From the cheap seats

I think last week was one of my most read columns. It would be the one where I wrongly predicted the Super Bowl champion.

I thought that the Super Bowl lacked many things.

First, it lacked two teams. One team showed up (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), but I didn’t see any other team. I said last week that the Bucs defense can make any quarterback look like a rookie. They did exactly that to Rich (still a good name) Gannon.

Second, there were no really good commercials. Sure there were a couple that made me chuckle, but overall the talent that I’ve come to expect out of million dollar Super Bowl ads was seriously missing.

Finally, this Super Bowl supports my theory that good Super Bowls come only every other year.

2002: New England Patriots v. St. Louis Rams — Good
2001: New York Giants v. Baltimore Ravens — Bad
2000: Tennessee Titans v. St. Louis Rams — Good
1999: Atlanta Falcons v. Denver Broncos — Bad
1998: Denver Broncos v. Green Bay Packers — Good
1997: Green Bay Packers v. New England Patriots — Bad

So prepare for an outstanding Super Bowl next year.

On a more serious note, there is a disturbing trend in pro, collegiate and even high school sports. This trend is the use of performance enhancing drugs, namely steroids.

Why do athletes feel the need to use this drug that is highly addictive? I’m impressed more with an all-natural athlete that worked hard to get his/her body in shape and is more knowledgeable of the game and uses that knowledge to win instead of ill-gotten strength. What impresses you more, a steroid-pumped baseball player hitting 75 homeruns in a season, or a player hitting .400 in a season with only 20 homeruns?

In the pros, there is a demand for success, and the athletes think that a
certain level of performance is demanded out of them. They know that there is a player coming along that is naturally going to be better than him/her.

The younger players today, as a majority, are better than players of any sport 15 years ago. They’re going to keep getting better too. The next Michael Jordan or the next Joe Montana could be in your little brother’s recreation league or on his high school team. This is still no excuse for using performance-enhancing drugs.

The sad fact of the matter is that it isn’t the pros where the drug is getting to be most popular. Colleges and high schools are becoming more and more populated with steroid users and abusers.

What’s even more shocking is that it isn’t just the athletes that are using this drug. I can not figure out why anyone would stick a needle in their shoulder, butt, or any other part of their anatomy in the first place, but when they’re not even involved in any athletics, it boggles my mind.

They do it either for looks or…I’m not sure there is another reason unless you like the occasional roid-rage or lowered sperm count if you’re a guy. If a woman takes steroids it can cause an extra dose of testosterone in the body leading to, among other things, more hair growth in unwanted places (such as the upper lip and chin).

Physiques on the field or court do not impress me as much a finely tuned player who can play the sport like he or she loves it.

Give me a 5’10″ 189 pound outfielder who can hit .350 and steal more than 30 bases in a season rather than a genetic freak that looks like he has a baseball surgically inserted into his arm that can hit 60 or more homeruns.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 31 2003. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry