Script+-+Mitch+&+Corbin

Mitch: Steroids

Intro: There has been a dramatic change in sports since the turn of the 21st centery. Athletes in every sport has become bigger, faster, and stronger. Sports have become more competitive than in years past. There is now a notice able change from the 20th and 21st centery in how all sports are being played. It used to be all about the game and now it's about money, drugs, and fame.

__Thesis Statement:__ In the 1990s, widespread animosity towards steroid usage was on the rise. Many athletes began doping, and in return, records were becoming shattered and the integrity of sports was being lost. I believe that steroid usage has had a negative impact on sports, and that stricter punishments and regulations by making steroids illegal should be upheld to keep sports steroid free.

**__Anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs have completely revolutionized sports since the 1960s. Penn State University professor Charles Yesalis of health and human development said, “It’s human nature to obtain an edge, whether in combat, business, or in sports” (Sports and Drugs). Anabolic steroids, human growth hormones and other performance-enhancing drugs became that “edge” that athletes were in need of to get on top of their opponent and reach stardom. Steroids, in general, provide an undesirable attractiveness to athletes looking for something extra to excel them into the best athlete out there. The physical alterations and developments include “intensity and length of athletic training that muscles and bones can tolerate, (the enhancing of) male reproductive and secondary sexual characteristics (that include the) development of testicles, body hair growth, and thickening of the vocal cords” (Performance-enhancing drugs).__**


 * __Steroids went virtually unnoticed in the MLB and other professional sports until the late 1990s and early 2000s. Skepticism of athletes using steroids didn’t arise much until the MLB’s single season home run record was broken twice in three years, when Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit 70 and 73 home runs respectively. More and more professional baseball players began "doping" or using steroids, and according to Senator George Mitchell’s published report, //The Mitchell Report// in December of 2007 “implicates several MLB players, including both Bonds and McGwire, as having taken steroids or other PEDs” (Steroids in Baseball). Steroid use in baseball started to become widespread, which caused for a revolution, not only the MLB, but also in nearly every other sport from high school to professional sports to the Olympics. Anti-doping officials “insist that performance-enhancing drugs hurt not only the image of competitive sport but the athletes as well” (Sports and Drugs).__**


 * __Drug testing in almost every sport has become the reaction towards the widespread animosity of steroid usage and has almost become inevitable to have. Fines, suspensions, and even at the most extreme cases, bans, have been issued for athletes that have tested positive for using steroids. The NCAA, NFL, NBA, and MLB all have a variation of drug testing and their own form of punishment if a player is found positive. The NHL is the only major professional sports league that does not test nor punishes players for using steroids__** **(**Sports and Drugs). __**The variation in testing and punishment allows each sport to enforce the proper sanctions given how much they feel steroids affect their sport**__. The dangers of these drugs have become unsurpassable towards the athlete’s health as well. Drugs such as anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and erythropoietin all have dangerous side effects. “Anabolic steroids, for example, which stimulate muscle growth, are linked to a number of **__cancers, premature heart disease, mood disorders including uncontrolled episodes of rage ("roid rage"), and more”__** (Doping is More). Drug testing has not only been bad for the morality of sports, but also the health of many athletes who have steered away from the drugs due to the health factors.


 * __Ever since the 1800’s, athletes have been using drugs or other enhancements to improve physical or mental performance in sporting events. In the 19th century, drugs such as “strychnine, cocaine, nitroglycerine, as well as other medicinals, were used to sustain or improve an athlete's performance__**” (Steroids in Baseball). Even back to the times of ancient Greece, Olympic athletes tried to enhance their performance by consuming massive amounts of meat, alcohol, and sheep testicles. From the 19th to the mid 20th century, **__“athletes were experimenting with a variety of stimulants” (Sports and Drugs) and by the 1950s, “steroids and amphetamines began spreading into competitive sports” (Sports and Drugs). Some people credit the Soviets usage of steroids during the Cold War to “increase weight and power” (Sports and Drugs) as the reason why Americans started using steroids. In 1975, the International Olympic Committee put popular AASs (anabolic-androgenic steroid) under its list of banned substances. Unplanned drug tests were given to the athletes in the 1984 Olympic games, which showed that “about half the tested athletes had taken steroids” (Steroids). These statistics led to the stripping of an Olympic gold medal for Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson in the 1988 Olympic games in Seoul.__**

