(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Steroids.
If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that word this month, I'd buy myself and my readers lunch today.
I have little interest in professional sports. I stand on pro hockey ice long enough to get that really cold burning feeling between the months of January and April. I tune into the NFL on Sunday afternoons when my wife allows it. I watch the Masters, US and British Open golf championships. I tune into Wimbledon.
That's pretty much the extent of my curiosity in paid athletes. So why do I care about how many shots of andro Mark McGwire took? Why does it interest me that Bonds may have used the cream?
Len Bias became the face of the nation's cocaine problem back in the mid-80s when he collapsed after a night of partying. The tragedy came just 48 hours after Bias became the fresh face of the Boston Celtics franchise, the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft.
Alex Rodriguez has recently become the new face of MLB's steroid and performance enhancing drug epidemic. Suddenly Pete Rose's transgressions dosen't seem so heinous.
I work with kids daily that look up to these guys and others just as athletically gifted. How many of us would have been heartbroken as kids had we learned that situps and pushups weren't the cause for Herschel's physique? How many others would have chosen a similar shortcut?
I see kids daily that wear the jerseys of NBA stars who regularly and casually use substances the league doesn't even test for - bad message that could result in fatal consequences for teens who don't get an opposing viewpoint from an adult in the home.
Another reason I'm concerned about this subject is because I spend a lot of time actively participating in and following UGA Athletics. So it got me curious about NCAA rules and regulations. How are performance enhancing drugs policed? Are Teabags' muscles real? Is it possible Mount Cody could've substituted a stack of biscuits for stacked 'roids?
I didn't get far in my research before I found two sites that especially caught my wandering eye. First I thumbed through the NCAA's publication on their drug testing program. It was informative, but I think I pretty much knew that drinking a six-pack of PBR before competing in riflery was frowned upon.
The AJC article published last May by Alan Judd however told me more about UGA's stance on drug use, whether they're 'roids or the street variety. Suffice it to say that the UGA athletic office handles offenders with a firmer hand than Tech's. I'm all for an offender getting counseling, but I prefer my alma mater's athletic office to take a more direct approach in punishment as well.
If I send my kid to run track and field at UGA and she gets caught with chemicals in her system, as her father I'll handle the counseling side of things (thank you very much) as that is more of a
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