Sports Steroids Quickly Becoming a Part of Popular Culture

In the past few months, controversy over enhancement drugs in sports has permeated through every news source and found its way into public debate and private conversation. Next week Congress will take yet another look at drugs in sports with a hearing that will feature top names from all four major professional leagues, the NCAA, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection has scheduled the hearing on “Drugs in Sports: Compromising the Health of Athletes and Undermining the Integrity of Competition.” Meanwhile, the committee that questioned Roger Clemens has yet to decide whether to seek a criminal investigation into the seven-time Cy Young award winner or his former personal trainer for possibly lying to Congress. Clemens denied using steroids of human growth hormone at a hearing and previously in a sworn deposition. However, his former trainer, Brian McNamee testified that Clemens did use those substances and said the same in a deposition. Legally, the FBI could open a perjury investigation without being asked to do so by Congress. Nevertheless, perjury cases are rare, with as few at ten cases prosecuted in Washington over the last decade. Bob Spagnoletti, former federal prosecutor and District of Columbia attorney general, said, “When you have a he-said, he-said without a lot of independent evidence, it’s very tough to make a perjury case.”

On the other hand, a group of college students at Lynn University gave their opinion of the situation. A poll was conducted at Lynn University from February 14th to the 15th by Curtis and Charles Barr, both assistant professors in the sports management program in the university’s College of Hospitality Management, along with members of the university’s student-run Sports Management Club. The poll at the university revealed that 69.5% of the 440 students polled believed that the Roger Clemens had taken steroids or human growth hormone during his playing career. However, a similar percentage of students (63.6%) said that the steroid use did not matter to them when examining Clemens or his career with the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, and Houston Astros. Has the steroids situation been taken too far when considering the government officials and committees that have been involved? I don’t know, but I think the days ahead for all professional sports players, Olympic athletes, and even high school and college competitors will be changing and maybe not quite as tolerant as before.