Josh Hodnik
MuscleChemistry Representative
Sports Scandals: America's newest Pastime
by: Josh Hodnik
07-10-2013
Source: VPXsports.com
Sports Scandals Americas newest Pastime
Sports scandals have become as American as baseball and apple pie. It seems that every time you turn on ESPN there is a story involving a pro athlete being arrested or for failing a drug test. With steroids, sometimes it feels like the drugs and arrests overshadow everything else...
It was recently reported that 28 NFL players have been arrested since the Super Bowl in February. This may seem like a large number, but with a little over 1,500 active players in the NFL, the number of arrests among NFL players is actually below the national average. Most of these arrests were for DUIs or other non-violent crimes. Arrests like these happen all over the country every day, but when an athlete is involved, it becomes big news. Former New England Patriot tight end Aaron Hernandez was recently arrested on a murder charge. This is obviously a much more serious crime than any other arrest this year in the NFL. Stories involving Hernandez and the murder case have taken up a lot of airtime on ESPN, and that seems to be what the public wants to see.
Scandals in baseball that have received big-time attention date back to the early 20th century. The Black Sox Scandal, involving the Chicago White Sox intentionally losing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Eight players were accused of losing in exchange for money from gamblers. Shoeless Joe Jackson admitted to the flop in front of a grand jury. The accused players were acquitted in court, but they would be banned from organized baseball forever.
Babe Ruth is considered by many as the greatest baseball player of all-time. Throughout Ruth’s 22-year career, he was well known for ignoring team curfews, drinking heavily, and having sex with large amounts of women. Babe and his wife Ruth were both Catholic and did not believe in divorce. Now, fast-forward 85 years and you find Tiger Woods having to answer to the media and facing a divorce for actions similar to the endeared Babe Ruth.
Times have changed, and an athlete’s personal life is often under a microscope for everyone to dissect. It’s been over a decade since the Balco investigation began. The highly publicized Balco scandal, involving Victor Conte and dozens of professional and Olympic athletes, changed the way the public viewed professional athletes and steroid use forever. Before Balco, performance enhancing drug use in sports was rarely mentioned by the press or by anyone for that matter. Drug use in sports was common even decades before Balco, but it just wasn’t talked about. The public seems to be hungry for scandals, and the media knows how to dress it up to feed that appetite. Athletes from all major professional sports were accused of being the recipients of performance enhancing drugs from Balco. After pressure from federal agencies, sports commissioners, and the press, many of these athletes would eventually admit to taking the drugs administered by the West Coast lab. Homerun slugger Barry Bonds denies using steroids given by Balco to this day. A 21-month investigation into the use of steroids and human growth hormone in Major League Baseball led to a report that was released to MLB commissioner Bud Selig. The investigation, led by Senator George Mitchell, would eventually be known as the Mitchell Report. This report would implicate 89 MLB players for performance enhancing drug use. A few months before the release of the Mitchell Report, Barry Bonds would become the all-time homerun leader. This 2007 season would be the last for Bonds in baseball. Even though 89 players were listed in the Mitchell Report, Bonds would become the person that most people thought of when steroids and baseball were talked about.
Jason Giambi admitted to steroid use, Rafael Palmeiro had failed a test for stanozolol after denying use in front of Congress, and several people close to him had accused Roger Clemens of PED use, but it was Bonds that received the majority of the criticism. Many of the names associated with Balco have been forgotten, but Bonds will always be remembered as the steroid using homerun champion. During the 2007 season where Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron in homeruns, many despised and criticized him because of accusations of steroid use. Many people felt his homerun record was not valid and actually wanted an asterisk placed next to this record in the record books. $60 million was spent investigating and prosecuting Bonds. A nation full of sports fans paid close attention, waiting to see the fate of a now retired Barry Bonds, who had faced obstruction of justice and perjury charges. Many fans that had called for Barry’s head were let down when he was convicted only of obstruction of justice in 2011. The perjury charge that accused him of lying about steroid and HGH use did not stick, and Bonds walked away with no jail time.
