Well, it does appear that Barry Bonds took steroids, and that his trainer, Greg Anderson, is probably a steroid distributor, but all that aside, I was very disappointed at the shoddy hatchet job SportsCenter did on these two men yesterday without any real and definite proof. The most disappointing part was when SportsCenter interviewed ‘A woman who used to train at Greg Anderson’s gym’ who said that ‘He screamed and grunted when he trained’ and that ‘People said you could buy roids out of his truck’. Well, his grunting, and random rumors, that settled it! Then they showed part of an interview with an anonymous person who said things like ‘The gym was full of big guys. They must have been using’. The whole piece was so full of claims that, while are probably true, were very sketchily presented. I was disappointed that I show I love would use such tabloid journalism to convict these two men in the court of public opinion. When the media slurs people, it had better be sure of its facts, and not present rumors and innuendo as such. What did others think of this piece?
Beyond the hatchet job on those two men, this type of journalism damages the way any of us who are serious about bodybuilding are viewed in the public eye. I’m a big guy. With all of this publicity, the only assumption is going to be that ANYONE with muscles has to be on something. I think it is wrong and damaging. It is a witch hunt brough about by enhanced ratings. This will have an impact should the rumors of a “supplement ban” ever actually take shape because every moron in the general population will allow it to happen. To make it worse, there is no opposing view point making the major news scene.
I personally don’t care what Bonds did. It isn’t an issue to me. What does matter to me is the millions of morons who use this type of media hype as “knowledge”.
When 59% of baseball fans polled said that they cared very little, or not at all about steroid usage in MLB one has to wonder where the support for these witch hunts is coming from.
Everytime I see one of those talking-heads roll their eyes at the mention of AAS - I just want to squeeze their ignorant, condesdending little necks.
The part that strikes my attention is that people act as if it’s a suprise professional athelets are juicing. I’m sure many, many more athletes juice that haven’t been tested, or just haven’t been caught.
Also, I thought it was a sad presentation as well. Someone yelling in a gym isn’t exactly the most compelling evidence of steroid use. Hell, even I yell in the gym when I’m monitoring and keeping kids in line or trying to encourage my workout partner. Maybe I’m a creatine rager!? Or maybe those clever folks at the neighbourhood supplement store slipped some 'roids into my protein! And now, just maybe, I might be able to play in the MLB!
Any way, I don’t care about someone’s incorrect perception of lifters. It’s just like dealing with southern-Americans that think Canada is one giant ice rink (damn you David! lol). Just laugh off steroid accusations and take it as a compliment.
-DV
That piece on SportsCenter was a piece of shit. I deal with the media quite a bit in my job. All of them just love to present one sided opinions that always focus on the negative aspect of things. And, if there is nothing negative to be found, they invent it! It’s disgusts me how opinions, verbal statements, written documents, etc. can be totally taken out of context and misconstrued by the media.
That being said, I like what ProfessorX said about the supplement ban. Its absolutely true. I worked in a Vitamin World while I was in college. People would come in and have no idea what half of the things they were buying were for. They would just here about something on TV, think they were experts, and come in to the store and drop a ton of money on shit that was virtually worthless. The amount of misinformation that some of these people had was astounding. I’ll never forget the time when this lady and her husband came in and wanted to buy some protein powder. It was one of those big in store brand economy size whey proteins. The very first thing they said to me was that they didn’t want any steroids because they were bad for you! I looked at them like they were nuts and asked them what exactly they were talking about. They had seen a report on steroids on the news and actually thought steroids were in protein powder and thats how all of the big, bad, evil weightlifters get so big! They had no clue that steroids were even illegal! Then they had the nerve to tell me that I should quit using protein because I was too big already and I was damaging myself. I could have killed them! Looking back I wish I would have.
Regarding athletes and steroid use, it doesn’t bother me a bit. Athletes in all sports around the world have been looking for ways to boost performance or gain some type of edge over their opponents probably since the beginning of time. Personally, I want to see the freak make the big play. I want to see the 1,200 foot home run. I want to see a 7,000 pound total in powerlifting. And I really don’t care how it happens.
However, most people will probably disagree with me as I tend to be a bit extreme in my views and opinions.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
I personally don’t care what Bonds did. It isn’t an issue to me. What does matter to me is the millions of morons who use this type of media hype as “knowledge”.[/quote]
I don’t give a shit about what the morons think either. I do get pissed about the government banning a bunch of stuff by knee-jerk reaction.
I don’t wish to use pro-hormones or steroids, but I’d like to have the choice to do so if I so wished.
It’s my body, and, as long as I’m not causing harm to others, I’d like to be free to do as I wish with it.
The morons still have their alcohol, their smokes and thousands of McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme. I’m sure that banning tobacco and alcohol would have a much higher impact on the health and longevity of the population, but you can’t do that. Lobbies, big money, etc. But hey, let’s ban ephedrine and pro-hormones to show that we really care about public health.