2008 Woodie Awards
SectionsSteroid problem under tight wraps at college level
Geoff Pickle
Issue date: 10/12/07 Section: Features
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With the ever-increasing emphasis on winning in this country, the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports is a problem that those in the athletic field find hard to ignore.
How can the heads of both professional and amateur spo-rts syndicates keep these drugs out of the hands of its players? How can this epidemic be ended? Why do athletes feel the need to use these drugs?
"I think that there's a perception that bigger, stronger, faster is better, and obviously it has been documented that those things (performance enhancing drugs) can help that," said Terry Allen, head football coach at Missouri State.
Allen has a straightforward approach to dealing with the presence of drugs in the NCAA.
"We have a very strict policy for all NCAA athletes," he said. "It's all filed by the NCAA."
Allen expressed his view that drug use is decreasing in sports around the country.
"I think there was more abundant use of it in the '90s then there is today," he said.
Allen said that the strict testing for performance enhancing drugs in athletes and the documented side effects are enough to keep the majority of players from using drugs.
Indeed, strict education could be one of the only ways to end this need to use drugs in athletics. Profess-ional and collegiate athletes are some of the top role models in this country. What kind of message is steroid use sending to clean and honest athletes?
Pam Sailors, head of the Missouri State Philosophy De-partment and a researcher of sports ethics, said that the sh-ort answer to why these athle-tes use drugs is "because they want to win."
"They believe that those drugs will give them the little edge that they need," said Sa-ilors.
Sailors felt similarly to Allen in the use of testing these athletes.
"I think the only thing that even has an ounce of chance of eliminating performance enhancing drugs is a lot of money being poured into testing technologies," she said. "I think the athletes will use the drugs until the testing gets sophisticated enough that they can't beat it."
How can the heads of both professional and amateur spo-rts syndicates keep these drugs out of the hands of its players? How can this epidemic be ended? Why do athletes feel the need to use these drugs?
"I think that there's a perception that bigger, stronger, faster is better, and obviously it has been documented that those things (performance enhancing drugs) can help that," said Terry Allen, head football coach at Missouri State.
Allen has a straightforward approach to dealing with the presence of drugs in the NCAA.
"We have a very strict policy for all NCAA athletes," he said. "It's all filed by the NCAA."
Allen expressed his view that drug use is decreasing in sports around the country.
"I think there was more abundant use of it in the '90s then there is today," he said.
Allen said that the strict testing for performance enhancing drugs in athletes and the documented side effects are enough to keep the majority of players from using drugs.
Indeed, strict education could be one of the only ways to end this need to use drugs in athletics. Profess-ional and collegiate athletes are some of the top role models in this country. What kind of message is steroid use sending to clean and honest athletes?
Pam Sailors, head of the Missouri State Philosophy De-partment and a researcher of sports ethics, said that the sh-ort answer to why these athle-tes use drugs is "because they want to win."
"They believe that those drugs will give them the little edge that they need," said Sa-ilors.
Sailors felt similarly to Allen in the use of testing these athletes.
"I think the only thing that even has an ounce of chance of eliminating performance enhancing drugs is a lot of money being poured into testing technologies," she said. "I think the athletes will use the drugs until the testing gets sophisticated enough that they can't beat it."
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