Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Deviance Within Sports


Deviance has become very prominent in all sports. I think the major problem is that the best players are the ones who get the most attention, and to be the best people are willing to do whatever it takes. No one cares about the guy who worked his butt off every practice but just never performed at a high level, people want to see unbelievable plays, and people want to see the impossible occur. I think that is why in baseball in particular, steroids became so prominent. It became almost boring to watch...until Mark and Sammy began killing balls, hit homers left and right, and all of sudden baseball was the most entertaining thing to watch. So what does the next average guy do? Well he realizes these guys aren’t natural so he starts juicing, before you know it Bonds is breaking homerun records and everyone appears to follow their lead. Before any of us realized it appeared everyone was taking steroids...but at the end of the day it was our fascination in their perceived ability that made them want to become better. It was no longer about personal growth. It was about giving people what they wanted to see, because if fans are happy, your paycheck is going to be smiling to. But everyone wants to be the best, because the best gets the most attention and makes the most money. That is just the way it is...so why do we judge people for trying to become the best? We are the one's putting them on this pedestal, yet at the same time frown upon their wrongdoing, even though it was obvious from the get go that people such as Barry Bonds just randomly put on 50lbs of muscle of but we had no idea until the tests came back positve. No, it's called being naive and ignorant, we want to the best and support them and pretend like they are doing things, the "right" way.

-Erik Kalfus 
   Kin 332I T/Th 12-145

1 comment:

Kerrie Kauer said...

Taylor Jackson T/Th 9:30-10:45
I agree. On a professional level, If one person begins taking steroids, it makes it okay for every athlete that is a part of that sport to take steroids. If sports were pure it would be a different story. Today, professional athletes have to keep up with the best if they want to have a chance at keeping their job and making money. In some sports like football and track, there is absolutely no way to keep up with someone who is on steroids, hard work can only take you so far if your competition is using performance enhancements. Taking steroids can be considered cheating to most, but what are professionals supposed to do when their job is on the line? Sports today are so competitive and professional athletes can make such a large salary by doing what they love to do. Professional athletes that take steroids are just trying to get with the game that most athletes are already a part of. I say professional because college athletics (NCAA) is too strict on steroid use for that to be a factor.