The Grey Area in Cheating
NBA basketball player Greg Oden underwent microfracture surgery. Is he a Cheater?
Released in December 2007, the Mitchell Report confirmed that numerous Major League players, including future hall-of-famers such as Roger Clemens, have used performance-enhancing drugs. Athletes using drugs to gain an edge over the competition is hardly news. Anabolic steroids and stimulants have plagued the Olympics for decades and Professional cycling is filled with blood transfusions and chemical assistance. Some fans and critics may view the issue of performance enhancing drugs as a simple matter. The rules forbid performance-enhancing drugs; breaking the rules is cheating; cheating is wrong. However, many others have raised a wide array of questions. What makes the other banned substances and supplements that baseball players, track stars and cyclists get caught taking any worse than our more accepted forms of performance enhancement? 3
So, why are certain performance aids widely accepted and celebrated while other performance enhancers such as steroids illegal and frowned upon? If one thing is clear, the issue at hand is very complex, and it is evident that the line between fair and foul is not so fine after all.
- When star quarterback Jimmy Clausen plays through a serious toe injury by getting a cortisone injection, is that not a performance enhancer? He is producing one of the body’s natural steroids in an unnatural way, which isn’t that far off from, say, boosting one’s testosterone levels.
- What is natural about Tommy John or microfracture surgery? If athletes were supposed to be all natural, a long list of professional athletes would be left jobless. Rebuilding a joint with another, stronger body part certainly sounds performance enhancing.
- Mark McGwire's legacy has been tainted because the andro that helped him hit 70 home runs in 1998 was an unnatural, game-altering enhancement. Yet, people don't question his high-powered contact lenses? "Natural" vision is 20/20. McGwire's custom-designed lenses improved his vision to 20/10, allowing him to see at a distance of 20 feet what a person with normal, healthy vision could see at 10 feet. Think what a difference that makes in hitting a fastball. Imagine how many games those lenses altered.
- From an objective standpoint, it can be argued that steroids are very similar to protein shakes and other nutritional supplements. They all help build muscle in conjunction with exercise and weight lifting. The only difference would be higher frequency of side effects and more drastic change in performance levels.
So, why are certain performance aids widely accepted and celebrated while other performance enhancers such as steroids illegal and frowned upon? If one thing is clear, the issue at hand is very complex, and it is evident that the line between fair and foul is not so fine after all.