Congress finally banned steroid usage soon after the 1988 Olympic games. **__“In 1990, Congress passed the Anabolic Steroid Act, which identifies anabolic steroids as a controlled substance, and makes it illegal for anyone to possess and use the drug unless under the supervision of a licensed physician__**__”__ (Steroids in Baseball). Even though it was illegal for athletes to use steroids, many athletes including baseball players like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmero, Roger Clemens, Jose Canseco, and Barry Bonds ignored the consequences. “Steroid use by professional baseball players went largely unnoticed before 1998” when Mark McGwire broke the single season home run record when he hit 70 home runs (Steroids in Baseball). Three years later, when Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in a single season to break McGwire’s record, talks about steroid use was unavoidable. In 2003, **__“Victor Conte, head of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), was found guilty of distributing steroids and human growth hormones to MLB and NFL players as well as track and cycling stars” (Drugs and Athletes). BALCO’s client list revealed many star athletes who ultimately led to “a highly publicized 2005 federal investigation into steroid use in Major League Baseball” (Drugs and Athletes). The BALCO scandal finally cracked down on over 15 years of steroid use in baseball and enforced much stricter rules on doping. Today, steroid use is still very real. Yet, professional sports have imposed very serious consequences and almost every sport has a zero-tolerance policy.__**


 * __“Anti-doping advocates say the drugs hurt sports and risk players' health”__ (**Sports and Drugs). I truly believe that risking the integrity of the sport, along with risking future health problems would be enough for a player to refrain from using steroids. **__It is evident that many players take steroids “believing that these substances provide a competitive advantage”__** (Anabolic Steroids). Tests have shown that steroids do, in fact, provide a competitive edge, though they do not outweigh the physical and psychological side effects. I have concluded that the only way too completely stop the usage of steroids in sports is to make them illegal and enforce steroid prohibition laws more heavily. Preliminary steps by professional sport organizations have already been taken towards enforcing steroid usage, which include mandatory drug testing, and fines or suspensions to anybody who tests positive. __**//The Mitchell Report// believes that the MLB’s beginning actions towards steroid use “was too slow and ineffective” (Steroids in Baseball) so the Report “recommends that Major League Baseball must engage in a sustained effort to end steroid and PED use among players” (Steroids in Baseball). Now, the MLB has taken extra efforts to crack down on steroid users, and imposing much harder consequences.**__


 * __Ranging from high school to professional sports I would have mandatory drug testing and a zero-tolerance policy for those who are tested positive.__** **__“the only reason athletes would oppose drug __ __testing__ __is if they were using drugs__**” (Bob Ford). **__Another part of my plan to reduce steroid use is to impose harsher penalties in not only the sport, but also with the law. Even though the US has criminal laws governing the use of steroids “they are almost never applied to elite professional or Olympic athletes”__** (Elite Users of Steroids).


 * __Over the years since the BALCO scandal, there has been speculation into whether or not steroids actually boost statistics, such as home runs, in baseball. Some highly educated people, such as Yale professor Robert Adair, believe that steroids had minimal effects on the parts of the body that are used to hit home runs. Adair says that power hitting comes from lower body strength, but instead, steroids affect more of the "show off" muscles, like the biceps, triceps, and deltoids (Steroids, Other "Drugs" and Baseball). The "show off" muscles have no effect on power hitting, therefore steroids have no effect on power hitting.__**


 * __Adair's statement is simply untrue. Though power hitting comes from torque in the lower body, the statistics simply do not lie. In the "Juiced Era" from 1994-2004, the runs per game and the home runs per game went up from the "Canseco Era" in 1986-1993. In the American League, the runs per game went from 4.50 in 1986-1993, to 5.06 in 1994-2004 and the home runs per game went up from .89 to 1.12 in the Juiced Era. In the National League, the runs went up from 4.15 to 4.68 and the home runs went up from .77 to 1.04 (Effects of Steroids). These stats cannot be thrown out of the equation. It is evident that runs and home runs had a drastic increase during the "Juiced Era." Despite the fact that anabolic steroids have more effect on the upper body and that home runs and power are produced from the lower body, steroids have undoubtedly caused increased power. Though some argue that increased power causes more fans, I still believe that steroids, in general, have a negative effect on the sport.__**


