New Allegations Hit Baseball, Football
Just weeks after Lance Armstrong's admission that he used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) during his seven Tour de France victories, new allegations of doping are dogging pro athletes in other sports. This week, a report in the Miami New Times links Alex Rodriguez and other baseball stars to a Miami clinic that provided steroids and human growth hormone (HGH). In addition, a Sports Illustrated story accuses Baltimore Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis, preparing to play his final game in this Sunday's Super Bowl, of using a banned substance to help return from a serious injury earlier this season.
The seemingly endless stream of stories about athletes and doping are either no big deal or a major cause for concern, depending on who you ask. Betsy Andreu, whose husband Frank Andreu was a teammate of Lance Armstrong and was targeted by Armstrong for accusing the cyclist of using PEDs, says there needs to be a major crackdown on the use of PEDs in sports. "It is sending a message that you can cheat, you buck the system. I'm sorry, but it trickles down to the youth of our society," she tells KTRH. Andreu wants PED use to be a felony crime. However others, like Forbes Magazine columnist Chris Smith, want just the opposite. He tells KTRH it's time to accept that most pro athletes are doping. "The best way, it seems, to level the playing field and make sure these athletes are competing on an equal level would be to make these performance-enhancers available legally to all of them," he says.
Smith points out that doping has become so commonplace in sports that it barely triggers a response, especially in the NFL. "It's pretty clear from fans to writers to a lot people in the league, that steroids aren't a big issue in the world of football." He cites Texans linebacker Brian Cushing, who was voted the defensive rookie of the year in 2009 even after it was learned he had tested positive for PEDs. However, for Andreu, PEDs are a vital issue of health and safety, especially for young people. "A lot of these people who say it doesn't matter, they either don't have kids or don't see what the repercussions are," she says. "It says a lot about their lack of morality or ethics."
Hear the podcast with Matt Patrick and Houston's Morning News as he talks with Andreu:
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