Performance Enhancing Drugs In Professional Sports

From a young age, Jacob loved Sundays. He would get up early, finish all his chores, do his homework, and wait for his favorite football to play. Once the game started, he celebrated as players made spectacular catches and yelled when his team threw interceptions. Even outside of the game, he idolized the players by always wearing the jersey of his favorite running back. Years later one Sunday morning, Jacob did not see his favorite running back on the field. He went online to several sports websites, and the breaking news was that this running back had been accused of domestic abuse and had been suspended for two games. Two games later, the running back returned to the game like nothing had happened. He never received a sentence from the courts. Jacob felt torn, he felt happy the player came back to the game because it meant his team would have a better chance of winning, but he felt uneasy about feeling happy a player got away with domestic abuse. Sadly, this happens in professional sports more times than it should. The actions of professional sports players illustrate a problem with sports

The need to use these drugs derives from the values certain players learn from sports: striving for distinction, sacrificing for the greater good of the team, and playing through the pain (Kreager 482.) They long to reach a certain level of play so badly, they sacrifice their integrity to do so, and the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs are a clear example of this mindset. Many athletes work hard to achieve excellence in their sport but never reach their ultimate goal, and these athletes, as well as those who seek a shortcut to glory, receive temptation to experiment with performance enhancement through pharmacological means. Their use of drugs stems directly from prioritizing winning over