Diminishing Steroid Use in NCAA?

I was reading an article published in January of this year by the NCAA that was reporting a drop in banned substance abuse amongst college athletes. Apparently in 2009, 20,474 student-athletes were surveyed and less than 4 percent of respondents had used anabolic steroids which is a slight drop from the figures gathered in a 2005 survey. The big question is how honest were the participants.  I don’t believe the student-athletes would be particularly honest with a survey like this.  Even if it is anonymous, student-athletes should realize that if there are a high percentage of participants admitting to having used steroids then the NCAA will enforce more crack-downs to catch the athletes abusing substances.  Therefore this survey did nothing to convince me that student-athletes were using any less than in previous years.  I find this to be just another gimmick by the NCAA to make the public think that student-athletes continue to be positive role models. Now if all the athletes would have gone through testing, then I would agree with the NCAA’s findings.

In the same survey, student-athletes were questioned about narcotics, alcohol and social drug use.  However these results were not what the NCAA was hoping to see. The respondents reporting to have used marijuana in the past 12 months was 1.4% greater than in 2005 and alcohol consumption was 5.6% greater.  The good news was an overwhelming 96.7% majority of participants reported never using narcotics.  My suspicions of dishonesty were reinforced by the narcotic percentages because of the similar figures of narcotic and steroid use. The fact that the use of narcotics and steroid use are about the same low percentage makes me question the participant’s honesty.  In our culture steroids and hard drugs are looked down upon much more than alcohol and pot.  It is much more acceptable to admit to drinking alcohol and smoking pot than it is to railing coke.  That is why it is okay for respondents to report alcohol and pot abuse before ever admitting to hard substance use.

My final thoughts after reading the article were that student-athletes are more open about their alcohol and social drug consumption than about steroid or narcotic use.  Athletes understand that alcohol and marijuana are bad for you and can get you banned from a program, yet they par-take, athletes also know that narcotics and steroids are bad for you and will get you banned, what is stopping them from using those then? If a high percentage of athletes are willing to risk athletic probation with alcohol and pot, why wouldn’t they risk it with harder substances, the consequences are very similar and with steroids at least the risks would be increasing performance.

Bryce Van Boxtel Kin332i 03 TR 12:30-1:45

US Boxing

In the United States, Boxing has always been a poor man's sport. For people around the world, it was an outlet to release stress and to keep one's sanity. However, when the sport becomes professional, boxers take it to another level and have a little bit more riding on it than just the love of the game. There's the political aspect, the financial controversy, the media that's involved, the social status; their reputation. In tonight's fight between Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao lost for the first time in their four fightsin the worst way possible by having a total knock out during the sixth round.
In the United States, sports have been such a great phenomenon that American's throw down large sums of money to be part of that gambling economy. Competition is also in the American's nature and have the mentality to win. So, for a boxing match this huge, the stakes are massively unimaginable. Pacquiao needed to lose properly, instead of fighting for twelve rounds and having the judges decide who wins. I'm glad Marquez won because it took courage for him to want to fight four times to finally have a decent win. In addition to the "American Dream," Marquez wanted to win it bad enough that he was willing to do whatever it took. When the fight was over, he didn't even acknowledge the losing opponent, and just wandered off to the corner of the rim and celebrated his victory.
In a way, it's just probably how the mind works. One may forget to be mindful when they finally win what they have been wanting for so long. For Pacquiao, I hope that with this humility, he becomes a little bit more humble in a sense where his head isn't too large for his body. Sports and the U.S. Culture will always have its bias however, if one remembers the "love of the game" for how its represented, then a game is just a game.

Genisanne De Ocampo ( TTH 2:00-3:15)

Penn State Scandal: Money or Shame?

Through the analysis around media and sports, we have learned the common themes in sports of today such as; hyper masculinity, toughness, body image, and empowerment. Besides these common themes that surround and influence the way we see sports, money also confines and affects our viewpoints. In this Penn State scandal case we see how these common themes AND money come into play. Most of us argue that Penn State officials failed to act on this unethical behavior because millions of dollars were on the line. Others argue that Penn State officials loved the game so much that they did not want to ruin a good reputation, as author Frank Deford stated, (article link posted on side), “...no, it wasn’t because of [Paterno’s] own reputation or because of all the money Penn State Football made that stopped him from acting.... Coach Paterno could not bear to see shame come to his beloved game of football.” The question here is for what reason did they stay quiet about the whole situation when it was first presented to them? The sad part about it is the selfishness of many who sought to defend their own egocentric ways and cared less about those who were being molested on their own school grounds. When moments like these happen you would think that people decide on what is morally right, however, in this case, Penn State officials decided upon avoidance of “shame.”  

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/frank_deford/11/16/Unmanliness-of-Penn-State-scandal/index.html

Nancy Garcia (KIN332i Tu/Thu 12:30)

Invasion of the press

I found an article about Tiger Woods on Sportsillustrated.com and it tells how he crashed his car and out of that came the truth that he had been having a string of affairs with multiple women behind the back of his wife. I think there's two major problems with the reporting of this story. Firstly, that he has been publicly named and shamed because of his fame. It has nothing to do with his golfing career and therefore should not be broadcast. And secondly, his poor wife must have been going through hell as it was without the cameras and media attention that this would have caused her. I can think of many people who have become famous and, as a result, have ended up in rehab because they had no idea how difficult it is to deal with that level of attention. I think it's wrong that famous people have their lives invaded so much. And I think their families probably suffer even more, and they aren't even the ones who chose to live in the spotlight!

I think Tiger behaved appallingly but I am sure he was punished enough with the break up of his marriage. It's nobody else's business what happened between him, those women, and his wife. And the pain would have been great enough without everybody else giving their opinion also. It has no bearing on his career and so that should not be affected because one's career is a separate part of one's life and should remain unaffected by other aspects.

- Sophie David KIN 332I Sec 03
Tuesday & Thursday 12.30 - 1.45pm