Interesting question about roids on The Herd today...

[Coach34]

How come football players get suspended by roids all the time and fans cant wait for their return, but if a baseball player does them its like they have murdered somebody?

You can make millions more a year and have a better career by doing them, they werent illegal, why wouldnt somebody have taken them is what I want to know....

 

[Mjoelner]

</p>

 

[RebelBruiser]

I don't look at them any differently myself, but the only reason you see such an uproar about baseball players and not about football players is because baseball is such a stat driven sport. Individual records seem to be more important to baseball fans than to football fans. That's also why you see such disdain for guys like Sosa, McGwire, Bonds, etc. and not quite as much for lesser players. The fans are more concerned about the integrity of the homerun records than they are about the steroids themselves.

That's what I think the main driver is, and you can tell because the majority of the stories with baseball and steroids have to do with what records were or might be broken with the help of performance enhancing drugs.

In football, if a tackle uses steroids, he's not going to break any long-standing records. It'll help him out personally, but it won't change the record books.

 

[MSUArrowCS]

making the point, like Bruiser said, that baseball is different because of the numbers. In football, people really just want to see somebody get jacked up. The only similarity would be at QB or another "skilled" position where numbers are significant.

 

[Center Z]

Four-game suspension for roids to begin the 2006 season. Haven't heard anything about it since.

edit: year

 

[VegasDawg13]

Most people blame the fact that stats are more importnant in baseball. I think there are a couple of other factors as well.

Everybody loves football. We don't want to find a reason to not watch football. To denounce it like we do baseball would be to taint our favorite sport ("our" meaning America's).

Football is unique in that there are few enough games and there is enough going on in each game that the sports media can talk as much as they want to about it and still focus on nothing but the game itself. With baseball, the story is often bigger than the game. Therefore, the media focuses on steroids way more in baseball so they can have more to write about. Meanwhile, most people talk about what the media dictates that they talk about. So, steroids end up getting discussed in regards to baseball since that's what the stories are about.

I have no idea if either of these hold any water, but I find it hard to believe that the absolutely huge disparity is due solely to records being more important in baseball.

 

[beachbumdawg]

never read a study that correlated steroid use as an increase possibility for brain cancer....but since he believes his steroid abuse (not use) contributed to it.....it must be the case......also whats the deal with using hgh from dead bodies as opposed to the synthetic stuff that is recommended.....i guess get it anyway you can....sheesh....

 

[patdog]

they werent illegal,

Baseball didn't have a rule against them, but they were definitely illegal.

I think another poster hit the nail on the head about the reason for the difference between football and baseball. Baseball has always been a game of numbers and the steroid era has really distorted some of the numbers and has led to a lot of records being broken cheaply. No football fan really gives a **** if a top lineman weighs 280 or 340. But most any baseball fan cares whether a good home run hitter hits 40 home runs or 60.

 

[Coach34]

"Baseball didn't have a rule against them, but they were definitely illegal"

I can go get HGH prescribed for me tomorrow. It is not illegal. And baseball had no rule against HGH or any other steroids taken

 

[sardis]

is that this use drifted into high schools, junior colleges, etc. as youn players tried to make their dream happen. A friend of mine whose son who pitches for small college said it was very common on the junior college team he played on in Fl.

 

[seshomoru]

"Baseball didn't have a rule against them, but they were definitely illegal"

I can go get HGH prescribed for me tomorrow. It is not illegal. And baseball had no rule against HGH or any other steroids taken

So you're assuming all these players had prescriptions for Stanozolol and whatever the hell else they injected in themselves? If so, why not pull out the scrip or call their doctor? Problem solved.