The regulation of PED's in professional sports

Alex Rodriguez (Source: NPR)

With institutions being my economic policy, "rules of the game" so to speak, my previous four blog posts have all covered different sports that have bans on PED's and how it affects the athletes.

Those sports included football, baseball and cycling but those are just a select amount of sports that have issues with its athletes abusing the drug policy. Realistically, every professional sport has athletes that "cheat" and not abide by the rules.

Best said in my last blog post, ATHLETES WANT TO WIN.

We are merely just fans, we should not care what kind of substances they use. In the end, we are not complaining when we get to watch them make one handed touchdown catches or crank 500 yard home runs.

An athlete that is one of my favorites and provides to be a great example is Julian Edelman of the New England Patriots. He has gone to the super bowl almost every year for the past five years. You don't think he wants to be able to compete at his highest level? You don't think he wants another five rings on his fingers?!?

LET EM' PLAY!

How will regulating PED's affect the athletes?

Josh Whitman (Source: Illinois News Bureau)

While it is the belief among many that steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in the use of sports is cheating and "unethical", it is also fair to say that many of the people that have this view probably don't play sports, or at least at too high of a level. The man pictured above, Josh Whitman, is the current Athletic Director at the University of Illinois Champaign and is also a former NFL tight end. 

In an article he wrote published by Illinois News Bureau, he talked about the take high level athletes had on PED's. " It is both unrealistic and arguably unfair to ask athletes to protect themselves from the innate parts of their own character that we cheer so heartily while they are within the competitive arena". To break this down, Whitman is essentially saying that why should we care what these athletes are doing when in reality we love seeing them make extraordinary plays on the field. Whitman went on to say that as an athlete, "your primary goal and the only goal is to win". Players should be able to do whatever they want/need to in order to accomplish this goal.

While Institutions being my economic policy, I would like to say that I agree with Whitman that having PED's banned in sports is stupid and quite unfair to athletes themselves.

How will the Tour De France regulate its players from using PED'S?

                                             Lance Armstrong (Source: MarketWatch)

In an article written by Taylor and Francis, it is mentioned that the reason as to why many Tour De France athletes use PED's is because they simply believe they need them to compete and complete the race. With Institutions being my economic policy, "rules of the game", this race is quite controversial. While it is incredible to see people bike 2,200 miles with hardly any rest, it is not so awesome to know that many of them cheat. To add to that, many officials of the race make it publicly clear that "public opinions about doping do not always conform to the prohibitionist line". The significance of this is that the officials believe that many fans of the race do not believe athletes will have the integrity to abstain from cheating while competing.

Doping itself in the sport of cycling sustains and raises performance, but at the same time takes a large toll on the body. Many of athletes that "dope" do such a thing because the peer pressure but also the secrecy that can come along with it if not caught. 

All in all, I believe Cyclists will continue to use performance enhancing drugs in events such as the Tour De France solely due to how hard the event is itself. 

Next Blog Post: How will regulating PED's affect the athletes?

How will the MLB regulate its players from using PED's?

Barry Bonds (Source: mccoveychronicles.com)

The MLB perhaps is the sport where PED's are most prominent, steroids in particular.

In an article written by Scholarship.edu, they talk about how the rules/policy have not done too much. "Of course when most people refer to baseball's "Steroid Era" they mean the period of time from the late 1980's until the mid-2000's, when anabolic steroid use pervaded the sport. Major League Baseball has since cleaned up its act by instituting its Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, but that hasn't stopped some players from using performance enhancing drugs in violation of federal law and baseball policy."

With my economic policy being Institutions, "rules of the game" so to speak, the rules have clearly been broken many times by these players. For them, it is a way to rack up their home run total which in return would land them bigger contracts. In today's game, we see still see many big time players getting busted. Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is a great example. He was a stud for the Yanks for over a decade. Just like anything else in life, the players look at their careers and the MLB as a business. They will do anything they can to perform better so they can make more money as a result. "Since Major League Baseball lacks subpoena power, there's only so much they can do to stop tnulti-millionaires who have the desire to gain any advantage they can." - T Quinn in the article by Scholarship.edu.

My prediction is that MLB players will still take the risk of using these drugs to perform at higher levels.

Next blog post: How will Tour De France officials regulate players from using PED's?

How will the NFL regulate its players from abusing the PED policy?

Source: SB Nation 

In an article written by ESPN, the NFL players union is frustrated at the league for requesting to test five certain players for PED's, as for their names came up in a report that said they were all abusing the policy. My economic policy is Institutions, "rules of the game" so to speak. NFL players in general have commonly had issues with the policy since they seem to take it pretty lightly. Almost every other week or so you hear about a player being suspended for abusing it and this can no longer go on.


Something needs to be done with respect to this because clearly the policy at hand isn't stopping them. With that being said, those five players don't feel it is fair for them to be tested since the source it came from is indeed not credible. This leads to the bigger problem: the players' union overall doesn't believe they are very trusted by the league. They frequently advocate against doing interviews with league officials since they believe the questions being asked aren't always relevant and therefore could lead to either getting themselves or other into some type of trouble. "The NFLPA believes it is its responsibility to protect its players from those kinds of situations, and honestly, it's correct. If not to advocate for the players and make sure their employers aren’t trying to take advantage of them, what’s the purpose of a union? 

Next blog post: How will the MLB regulate PED abuse?

How will professional sports should regulate excessive PED abuse? And how will it influence the athletes?

Lance Armstrong (photo taken by New York Times)

-The economic principle I will explore is Institutions, “rules of the game” that influence choices.

-The overall question I will research to help explore the economic principle is how will professional sports regulate performing enhancing drugs and how will it influence its players/athletes?

3-4 subquestions that will help me answer my overall research question are:
-How will the NFL regulate its players using PED's? ESPN
-How will the MLB regulate its players using PED's? Seton Hall Law
-How will the Tour De France regulate its players using PED's? Taylor & Francis
-How will regulating PED's affect the athletes? U of I News Bureau