There have been several large sports scandals over the years, but none have had the impact that Balco had. Congress got involved in Major League Baseball because of Balco and pushed for stricter testing and punishment. Despite the changes that were made, there is another baseball scandal just on the horizon that could do more damage to baseball’s image than Balco did. One thing is for sure that this scandal will definitely give sports fans something to talk about for quite a long time.
by: Josh Hodnik
07-10-2013
Source: VPXsports.com
Sports Scandals Americas newest Pastime
Sports scandals have become as American as baseball and apple pie. It seems that every time you turn on ESPN there is a story involving a pro athlete being arrested or for failing a drug test. With steroids, sometimes it feels like the drugs and arrests overshadow everything else...
It was recently reported that 28 NFL players have been arrested since the Super Bowl in February. This may seem like a large number, but with a little over 1,500 active players in the NFL, the number of arrests among NFL players is actually below the national average. Most of these arrests were for DUIs or other non-violent crimes. Arrests like these happen all over the country every day, but when an athlete is involved, it becomes big news. Former New England Patriot tight end Aaron Hernandez was recently arrested on a murder charge. This is obviously a much more serious crime than any other arrest this year in the NFL. Stories involving Hernandez and the murder case have taken up a lot of airtime on ESPN, and that seems to be what the public wants to see.
Scandals in baseball that have received big-time attention date back to the early 20th century. The Black Sox Scandal, involving the Chicago White Sox intentionally losing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Eight players were accused of losing in exchange for money from gamblers. Shoeless Joe Jackson admitted to the flop in front of a grand jury. The accused players were acquitted in court, but they would be banned from organized baseball forever.
Babe Ruth is considered by many as the greatest baseball player of all-time. Throughout Ruth’s 22-year career, he was well known for ignoring team curfews, drinking heavily, and having sex with large amounts of women. Babe and his wife Ruth were both Catholic and did not believe in divorce. Now, fast-forward 85 years and you find Tiger Woods having to answer to the media and facing a divorce for actions similar to the endeared Babe Ruth.
Times have changed, and an athlete’s personal life is often under a microscope for everyone to dissect. It’s been over a decade since the Balco investigation began. The highly publicized Balco scandal, involving Victor Conte and dozens of professional and Olympic athletes, changed the way the public viewed professional athletes and steroid use forever. Before Balco, performance enhancing drug use in sports was rarely mentioned by the press or by anyone for that matter. Drug use in sports was common even decades before Balco, but it just wasn’t talked about. The public seems to be hungry for scandals, and the media knows how to dress it up to feed that appetite. Athletes from all major professional sports were accused of being the recipients of performance enhancing drugs from Balco. After pressure from federal agencies, sports commissioners, and the press, many of these athletes would eventually admit to taking the drugs administered by the West Coast lab. Homerun slugger Barry Bonds denies using steroids given by Balco to this day. A 21-month investigation into the use of steroids and human growth hormone in Major League Baseball led to a report that was released to MLB commissioner Bud Selig. The investigation, led by Senator George Mitchell, would eventually be known as the Mitchell Report. This report would implicate 89 MLB players for performance enhancing drug use. A few months before the release of the Mitchell Report, Barry Bonds would become the all-time homerun leader. This 2007 season would be the last for Bonds in baseball. Even though 89 players were listed in the Mitchell Report, Bonds would become the person that most people thought of when steroids and baseball were talked about.
Jason Giambi admitted to steroid use, Rafael Palmeiro had failed a test for stanozolol after denying use in front of Congress, and several people close to him had accused Roger Clemens of PED use, but it was Bonds that received the majority of the criticism. Many of the names associated with Balco have been forgotten, but Bonds will always be remembered as the steroid using homerun champion. During the 2007 season where Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron in homeruns, many despised and criticized him because of accusations of steroid use. Many people felt his homerun record was not valid and actually wanted an asterisk placed next to this record in the record books. $60 million was spent investigating and prosecuting Bonds. A nation full of sports fans paid close attention, waiting to see the fate of a now retired Barry Bonds, who had faced obstruction of justice and perjury charges. Many fans that had called for Barry’s head were let down when he was convicted only of obstruction of justice in 2011. The perjury charge that accused him of lying about steroid and HGH use did not stick, and Bonds walked away with no jail time.
There have been several large sports scandals over the years, but none have had the impact that Balco had. Congress got involved in Major League Baseball because of Balco and pushed for stricter testing and punishment. Despite the changes that were made, there is another baseball scandal just on the horizon that could do more damage to baseball’s image than Balco did. One thing is for sure that this scandal will definitely give sports fans something to talk about for quite a long time.
