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One Little Pill

"All of a sudden, drugs are being taken seriously, and the sports world might never be the same."

By Mike Oseroff

Mike Oseroff is Youth Radio’s resident sports commentator and columnist. Keep checking this space for his weekly updates! You can email him at sports@youthradio.org.

Today, being a professional athlete means you belong to an elite group of human beings who have worked and toned their bodies and minds to the extreme. They have spent their whole lives practicing, working hard, and making sacrifices to reach this prestigious club, and everyday they make extraordinary feats look routine. But to stay productive in pro sports, you cannot lose focus of the hard work that got you to the top, and when athletes cannot maintain their physical and mental edges, many of them turn to supplements and drugs to keep them going strong.

On February 17th the death of Baltimore Orioles’ pitcher Steve Bechler brought the not-so-secret world of pill popping athletes to the forefront after doctors determined that the heatstroke he died of was caused by the ephedra-based diet pill Xenadrine RFA-1. Bechler, who was 23, had been struggling with weight problems throughout his entire five-year career, and when conditioning didn’t seem to help, he turned to the weight loss drug to aid him in his quest to reach a healthy playing weight. Bechler was the second professional athlete in seven months to die of an ephedra-linked heatstroke, after Korey Stringer of the Minnesota Vikings passed away in a similar fashion last July.

The aftermath of Bechler’s death in the past couple of weeks has been a scrambling madhouse in the sports world, with owners, doctors, and players pointing fingers at each other, and the union desperately trying to ban the substance that was already banned in the NFL, NCAA, and the International Olympic Committee. Representatives from all of the major sports are calling for more drug tests, random drug tests, and more accurate drug tests, while players protest and argue for their privacy. All of a sudden, drugs are being taken seriously, and the sports world might never be the same.

A look into the drug use that goes on in sports would not be complete without an introduction to some of sports’ biggest “drugged up stars.”

The so called “posterboy” of drug use in the NBA, Orlando’s Shawn Kemp has just failed yet another drug test and is facing yet another three or four game suspension. Kemp, if you don’t know, was a star, and one of the most dominant forwards in basketball seven years ago, before women all over the country began popping up with claims that Kemp was the father of their children and that he had abandoned all of them, without financial support. As the media began to scrutinize Kemp for his reckless lifestyle, slowly but surely his career went into a downslide as he also began to fail numerous urine tests and his production went down. Today Kemp has a good 10 drug suspensions under his belt, and is enjoying a sub-average career while battling weight problems and a cocaine addiction. Before Bechler was brought to the spotlight, Kemp was still getting away with playing under the influence, but now that all may change. New drug rules and restrictions may call for much more severe punishments for drug abusing players, and Kemp may face expulsion very soon.

On the other side of the spectrum is four time Super Bowl Champion Bill Romanowski. The veteran linebacker of the Raiders has had his obsession with supplements and health well documented, and is notorious for popping 30 plus pills a day, just to keep his body in tip-top shape. At 36 he is still one of the premier LBs in the league, and who knows how successful he might be today without his drug craze. Like it or not, both of these players may be seriously affected by the new crackdown on drugs in sports.

Whatever happens as far as banning drugs in sports and such, there is one thing we should remember. Steve Bechler was not doing anything illegal. He was taking something that anyone could go buy at a health food store right now, and was probably served by an employee who knew just as much as him about the side effects. The question isn’t why did he take the drug; it is why the drug is available, and how come it hasn’t been banned not only from professional sports, but also from the shelves of our corner GNC.

It is a shame that Steve Bechler had to die so young, but it is also a shame that it takes the death of a young person to finally crackdown on drugs and what athletes are taking. There should be a line drawn, between the positive drugs of the Romanowkis and the negative drugs of the Kemps, and we should make sure that more is known about these dangerous “aids” before they are stocked on our shelves.

Amazing what one little pill can do to America’s favorite pastime.

Check out more of Mike's columns!