 * __Another opponent’s argument to why steroids benefited baseball is the increased amount of fans during the Steroid Era. Norman Foster, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, is against strict policies on steroid use. While discussing the harsh penalties that MLB commissioner Bud Selig wanted to impose on known steroid user, Barry Bonds, he said that “Bonds is probably the biggest draw in the sport in the past decade. Why would the commissioner be so intent on taking him away from us?” (Sports and Drugs). A report from Illinois College of Law student Michael Lenhardt also believes that fan appreciation during the Steroid Era benefited the game as a whole after the 1994-1995 MLB strike when attendance took a toll as it dropped by almost 10 million. It was not until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s 1998 steroid fueled home run race that the League began to recover. “Attendance in 1998 increased to almost 39 million in the National League, up seven million from the season before, and the fact is, the increase of almost seven million fans coincided with an increase of almost 400 home runs in the sport” (The Business of Steroids). Without steroids, Lenhardt doesn’t believe that the MLB would have had the fan base it had during the Steroid Era and the fan base it has today. __**


 * __ The amount of fans during the Steroid Era undoubtedly increased due to offensive power houses like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds. Fans loved watching players hit 60+ home runs a year. But, fans did not have knowledge that these offensive power houses were under the influence of drugs that ultimately enhanced their performance. That is why I believe steroids still had a negative effect on baseball, even though fan bases were skyrocketing. After the BALCO scandal implicated many famous baseball players, fans were not happy. In a USA TODAY/CNN/GALLUP poll conducted in December of 2004, “ __****__82% of fans said they believe records set by athletes using steroids should either be eliminated or kept with a notation” (Players Admit Steroids). It is safe to say that fans did not approve of steroid usage, and that it has had a negative effect on the sport.__**

The last opposing view on steroids is that steroids aren’t nearly as harmful as people make them out to be. According to Norman Fost, professor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School says that one of the main reasons MLB commissioner Bud Selig banned steroids was that he “is concerned about the health and safety of the athletes” (Sports and Drugs). Fost argues that if Selig was really concerned about the health of athletes, he would ban alcohol and tobacco since they “account for 500,000 deaths each year in America” (Sports and Drugs). The people that agree with Fost’s opinion believe that steroids should be legalized solely because of the lack of deaths they cause per year. That argument is simply irrational and incompetent. The health risks that steroids cause for athletes is simply not worth it. In an NPR debate on the acceptance of steroids, sportscaster and creator of the program Sports Machine, George Michael, says he is “not willing to pay the price for legalizing steroids and performance-enhancing drugs” because he has seen how it has affected people who have taken steroids. Michael believes that steroids are far worse in the long run than people say (Should We Accept). Also, steroid use completely undermines the authority of professional sports, along with the athletes who worked as hard as they could to get to where they are now. Even though steroid use does not cause as many deaths per year as alcohol and tobacco, neither of those substances create an unfair advantage like steroids do.

It is evident that steroids have had an overall negative effect, specifically on the game of baseball, but also in other sports. People argue that steroids have minimal effect on the muscles used in power hitting, that it was the best thing that has happened to sports with the increase of fans, and lastly that the health effects are not detrimental. None of these statements are remotely true and easily refutable. The statistics prove that once steroid use began, that power hitting increased drastically. Also, after the BALCO scandal, fans did not approve of steroid use, therefore if the fans knew that Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire were cheating, it would not have caused such a draw to the sport. Lastly, the health effects caused by steroids are very serious, even though they do not cause as many deaths as alcohol and tobacco, which are legal in nearly every professional sport. I believe that using steroids is cheating, and is negative towards every aspect of sports. The only way to end steroids completely is to get better testing and impose harsher punishments and enforcing the laws already made by Congress on steroid use. In an NPR debate, Richard Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency//, said that “//The use of performance-enhancing drugs is not accidental; it is planned and deliberate with the sole objective of getting an unfair advantage” (Should We Accept).

Problems in College Sports: Corbin D.

