Is Sports Winning The "War on Drugs"?

Recently, the Media, Baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, and Baseball Team Owners, tried to turn the public against Baseball Players.  It’s a ploy - the age-old, so-called “War on Drugs.”  This war crops up from time to time not only in professional Baseball, but also in Football, Basketball and Ice Hockey.  Why?  Whenever players are not producing and owners are convinced they are not making enough money, they turn the players into scapegoats. 

Across the nation, outraged mothers and fathers concur with the media.  Many place the responsibility of guiding their impressionable children into the hands of professional athletes.  They demand that they become an example by not taking drugs.  It does not matter whether some of these parents are abusing prescription drugs or drinking excessively themselves. Instead of becoming strong role models for their children, they too find it more comforting to blame some stranger trying to make a living in sports.

On the other hand, why are players not vilified for drinking alcohol and giving themselves cancer from chewing tobacco?  It comes down to dollars and cents.  Firstly, tobacco and beer companies are sponsors of the professional Sports Industry.  Yet these substances are just as destructive to the wholesome, family image the sports world likes to project. 

"Baseball Players are only glorified when their
bats crack the ball and it goes sailing
on the wind beyond the boundaries." - JSB

Secondly, the Sports Industry has created a drug-induced meritocracy where some players are prepared to risk everything for short-term financial gain.  Baseball Players are only glorified when their bats crack the ball and it goes sailing on the wind beyond the boundaries.  As the home runs pile up, the rabid fans fill the stands, and owners gleefully chart exploding sales growth of their team memorabilia. The MLB Owners, Commissioner and Managers, quite aware of what these young men are doing to exhibit such extraordinary athleticism, are so morally bankrupt, that they are prepared to look the other way. It is only when some eager young reporter writes an exposé in an attempt to make a name for him - or herself that the sports world pretends to be outraged. 

The misinformed public and hypocritical parents who negate their responsibility, however, still continue to place the blame squarely on the shoulders of professional athletes alone.  Why aren’t they asking who invested in the now-defunct company, Biogenesis?  Why aren’t they demanding the names of companies still manufacturing these synthetic drug-enhancers?  Instead, they allow the owners and heads of the Sports Industry to hide in their ivory towers and force the players to be accountable to the public.

It should be noted that many of these young men playing sports for profit are the product of dysfunctional environments.  Advanced education and critical-thinking skills would prepare them to better handle their new-found wealth and lime-light.  Unless the Sports Industry stops negating their responsibility and leadership, then these young men will continue to destroy their dreams and careers.

© 2013 Mouth Wired Shut