Friday, March 11, 2005

On The Mark -- Poisoning Our Society

For all the professional athletes who downplay steriods and say something like, "I don't want to talk about steroids. It's in the past, and it's my body anyway."

This is what 19-year-old Efrain Marrero, a college football player, said to his mother and father after they discovered he was using steroids and they asked him to stop, citing that they're dangerous.

"But Barry Bonds does it."

His father responded, "That doesn't make it right." Efrain said many athletes at his college were taking steroids and illegal supplements.

Efrain agreed to stop, which he did cold turkey. He committed suicide three and a half weeks later. He left no note. He had no history of depression or mental illness.

And, by the way, Barry Bonds hasn't been called to testify before Congress along with other professional baseball players because it would create too much of a circus and take away from the purpose of the hearing.

Huh? It seems to me you would want him there precisely because he's a role model to youth (another rant for another time).

These athletes may have been injecting this stuff into their own bodies, but they were poisoning our society.

1 comment:

B2 said...

This is the reason athletes need to be sanctioned for using harmful steroids -- because they are, whether they like it or not, role models for kids, and their behavior (which is pretty much overlooked by officials, let's face it) is contagious.

When safe alternatives to these harmful drugs are created and tested, then we can talk about letting athletes pump themselves up as much as they want.