Marion Jones: The needle, the Lying Done By: Mitch Albom

In this article, Mitch Albom discusses the negative effect that steroid use can have on your life, especially if you are a professional athlete. Marion James just admitted to steroid use and had all her Olympic Medals taken away and is banned from all track and field games. She will now be serving six months in jail despite her plea to the judge for mercy. Mitch discusses the difference between Jones and the other athletes who get caught. Jones openly admitted to it and confessed while other professional athletes tend to fight it all the way to the end, and still lose. Roger Clemens. "The star pitcher was screaming his innocence all last week, despite charges in the Mitchell Report that he was injected with steroids numerous times by his personal trainer, Brian McNamee." Mitch points out that this guy can scream and cry all he wants, that deosn't change the fact that he was being injected with some kind of substance, most likely steroids. Hopefully we can all learn a valuable lesson, at least athletes can, that steroids aren't worth it, and that you can only cheat yourself by using them.



I agree with Mitch completely on this matter. Steroids not only cause other athletes to look down on you, they also have side effects and long term results that are bad for your health. Part of the thrill of competitive sports is for it to be a challenge, a time for you to reach deep inside yourself and give even more when you have nothing else to give. Using steroids totally does away with that challenge and though you may excel faster, its not really you, and if anyone ever finds out, you will go down as just another cheater and will eventually be forgotten. If you have trouble believing this, just look at all the athletes who have used them and have completely ruined their careers and popularity. It's a no win situation, and one that you cannot recover from if you happen to make the wrong choice.



This article could easily be altered to address a high school football team. In high school, kids tend to get more obsessed with athletics and will do anything to get to the top. Sadly some even resort to steroids. One thing about this column I would change, would be to show more of the health effects of steroids. Mitch does a good job showing the financial and moral effects, but I would also cover some health issues. High school kids, especially football players want to get bigger. As I'm writing this I can still hear our high school coach yelling at us to get in the weight room, and "get huge." However, our team knows that our coach does not mean to use steroids, but to merely get in the weight room and to push yourself. Kids today want everything fast, and they think taking steroids will give them muscles fast. This is somewhat true, however, they will also receive multiple health risks, and most kids will look down on these athletes (cheaters). I would also go into more details about how these people who have done them feel afterwards. Almost all of them regret it and if given another chance would have never done it. After covering these topics I would encourage kids to eat healthy and if they feel they have to do some kind of supplement, to just take vitamins. Eating the correct combination of foods and minerals can give you natural results, and you will be better for it. Finally, I would end it with some kind of catchy saying, like the one used by our coach, "Now go get huge".