Essential Question:
 * What is the impact of money on college sports?**

Thesis Statement:
 * The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and universities should work together to develop meaningful new rules that will help universities succeed in educating student athletes.**

In the past decade, college sports has become big business. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been at the point of this revolution. “In effect, the government subsidized NCAA manages minor league teams for the NFL and the NBA – supplying a stream of professional-level athletes for their respective drafts.” (Splitt) Universities earn a lot of money from their sports’ programs. __**In last year’s NCAA March Madness tournament, “the NCAA distributed $478 million to conferences and member institutions. (Jessop).**__

Universities have been impacted by this revolution. They are now dependent on this money from athletics, but many college sports programs are out of control. __**Last year in college football the Ohio State University and the University of Miami (The U) broke multiple rules and received sanctions from the NCAA. “Yet the shameful reputation of big-time college football didn't dampen the fans' enthusiasm or hurt its finances.” (Jones) Universities will break rules, hire questionable coaches and recruit unqualified students to keep their sports programs on top.**__ Also, the Ohio State University hired a new football coach, Urban Myer, last year. The university agreed to pay him over $3 million per year. This is three times as much as the university pays its president, Dr. Gordon Gee.

Student athletes have also been impacted by this revolution. Last month we all watched the March Madness Final Four basketball tournament. “But beneath the glam and glitz lies a problem the NCAA would rather leave unnoticed: the dismal classroom performance of its student athletes.” (Miller) __**This year the University of Kentucky won the tournament. However, “only 8 percent of [Kentucky] men’s basketball players who entered the school in 1997 had graduated by 2003.” (James) With Kentucky basketball this year they have a potential to lose six under graduate players to the National Basketball Association (NBA).** T__his is a huge problem for graduation rates, because these “students athletes” are not even “athlete students”. Now these athletes play for themselves and money. Unfortunately, many will not earn an education.

In the past money wasn’t as important in college sports. In the old days student athletes played sports for fun and competition. Now they are playing for themselves and money. __**In 1978, the head football coach of the Ohio State University, Woody Hayes, made $43,000. However today the head football coach at the Ohio State University, Urban Meyer, makes over $4,000,000. This is four times as much money as the president of the university, Dr. Gordon Gee, makes. “between 1985 and 2010, average salaries at public universities rose 32 percent for full professors, 90 percent for presidents and 650 percent for football coaches.” (Pappano) More and more college sporting events are being televised and are being watched by millions of viewers. “In the last 10 years, the number of college football and basketball games on ESPN channels rose to 1,320 from 491.” (Pappano)**__ A change in 1984 was a ruling from the supreme court that the NCAA could no longer control TV deals for college football. “The victory opened the door for conferences and universities to negotiate their own television deals.” (Hogan) Before this teams could only appear six times in a two-year span. Today Ohio State football games are being televised every saturday. The program makes 50 million dollars a year for the university.

Money is polluting the college sporting world. Division I schools they are producing more money then anyone could have imagined. __**Through TV contracts the NCAA is making 784 million dollars (Staurowsky 1). If you want to watch a Big Ten football or basketball game you’ll turn to either ESPN [Entertainment and Sports Programing Network] or BTN [The Big Ten Network]. Through both of these Networks the conference is making 146 million dollars.**__ This is a big business in the sporting world. A lot of this money isn’t really going to the players. Most of the money that the schools make through athletics goes back into coaches salaries. Through college basketball __**the National Champions this year were coached by John Calipari who’s salary was 5.3 million dollars (Schnaars).**__ Life is good when your coaching a Division I National Champion team and sending dozens of players to the NBA [National Basketball Association]. __**On the other hand Sean Woods coach of Mississippi Valley State only makes 87 thousand dollars. Mississippi Valley State had a record of 21-12 and made it to the first round of the NCAA tournament but lost to Western Kentucky.**__ The difference between Kentucky and MVS and money made by the universities are television exposure. __**Kentucky in their 40 games played were on a large television network 34 out of the 40 games played in the 2011-2012 season. Mississippi Valley State out of their 33 games played were on a large television network 6 times. More and more colleges want to become more like Kentucky.**__

Many solutions in the past to solve these money problems have failed. The NCAA has handed down suspensions, fines, and other penalties. However these have not worked. Last year the NCAA made 770 million dollars (Staurowsky 1). The NCAA wants to keep the money flowing and has not passed major rules to change this. __**“When crises happen many exacerbate and become completely out of control because so many presidents and chancellors in higher education, like their CEO counterparts in the private sector, are in denial that they will ever have a crisis. They are either unprepared or underprepared and too slow to respond.” (Henry)**__ Until the NCAA and universities admit there is a problem and change their ways they will still have a major money problem through college sports.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and universities should work together to develop meaningful new rules that will help universities succeed in educating student athletes. Today a revolution of big money has corrupted college sports (Henry). The NCAA, coaches, and athletic directors are part of the problem. They are willing to look the other way to keep money coming into the programs. Real rules with real enforcement could help the problem with money poisoning college sports. This is consistent with the Knight Commission. "The 21-year-old reform-minded commission undertook an 18-month study of athletics finances, and its report outlines several recommendations it hopes will lead to more fiscal responsibility." (Carey)

