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David Racster
Professor DiSarro
English 103
7 December 2010
Steroids and its’ Negative Influence
What is the best way to get big quick? Most would say to go to the gym or start a more
intense workout program. Though, some professional athletes go against the correct way to
maximize their strength and take anabolic steroids. It’s clearly known when participating in a
professional sport that it’s an unfair advantage for them to take any drugs at all. This problem
continues to increase, and needs to be dealt with properly. If not, then more young adults and
kids will continue to follow in their favorite athlete’s footsteps and use this harmful drug. In
today’s world, there are plenty other drugs that can have just as bad as an effect or even worse.
Some people may say anabolic steroids are making the sport more entertaining and competitive,
but in actuality it’s hurting the players themselves and especially those people they influence.
Not only are professional athletes getting caught using steroids, but now it is trickling
down to high school athletes as well. This is completely ridiculous to think that teenagers can
get their hands steroids. The latest state to handle this issue has been Texas; they have taken it
out of the hands of educators and are making a test necessary for all athletes to take before they
can play in a sport (Goldman). This is a great reason why parents are becoming angry about the
influence professional athletes are having on their children. It is known that things are getting
worse when it comes to steroid abuse because 40 years ago people wouldn’t have thought that
tests would be conducted as early as high school. Professional athletes are to blame, because

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without them the idea of using steroids for sports wouldn’t be an option. Though quite a bit of
people tend to think that athletes aren’t meant to be role models, unlike parents, teachers, and
community leaders who are. It’s clearly a bad sign when high school athletes are getting caught
using steroids at such an increasing rate. The percent of high school athletes that have abused has
gone from 6 percent to 11 percent within the past three years (Goldman 54). I feel professional
players caught using these steroids need to have a more harsh punishment then what they are
now. A lot of this negativity is happening due to our country being an instant gratification
society. The US has slowly become more and more of this type country and it has a lot to do
with the medical and technological advances. If someone doesn’t feel good, then all one has to
do is a take a pill or a drug and he will feel better or at least think so. This concept correlates
with many other parts of life, from fast food restaurants to online shopping. Both of these two
examples illustrate how our society creates ways to get things as fast as they can, even if they
aren’t the best.
For those people that understand athletes and their use of steroids, well there can be
multiple reasons why. First off, what is one thing people love watching in sports, specifically
baseball? It’s obviously the hard hits and homerun balls being hit out of the ballpark. Lately in
the national football league (NFL) players have been caught using steroids, too. One well-known
player that was caught was Brian Cushings, last years AFC Rookie of the Year. Come summer
time he was caught with anabolic steroids in his system. In return, they had to revote on whether
he should still be considered the rookie of the year knowing that he had taken steroids, and of
course he retained the title. There are always some people who want to see the greatest no matter
what. Another example would be the baseball player we all know, Barry Bonds. In the 2001, in
one season Barry Bonds blew up and hit a major league baseball record with 73 homeruns. He

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broke Mark McGuire’s homerun record by three homeruns; McGuire was also accused and later
admitted to taking steroids. In San Francisco, fans love it when a player hits the ball out of the
ballpark and they even call it the McCovey Cove. Barry Bonds is the all-time leader with the
amount of balls being hit out of that ballpark with 35. There have only been 55 hit out total, so he
has more than half of them. Most fans love it when it happens and don’t care if Bonds was on
steroids or not. Then, there are also a few people that shun pro athletes in ways too, such as;
holding signs up, throwing syringes on the field, and loud vulgar shouting. Some of the most
excited fans are kids, and that’s the depressing when they see what players have accomplished
with the use of steroids.
Steroids just hurt the sport, and are a bad influence on the kids that want to play sports. If
athletes want to increase their body mass and become stronger they should have to work on that
without the influence of steroids or even the thoughts of taking them. Not only can one be
suspended or even kicked out of a sport for using, but also can extremely risk the state of their
health. Psychological effects appear to be the only consequence of an overdose of anabolic
steroids, but long-term usage can lead to infertility, testicular atrophy (in males) and disturbances
of the menstrual cycle (in females) (Graham 513). The severity depends on which steroid or
combination of steroids that are being abused. The brain (psyche), the skin (acne), and the liver
(hepatis) are three main parts of the body that get abused by shooting steroids (Graham 513). To
further prove this, in 1994, recreational bodybuilders attending a Welsh needle-exchange clinic
completed a survey on feelings of hostility/aggression. Subjects reported significantly higher
feelings of aggression towards objects, verbal aggression and aggression during training. During
the 6 to 14 week AAS period, other changes included significantly higher feelings of alienation,
irritability, anxiety, suspiciousness, and negativism. This shows that there are tremendous

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negative effects of using anabolic steroid, not just the glory that fans get to see Graham513).
In today's world everyone seems to have a certain look that they either want to portray or
they need to have just to be what they want to be in life. Life is important to most people and to
be able to get somewhere in life, some have to do certain things just to get there. Some people
have low self esteem that if they do not look a certain way that they either would not be
successful or be noticed by anyone. As an athlete in the present time, it is very competitive and
there seems to always be someone better. And because of this, choices have to be made in order
to be better than that one person who might come between getting a full ride to a college, or
being on a NFL/NBA team. One of those choices is to take the cheating route and take anabolic
steroids. Let’s just hope that future and present athletes stop making that choice and lead by
example. Furthermore, steroid use isn’t just a problem with high school students and
professionals, but with college students as well. There have been college students that have
decided to take anabolic steroids to maximize their strength, for college level sports and
frivolous lifting (Munro 112). They, like everyone else, want to get big quick and decide to go
beyond what’s right and hurt their body. With a high combined population of high school and
college students’ anabolic steroid use, people should be aware of how serious of an issue it is that
professionals are influencing.
Present players need to think of how they are affecting younger athletes. The
suspensions aren’t doing what they need to be doing, someone has to take charge and think of
another way to deal with it. People can be for it and against it, but all in all the professional
athletes taking these steroids are non-verbally saying it is all right if you take steroids; and that’s
not positive for young athletes to think at all. They need to get to that high level of play on their
own, not by taking steroids. This can carry on into life in general and not just sports.

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Work Cited
Goldman, Bob. Death in the locker room: steroids & sports. South Bend, IN. Icarus Press. 1984.
Print.
Graham, Michael R., et al. "Anabolic Steroid Use." Sports Medicine 38.6 (2008): 505- 525.
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/
detail?vid=1&hid=105&sid=53f365ac-3824-4544-
afc8-264c578eed33%40sessionmgr113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d
%3d#db=aph&AN=33163676
Munro, Regina. Anabolic steroids: knowledge, attitude, and behavior in college age students.
Arizona State University: 1991. Print.