With all of the discussions surrounding Performance Enhancing Drugs and the dangers, it begs the question- what if everyone was allowed to use these drugs to “level” the playing field and reduce the infractions that athletes would receive?
Now I don’t believe that athletes should be allowed to “cheat” to get ahead but I do enjoy a game of playing “devil’s advocate”. Hypothetically, if all athletes had restrictions against doping lifted, essentially everyone could train how they wanted, eat or drink whatever nutrients or hormones they wanted to in order to develop quicker, faster, stronger etc. Sounds good right?
Wrong. There is a very defined issues with any athlete taking PEDs for an extended period of time that has lovingly been referred to as “Roid Rage”. CBS News did a story on roid rage fact and myths. A professional athlete named Chris Benoit was found dead in his home along with his wife and son. This murder-suicide was believed to be tied to the steroids that the authorities found in the home. This article goes on to say that steroid usage causes the athlete to lose impulse control and become overstimulated to situations. So essentially they are having a hyper response to a stimuli that causes them to respond out of character.
Now take this potential and put all of the athletes on a football team that are traveling to a location to play another team full of athletes that have the same lack of impulse control. Things could get very dangerous very quickly. There is a reason that regulators have chosen to restrict the usage of these drugs. Even though there are some athletes who do not experience the rage presented in some of the cases, even one athlete unleashed on others with this kind of out-of-control thinking is too many in a heightened athletic event where people are competing for wins.
Eric Walter
Source:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facts-and-myths-about-roid-rage/
Group 4-Sport Management Seminar 