Golf and PEDs

Good points, Hondo.

 

Yes, great points. Change Tigers name to Lance Armstrong or countless athletes that have eventually been busted and I'm sure you believed the same.

Tiger would never lie, he's an honest fellow. Did he ever tell us why he was seeing a Dr. that was arrested for ped distribution? Coincidence, I'm sure.

 

And how many random drug tests did Lance Armstrong pass? More than anybody in the history of his sport. Which, of course, proved he was clean, right?

If there's one thing I'd think we'd have learned by now, it's that passing the tests doesn't necessarily prove much. My lord, if I had a dollar for every drug test passed by users over the years....

 

Getting Oliver Stone-ish 'round here. That there's been no evidence (that we know of) is actually proof (proof, I tell you!) that something nefarious is afoot.

 

Why was he working with that doctor?

 

I don't know. Could be a number of things, some of them not so savory. But I'm not too keen on the "Lance Armstrong passed drug tests, too!" line of argument.

 

The line wasn't being used as an "argument" that Tiger is a user, but merely to point out the flaw in citing tests to support an argument that he's clean. I've no idea if Tiger's used or not, but I do know that passed tests ain't conclusive proof of cleanliness. Far too many have been burned in the past by that broken reasoning.

 

Why not?

The corollary is pretty simple: Both athletes were media-savvy superstars who brought unprecedented positive attention -- and billions in advertising -- to their niche sports; both have a long history of cozy relationships with their sports' governing hierarchy; both are intensely competitive and able to bully and or buy colleagues into silence.

 

The painkillers that every athlete uses basically destroyed Alonzo Mourning's kidney.

These players "risk" their health every day they're on the field by what they have to do to stay on the field. Even if they never get within 100 feet of a PED.

The "But they are forced to risk their health by taking PEDs" argument just does not work. Not today. Maybe not ever.

 

Yes, the argument works just fine. Just because other, legal drugs can have side effects as well does not mean that anything goes. If anything, it's an argument against using drugs like Cortisol or Toradol, not an argument in favor of PED use. How far do you want to take it? I remember a story in which a high school athlete died from using too much Ben-Gay/Icy-Hot. According to your argument, this thus nullifies any argument against PED usage.

There is a line at which we have determined that the health risks are no longer worth the competitive benefits. It may seem arbitrary to you, and I suppose that pinpointing it does require some subjectivity. But, again, PEDs are illegal for a reason. Because they have been determined to be dangerous. And, less controversially, they have never been determined to be safe enough to use in this manner. Most of them have never been determined to be safe enough to use in any manner.

You can't cherry-pick Alonzo Mourning, throw him down like a winning hand, and claim that all health-related ethics in sports are thus out the window. How much did Mourning use them? Did he have a predisposition to harm from them? Did he abuse them? What are the odds of such an occurrence compared to the odds of harm from PED use? These questions all matter here.

I don't want to give the impression that I don't understand your argument here, or that it doesn't have any merit at all. You're saying that ship has sailed. But I don't think it totally has. Otherwise, you could argue, for example, that football players should be able to use copious amounts of cocaine before a game. After all, you know, Toradol. Icy-Hot.

I know what comes next: "Steroids aren't dangerous." Well, prove it. If you prove it, then that argument falls away - at least once the players accept it. I acknowledge that. But they remain illegal. You'll have to take it up with Congress.

 

Are all PED's illegal Dick?

 

If they aren't, then the illegality argument falls away. If they are banned by the sport, you are still putting your fellow players in a spot. Depending on the drug, this is a lot closer to bat-corking, ethically, than doping.