Drugs Find Sports World Spotlight Again

In the last couple of weeks, drug use in sports has been brought to the forefront by high-profile incidents involving two of the sporting world’s most recognizable and accomplished faces. A myriad of drug-related scandals have shaken the sports world in recent years, accompanied by long, drawn-out processes of accusation, investigation, denial, deceit, and outcry.

In contrast, the recent incidents have been relatively cut-and-dry. Olympic swimming gold-medalist Michael Phelps admitted outright that it was indeed him smoking marijuana through a bong at a University of South Carolina party in a photograph the British tabloid published. Yesterday, Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez confessed to taking performance-enhancing steroids for three seasons while playing for the Texas Rangers.

Most athletes caught doing drugs don’t make it so easy on us. Endorsements, contracts—their very livelihoods are at stake and typically an athlete does everything in his power to deny drug allegations, or at least take the affair out of the public eye. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, for example, are still facing legal repercussions for perjury related to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid scandal investigations, but interest in their cases has dwindled as months have passed with little to no development.
The cases of Phelps and Rodriguez are different, though. Phelps had a picture taken of him using a bong, which, despite the manufacturer’s “intended use,” is never used for tobacco. Phelps had no choice but to admit to using marijuana.

In the case of Rodriguez, Sports Illustrated published the results of his 2003 drug tests, which came back positive for two banned anabolic steroids. The results of the 2003 tests were supposed to be anonymous and confidential, which perhaps could have given Rodriguez a fighting chance at denying the accusations. Perhaps he knew the extent of the evidence against him and figured it was better to save face than to deny what we all would assume to be true.

But their admissions of guilt have come at a cost. Phelps has lost his Kellogg’s endorsement, and other sponsors are threatening to follow suit. USA Swimming suspended Phelps from competitive swimming for three months. The World Anti-Doping Agency does not treat marijuana like performance-enhancing drugs and only punishes an athlete if he or she tests positive during competition. Phelps’ eight gold medals from last summer’s Beijing Olympics will remain his.

Rodriguez will probably lose commercial endorsements and may be reprimanded by the Yankees organization, though it’s too soon to tell. He probably won’t face any punishment from the league due to the nature of the tests. Rodriguez won two Golden Gloves, three Silver Slugger awards, and an American League MVP while using performance-enhancing drugs. He can’t expect history to view his career in the same light.
Phelps and Rodriguez have once again sparked the ongoing debate about when and why we as a society care about athletes using drugs. We tend to see private drug use as a private affair. If it isn’t public, then the public has no business getting involved.

I feel for Michael Phelps. The fact is that he can’t go to a college party with a reasonable expectation of privacy. If there’s profit to be had, someone will take a picture and sell it anonymously to a British tabloid. At the same time, Phelps is viewed as a role model and a representative of something bigger than himself. He was in trouble for driving under the influence as a 19-year old in Salisbury, Md.; he should know by now how to stay out of the limelight with his illicit activities.

Frankly, I don’t know what all the hubbub is about. The man is 23 years old, he was at a party having a good time, he is not in training and he isn’t swimming competitively for the time being. We should forget about the whole thing and let him get back to doing what he does so well: being the greatest American hero of all time. Ever.

A related side note: The Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XIII 35-31 over the Dallas Cowboys. Where was the entire Steelers offensive line to be found the Friday night before the Super Bowl? Snorting excessive amounts of cocaine with one of the biggest drug kingpins in American history (see “Cocaine Cowboys” for reference). Times have changed since 1979, but I’m just saying.

Rodriguez, on the other hand, should not be punished for testing positive for steroids in 2003. These tests were, after all, supposed to remain anonymous and destroyed afterwards; they were only meant to help estimate the extent of drug use in Major League Baseball, not implicate individual players. It is unfair for Rodriguez to be punished for tests he took under false pretenses.

That said, he should definitely be investigated for current and past use of performance-enhancing drugs to see if he can be charged for anything else. The integrity of baseball has arguably never been challenged as much as it has been in recent years by the steroid scandal. Not to say that players weren’t using steroids for decades prior to BALCO and Bonds, but now it’s public, and that means somebody cares.

Michael Shannon is a Columbia College senior majoring in Sociology.
sports@columbiaspectator.com