Ethical, Health, and Competitive Consequences of PED Use

The biggest threat to the integrity of sports in the last several decades is the use of PEDs. The debates surrounding our view those who used steroids, their health effects, and the effect they have on competition will continue on and on until we get a clear picture about the chemical’s real effect on the body and are honest about its presence in sports and in our lives. The biggest conundrums of PED use are ethical, the health issues are nebulous, and the effects on competition significant. How we understand these issues they will help us answer the question of who deserves to be called the all-time home run leader in the end.

Marriam-Webster’s appropriate definition of ethic is, “A set of moral principles: a theory or system of moral values. The discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.” This definition could apply to health, competition, or PED use so having it laid out first will allow us to understand their implications. The ethical problem begins with our ignorance of these implications as well as our belief in the integrity of the hard-working players in professional sports. They are by their nature extraordinary and their highest achievements idolized. Throughout the last year debate surrounding the Golden State Warriors and their historic run to top the ’96 Bulls sparked interest across the nation and gave the NBA a nice boost in popularity. The same thing happened when Lance Armstrong was chasing his records. (Roan and Armstrong, 2015)

It’s clear that there are a significant number of athletes (Draymond Green and Lance Armstrong) who don’t live by ethic standards we expect in a fair game. This means that we need laws to enforce ethics because players can’t be relied on to police themselves. Part of what made the Warriors so fascinating is a common feature in sports. It’s highly entertaining to compare Ken Griffey to his father or Kobe to Jordan or Brady to Montana because we have all have an image of greatness in our mind that transcends the things that happen on and off the field. We cheer earnestly for our favorite athletes based on their performance but when it turns out to be only an imitation of greatness we can become disheartened with the athlete or even question the validity of our own perception of the value of a sport. To me, greatness is a product of the numerous challenges athletes face and how a certain few have figured out how to push through incredible adversity. Therefore the excuses athletes make for their behavior like saying other people were doing it too are a direct product of their need to be great. It’s hard for me to accept Dr. Frank Frisch’s implication that greatness lies in our admiration of performance (Frisch 2012). His argument for the use of steroids asks us to “just enjoy the competition and spectacle.” For me, there is much more that goes into the idea of competition than physical ability that I will address later. The ethical issues are important is because we assume in our minds that the players are operating under the same rules that we take for granted. PED use might work if it’s regulated and poses no health risks to players but Frisk’s claim that “level playing fields” are bad because “we’re all different” ignores sport, the real world, and the ethical question.

If we are able to answer the next question about the health benefits and risks of PED use the ethical question would become clearer. It would be foolish to deny that sports evolve and the talent pool grows year after year. Dr. Frisch’s other claim that PEDs can be used safely under a doctor’s supervision when they have been proven to have negative side effects is a mush harder pill to swallow. It’s becoming way too common for doctors to prescribe medication for people suffering from a range of maladies. PED use has been linked to bad cholesterol, yellowing of the skin, baldness, liver cancer, heart attacks, ruptured tendons, mood swings, rage, and delusions. (DeNoon 2005). A doctor can give you a little bit that they claim won’t damage your internal organs but all they really know is they can keep the symptoms from appearing. Using drugs will reduce your lifespan in the long term if you damage your internal organs. Understanding the health issues of using PEDs is harder than creating the chemical compound. The truth about health is that even eating a couple hundred calories a day can lead to weight gain: this amounts to two hot dog buns. Your body has to work harder to maintain big muscle mass or fat. It’s much more healthy to have a body that works efficiently and uses everything you feed it. The argument for the health benefits of steroids is limited to the way the hormone uses protein in the muscle and allows an athlete to work out harder. That serves a very specific purpose while the health risks strike without warning and without clear reason. But these purposes would be poorly served if it weren’t for competition.

Competition drives sport. Everyone who has grown up playing sports knows what its like to win and lose but certain athletes have taken losing out of their vocabulary to fit their experience in life. This is why so many superstars in the MLB are the ones using PEDs. They never considered losing or getting caught. If competition is about proving your worth in front of peers, there is no level anyone will reach where they won’t feel great pressure to perform. Perhaps the drive to greatness and the Hall of Fame is much stronger than we realize, or perhaps the best players have a drive for greatness so strong that it must find a new goal once it reaches the top of the mountain. PED use would have completely different impacts in different sports. I tend to believe, having grown up a Dodger fan, that PED use would help the pitcher. In 2003, Eric Gagne went from being an average starter to earning 84 consecutive saves. In a 2012 ESPN article he claimed 80% of his team were using steroids (Saxon 2012). Familiar names such as Fred McGriff, Paul Lo Duca, Alex Cora, Adrian Beltre, Dave Roberts, Shawn Green, David Ross, Robin Ventura, and Ricky Henderson were all part of the 2003 Dodgers. They finished second in the division but it was Gagne who we all swore we’d remember. Baseball might be completely transformed in favor of pitching in PED use was allowed. In basketball you might see more players like Lebron, Westbrook, or Harden getting even stronger. Basketball doesn’t need further division between the elite players and the rest of the field to thrive. In Football it would be hard to imagine but I’m not convinced it would be good for that sport either. If we’re smart enough to look back in history and take it at face value as our best evidence for what would happen if PEDs were introduced I think it’s best we left it alone. There are a select number of athletes who get a big boost from steroids and that is something that waters down competition in my opinion.

The question of the home run record still remains, yet Barry Bonds knew he was cheating. He thought he could get away with it because the MLB wasn’t testing at that point. Because of the circumstances surrounding that year, his performance can only be honestly compared to other steroid users. His early prowess is separate from his post-PED greatness but today, in the minds of most; he is just another great MLB player who took it way too far. If Bonds’ behavior had gone unnoticed the effort and legacy of Hank Aaron would have been forever tarnished. Aaron was a cultural figure who showed incredible longevity and consistency because of his approach to the game. He was the kind of player baseball needed, unlike Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire: the men who ushered in an era of flashy celebrations, feigned sportsmanship, and a false self-congratulation at the end of their run.