the use of steroids by current and former Major League Baseball players. President Obama said Rodriquez's confession to ESPN's Peter Gammons "tarnishes an entire era to some degree." He re-stated the obvious when he said that drugs use by sports stars "sent the wrong message to the nation's youth."
But what is the message our children should get from Rodriquez? That steroid use is cheating, not only in that it gives the athlete an unfair advantage and thus hurts the sports he or she is playing but because it is cheating the athlete himself, denying him the chance to prove how good he actually is? That steroid use is dangerous? That steroid use is illegal and wrong?
All of the above.
Some news reports suggested that Rodriquez was prepared to repair his public image by helping to get the message out to young people about the dangers of steroids. If so, great.
But the sad fact is that steroid use is still rampant among high school students. There need to be more public service campaigns like the award-winning "Don't Be An Asterisk" public awareness campaign and more anti-steroid education programs for high school students, like the award-winning ATLAS (Athletes Training & Learning to Avoid Steroids), a program for male high school athletes, and its sister program for high school female athletes (ATHENA) (Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise & Nutrition Alternatives).
But until professional athletes stop using performance-enhancing drugs, and, if they don't (I hate to be cynical, but I think cheating is never going to be completely eliminated from sports; some athletes will always be looking for an unfair edge), and until our children learn not to look up to professional athletes as role models (which probably also isn't going to happen any time soon, either), our mantra at YouthSportsParents and of coaches and athletic trainers everywhere has to be "Education, Education, Education."
Could not have said it better myself
Brookes points are well made. Two things, just off the top of my head, that will need to occur in order for a real change to take place:
Number 1: Athletes need to start viewing their sports participation from the inside out. What I mean by this is that they learn to place much more value on the process of becoming good at something (intrinsic value) rather than the current state of affairs where far too many place the most value on extrinsic motivators like scholarship, winning, fame, etc.
Number 2: Elite and professional athletes must take a position that they have a personal responsibility to set good examples for young athletes with the choices they make. They must also adopt the attitudes I mention above and stop copping out of their responsibilities by stating that they should not be held to any higher standard then anyone else. Sorry, but with great talent and success comes the responsibility to help others. A professional athlete can state all they want that they should not be a "role" model. That doesn't change what is, and those types of statements actually perpetuate the problem.
Kirk Mango
Becoming a True Champion
Afraid the opposite lesson will be learned from A-Rod
You are entirely right about education being key. However, A-Rod came out of his "steroid use period" and signed a $250 million dollar contract with the top team in the sport. He may be facing a tarnished image now, but he certainly isn't going to be worse off financially because of what he did. I'm afraid that the success dopers have had (and there have been a lot of them in baseball) is going to be a more powerful lesson than the disgrace the ones who get caught suffer.
What is in baseball's favor now is that they now know they are being monitored and watched, and most players have too much to lose to risk it. However, I'm sure there are still a lot of steroids being used by those in the minors who have a lot less to lose. But then there are hgh and ADD drugs...
The long-term issues of damaged reputation and (scarily) bad side effects, are not going to dissuade most young people, whether trying to make it in high-school or the pros. They might get through to a few, but we'll also need to stress the immorality of cheating (and use peer pressure on the morally weak, but socially anxious). I'm not sure how well that fits, however, with many schools, clubs, communities and parents who place winning above all else.
I'll try my best to teach my kids and those I coach about fair play and to keep sports in perspective. That will just have to include teaching them from (too) early to stick to their principals in the face of people who have an unfair advantage on the playing field. I suppose "life isn't fair" is one of the key lessons most of us learn from sports.
Some very good comments here
Hoopla,
Your comments are well stated. In fact this comment, "They might get through to a few, but we'll also need to stress the immorality of cheating (and use peer pressure on the morally weak, but socially anxious). I'm not sure how well that fits, however, with many schools, clubs, communities and parents who place winning above all else," is something Dr. Yesalis (one of this countries foremost experts on athletes and steroid use) and I discussed when I was doing research for my book. Those two sentences are chuck full of great points (immorality, cheating, winning above all else, peer pressure) to be considered.
After talking with Dr. Yesalis for approximately 30 minutes, about the long and short term side effects of AS (anabolic steroids) and other forms of PED's (performance enhancing drugs), he basically stated that because there is so much money involved, the attack on this issue needs to come from a position of unethical and immoral use of these substances. That, if there is any possibility of making a difference (which he seemed skeptical of, again, due to the huge $$$$ involved), addressing it like this may be the only way to have an impact.
Personally, I make a strong point to tie positive character and integrity development to the choice of NOT using. Doing the right thing just because it is the right thing to do and being honest about ones choices (whether good or bad) sure seem to be lacking from athletes at higher levels of sports participation. The ones young athletes tend to try and emulate. How sad that is!!!
Kirk Mango
Becoming a True Champion