justagame

Issue #62

Last Update February 28, 2009

National It's Just a Game by David Katz January 10, 2008 To judge by the newspapers and TV, the most pressing problem facing the country is not Iraq. the economy or global warming, it is the drug problem. No, not heroine, cocaine or meth, but the performance-enhancing drugs that athletes use to boost their stats. Congress is currently considering a bill to criminalize the use and sale of steroids, growth hormones and other substances that boost an athlete's effectiveness. The Congressmen sponsoring this bill should be reminded: it's just a game.

Criminalization aside, steroids et al are today's equivalent of the corked bat and the spitter. In amateur sports especially. doping athletes is a form of cheating; In professional sports, the issue is less clear. Professional sports is a part of the entertainment business. Each sport has a cartel that limits entry, shares out the revenues, and generally controls a multibillion dollar industry for its own benefit. Whatever the fans have been duped into believing, professional teams (or individuals) do not represent their city, state or country. They are paid by their fans to produce a spectacle, which they then further monetize through sales of broadcast rights, advertising, consumer products and various kinds of ancillary rights sales. This being so, it is no more reasonable to criminalize cheating in any sport than it is to criminalize prompting of actors or drinking by musicians.

The risk is not to the fans, it is to the sport itself. If the public doesn't care about steroids, but only cares about the spectacle steroid-enhanced athletes can put on, no harm is being done. If records are set by artificial means and the fans don't like it, the sport will go the way of professional wrestling, which no one takes seriously but many people watch. The choice should really be up to the leagues, team owners and athletes.

It's just a game, they have the right to make their own rules and enforce them as tightly or slackly as they wish, and if the fans don't like it, they can vote with their dollars and their TV remotes.

New York Stringer is published by NYStringer.com. For all communications, contact David Katz, Editor and Publisher, at david@nystringer.com