Do you care if pro football players use steroids/HGH?

Nope.

But, I prefer it was clean. Just safer for everyone that way.

The most important thing is keeping the high school and college ranks clean, IMO.

If kids can juice in order to get the competitive edge to land that first big NFL contract, they will in likely greater numbers than the pros. Plus, that's the worst time health-wise to do PEDs. The pros need to set the example, though. But in terms of my enjoyment of the sport, it has almost zero effect as long as it isn't a very harmful substance.

 

I think it should be illegal and punished because I don't think you should be required to risk your health any more than necessary to play sports. Everyone using vs everyone not using is a level playing field either way, so I'd prefer everyone not use. The best way to do that is to severely punish those caught doing so and create a significant incentive to not do it.

The worst result is some using and others not, distorting the playing field and letting that be OK. The Bonds/McGuire/Sosa stuff was ridiculous.

 

It would. Some players would use it, others wouldn't. Steroids come with side effects, I'm sure certain players (looking at you Shaub) would never do it meanwhile others (looking at you Laron Landry) would. It wouldn't be fair. At the same time you're all but asking family men to start taking steroids or risk not having a job.

 

Baltimore might be doing some shady ish. Torn biceps and triceps left and right. Not sure if there really is a correlation but sounds fishy.

 

Do I care that they use them in the NFL? Honestly no. I accept it as reality. It's rampant (PEDs) in virtually every pro sport in some form.

BUT

I can't say that it should be allowed, covered up, etc. The reason being, it trickles down. Into college kids, into high school kids. It sends the message that you need to use them in order to make it or even be competitive. Goes beyond the future pros - you're talking about hundreds of thousands of kids that won't make it at the next level anyway.

We don't need to indirectly encourage our youth to actively f*** their longterm health, especially like this.

 

I think it's a lot more dangerous to take PEDs in high school than it is to just play football. College, the line starts to blur more. By the time you're in the pros, it is much more dangerous to keep playing than it is to take PEDs.

Thinking about it like so; your body can handle PEDs better as an adult than as a kid, meanwhile, your body can handle tackle football better (quicker and better healing, slower and less violent impacts) in high school than it can as an adult. Plus, the cummulative trauma is what really wrecks you, and that doesn't set in until adulthood for football players.

Of course, I can't quantify this, so I'm not looking to start an argument. Just saying I disagree with some surface level reasoning. Any medical experts that want to weigh in, please do.

 

No, but purely from a safety perspective.

#1 - Sport is already dangerous enough
#2 - Players shouldn't feel obligated to do it just because others are
#3 - Stronger and faster just makes it more dangerous

 

It would stand to reason that CTE would be the exception for high school players, and not the rule, compared to the NFL though, right? The cases of CTE at the NFL level are understandably worse, too, simply because of the number of hits they've taken.

I'd be interested to see the data on qualitative effect of a concussion on an 18 year old vs a 28 year old. Do you have any links? I can't seem to find one.

 

Well, that's sobering. Now I can focus more on discouraging youth football instead of feeling guilty about liking pro/college football.

 

no, don't care about long term health risks, because as you say, playing football is the risk. would steroids be a huge health risk if you only took them for appearance? meaning, if you didn't have the chance of tearing your ligaments playing a vicious sport what are the real risks of steroids?

 

I was being serious, not snarky, and I appreciate the insight/data and see your point. However, you seem to be making the perfect (kids not playing at all) the enemy of the good (kids playing while not juicing). I'm not a fan of that way of thinking.

Kids are affected by PEDs more negatively than adults, that much we do know. So, discouraging the use of them is looked to be a positive. Although I think keeping the pros from using them is not going to have a tremendous affect on kids. I think only testing/regulation will really control that.

 

All things have risk to them, though. That doesn't mean you simply don't do anything or that you don't want to minimize the risks where possible. Everything is measured by benefits vs drawbacks. There are some benefits to playing football or sports in general (learning teamwork, socialization, training physically, having fun, etc) to go along with drawbacks.

It's harder to make the argument that there are major benefits to using steroids if you properly punish people for using. There's no reason to create a culture where you have to take those extra risks to participate.

 

Injury is only a minor risk of steroids. They can affect the brain - mood swings, rage, etc - as well as liver and kidney damage, heart problems, etc.

 

i can't wait till my son says daddy i want to play tackle football. i don't know why.

 

I agree.

And the winners should be determined by skill, work ethic, and talent...not drugs.