Golf and PEDs

Because, at that point, it's cheating. Competition is sullied, and competition is the product.

It's not the same as a Hollywood production, because there, the product is the art work. Competition to participate in the art work is just incidental. In sports, the product is the competition.

Let's say you are a big chess fan. You are watching the chess Olympics. But one guy breaks the rule and uses an extra pawn. Wouldn't you care, as a fan?

 

Winstons and cheeseburgers are PEDs now?

 

Why? It'd be cheating. Do you generally find cheating OK?

 

I don't buy that that for a second. Players long term health is affected by cortisone shots, legal painkillers and playing through injuries all the time. I imagine the "legal" supplements they take have the same long term effects. Where's the proof HGH administered by a physician is bad for you long term?

 

As often is the case when this issue comes up, Dick you are moving goalposts and changing your argument. In your first post you suggest the problem is forcing others to take PEDs (which is not what's happening) and allegedly risk their future health (despite a lack of medical proof that they actually are), in your second, you suggest the reason is to protect the integrity of the competition. Two different things.

As for the first contention, the way you phrase it is bullshit. Nobody is forcing anyone to take PEDs. But you can say they are putting additional pressure upon their competition when making a voluntary CHOICE whether to take them. And, in that sense, the analogy to Hollywood/showbiz industry is right on point. When an aspiring actor or model loses a job because the other guy was taking PEDS and thus looks more buff, he faces the exact same sort of pressure, the exact same sort of incentive to take PEDs to keep up with his completion and preserve his career. It is a valid analogy.

 

It's a valid analogy as a workplace issue. I'm explaining why the public would care more about one than the other. The public doesn't care why Brad Pitt got the role over Russell Crowe. It just wants to enjoy the finished product. Again, in sports, the competition itself is the product. Hence, an extra pawn in chess would essentially ruin what we're watching. One player got to break the rules. The other one didn't. It undermines the product.

And bringing up integrity of competition, in this context, is not at all "moving the goal posts." The integrity of the competition is undermined precisely because players have to choose between their health/good citizenship and their prowess on the field. Remove the health issues, remove the legal entanglements, and I have no issue with PEDs whatsoever. I do not think that they are inherently corrosive to competition.

And I agree that you have to assume that PEDs are dangerous to health - or at least you have to assume that there is some question about whether they are dangerous to health. And I think that that question legitimately exists. PEDs are illegal. Cortisol is not illegal. There are reasons. I understand that some of those reasons are political.

 

Why take PEDs when Nike, Callaway, Titleist, etc. can put PEDs into your equipment quite legally? I will admit that if some quack came up with a back pain treatment, every guy on every tour would use it if they thought it worked if it was a combination of HGH, horse tranquilizer and paint thinner.

 

Met Stadler at the Sprint International at Castle Pines. Unbelievably hilly course. Just a bitch to walk.
Stadler after his round. "I can't wait to be done walking this fucking course."

 

I think they should too, for the reasons Dick listed, and I think they did care at one point, but right now, people are so numb to it that they're unwilling to use the energy necessary to care.

That might change a bit if it was Tiger, but his reputation is so damaged at this point that finding out that he was using PEDs would not have nearly the impact that it would have, pre-sex scandal or when he was winning majors regularly.

 

Color me skeptical re: garden-variety PEDs (i.e., those that lead to big gains in muscle mass) in Woods' case.

 

The TigerVols List of Professions Most Likely Using PEDSTM

1. Hollywood stars
2. Football Players
3. Cops
4. Golfers
5. Weightlifters
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99. Professional cyclists

 

1. Tiger said he has been randomly tested five times this past year. Don't think he'd set himself up for that kind of lie of it wasn't true.

2. Vijay's lawyer should feel free to name names. He didn't during the hearing.

3. Singh is suing, in part, because of "public humiliation." He admitted using the substance to SI. The Tour issued one statement to the effect that Singh was cooperating with the investigation. Singh also issued a statement that expressed contrition and that he would cooperate with the Tour. The Tour made no public comment after that, until they announced Singh was cleared. Just where is the "public humiliation."

4. The Tour will release PED suspensions, after the player has had a chance for arbitration, and loses.