The NCAA and colleges should make a rule that will limit the amount of money colleges can spend on sports. Eighty percent of the money should go for education and twenty percent should be spent on college sports. This would reduce the amount of money colleges spend on coaches salaries, new stadiums, and athletic departments. Now more of the money would be spent on teachers, computers, lab equipment, and other ways to educate students. This would send an important message that student athletes are students first.

The NCAA and colleges should make a second rule that will show the money flow through college sports at each university. "Requiring that financial reports be public and transparent." (Knight) With this rule the public will see where the money is going. It will also help ensure that eighty percent of the money is going to education from the first rule. This should apply to even private schools such as the University of Southern California (USC).

The NCAA and colleges should make a third rule that will be an “enforcement rule” that will give us a strong leader in the NCAA. This new leader will have strong enforcement powers. The new leader will punish schools and athletes that don’t follow the rules. Schools that don't graduate students consistently will be banned from post season play. (Miller) This will show that the NCAA is serious about these college programs following all rules. If they don’t follow these rules there will be ramifications that could be severe. Colleges that test or lie to the NCAA will banned from sports for at least one year.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) object to creating rules that change college sports. They believe that the college sports system is fine and they are making billions of dollars. They want college athletes to leave school early and play professional sports. Changing the system by requiring students to graduate will hurt the NBA. __**The Commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, recently said, “I'm not concerned about NCAA, and our rules are not social programs. We don't think it's appropriate for us to lecture kids as to whether they should or shouldn't go to school.” (Cherner) Student athletes are not slaves, they have choices.**__

Commissioner Stern is right that student athletes should have choices, but he is shortsighted in his views. Student athletes should be focused on getting an education, before going to the NBA. The NBA and NFL will still have great drafts, but each player will now have a college degree. __**Rules that limit the amount of money that colleges can spend on sports will not hurt college sports. College sports will still thrive and student athletes will get an education. This education will be with them for the rest of their lives.**__

Universities and their athletic directors will object to having to make their finances public, especially if it is a private school. This is an invasion of our rights. We do not need to explain how much money we are receiving from our television sport’s contracts or how much we pay for our coaches. The system is working fine. Gene Smith, the Athletic Director of OSU, thinks the current system works. He recently said, **__“We continue to operate in the black (financially) and provide financial support to the institution. I feel real comfortable with the progress we’ve made.” (Ludlow)__**

Gene Smith is right that Ohio State’s sports program pays for itself, but he is wrong that the system is fine. The system is broken and to fix it we need to follow the money. Where is the money coming from and where is it going. Most universities do not break even on their sports programs. For example the athletic department **__at Michigan State paid the head basketball coach, Tom Izzo, $3 million last year. However, it needed $3.7 million in university subsidies. (Upton) This is true at most universities. This is money that could be used for professor’s salaries and student scholarships and changing it would not harm the sports program.__**

There is growing support to change college sports for the better by paying the student athletes. __**“College sports will become more honest once players are paid, and more honorable. Fans will be able to enjoy football and men’s basketball without having to avert their eyes from the scandals and the hypocrisy.” (Nocera).**__ We don’t need stronger NCAA rules. We already have too many rules. Coaches, boosters, players and agents all find a way to work around the rules. __**The basketball and football players have become employees of the universities and as much as they are students. These are employees with no pay. By paying the student athletes we will avoid the need to create more rules and penalties.**__

Joe Nocera’s view that paying student athletes will eliminate the scandals is interesting and also unrealistic. __**First, paying student athletes will change their status from amateur athletes to semi-professional athletes**__. This will bring more greed and money into the system. __**We would then have bidding wars for the best high school athletes. Also, if we pay the basketball players do we also pay the lacrosse players? How will the university afford this? It will have to raise tuition or cut costs elsewhere.**__ This is a very short sided idea. We need a solution of tougher rules and penalties from the NCAA and universities. Paying student athletes will just make the problem worse.