Birdman

In our society today there is a big focus on the aspects of sports. One quote that I think best describes sports was by a writer named Susan Casey. She said "Sports remain a great metaphor for life's most difficult lessons. It was through athletics that many of us come to understand that fear can be tamed; that on a team the whole is more than the sum of its parts; and the ability to be heroic lies, to a surprising degree within". Sports have taught us these lessons and is part of the overall integrity of the game. Even though sports teach us the good things in life there is also a dark side. Athletics who go down this path disregard the rules of the game and seek to get an edge on the competition. One of the major problems in the sporting world today is the impact of drugs. Drugs have gone from therapeutic uses to personal enhancement and muscle building. Recently, an issue that has blown up in the media is HGH. HGH or Human growth hormone is a protein responsible for the growth in both men and women. It targets the breakdown of cells and is designed to stimulate the immune system. The primary ways HGH can be abused is to increase muscle mass and strength. A player that has been linked to HGH is Paul Byrd. Paul Byrd is a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and according to Tom Withers from AP sports took HGH under doctor's supervision before it was banned in the MLB. Jeff Passan of Yahoo sports reported that the Indians just exercised the 7.5 million option on him and will keep him another year. The question that has been issued is should the Indians have brought back someone that took an illegal substance? In my opinion, I think that it is wrong. As an organization you send the wrong message in that you condone cheating and he knew what he was doing when he took it. More importantly what message do you send to the youth? A way you can attain more money is to cheat the system. It is a situation where they needed to look more at the situation rather than the players stats. It is unfortunate that people value stats rather than morals and this needs to be addressed.