This seems to be a hot topic in sports these days ... It seems that every sport has to take their lumps, last season it was baseball, this year it's pro wrestling (I know most of you will make the case that wrestling isn't a sport) ... Any how here's my take ...
It's understandable why steroids would be such a big deal in professional sports, afterall they are performance enhancers ... But my problem is there's no double standard when the media decides to "hang" someone for it, there always has to be a scapegoat ...
Rewind to the 1988 Summer Olympics and the whole Ben Johnson scandal, the Canadian sprinter took the fall for the whole thing, despite the fact that years later reports came out revealing American athletes were tested positive for steroid use as well, including the individual who was awarded Johnson's gold medal, Carl Lewis ... But there is no way Carl Lewis is getting stripped of the gold medal now, afterall he is an American ...
Now let's fast forward to a couple of years ago in baseball, Jose Canseco revealed that many players, including Mark McGwire, Ivan Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro, have used steroids in the past ... However, baseball nor the media did anything to tarnish the reputations of those three (Palmeiro only hung himself for lying) ... It was only until Barry Bonds came close to, and eventually broke, Hank Aaron's home run record did the media pick their scapegoat ...
No double standard at all ...
While I do agree that steroids should be banned in those sports, pro wrestling on the other hand is a different story ... WWE is sports entertainment, which based on athletic ability where the outcome is predetermined, so performance enhancement is not really an issue with pro wrestling, the wrestlers are not hurting their sport, only themselves ... After a report came out about some pharmaceutical company supplying steroids, WWE decided to suspend 10 wrestlers ... I think this is complete B.S. ... steroids are only an issue because of the events surrounding Chris Benoit ... Did it ever occur to the media that maybe the guy was already an unstable individual to begin with? ... But again the media needs their scapegoat, which in this case is WWE and steroids ...
I don't condone the use of steroids at all, but if the media is going to punish people for it, punish them all ...
One,
- J -
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