Steroid use among athletes is not a victimless crime
“Say it ain’t so, Rocket.”
(“Say it ain’t so, Joe.” Reported words of a young fan to Shoeless Joe Jackson after the Black Sox gambling scandal.)
Roger Clemens may have lied under oath in front of a Congressional committee regarding the use of steroids during his baseball career, but so what? Couldn’t our prosecutorial resources be used for more important things?
In the late 1980s and early '90s, as an FBI agent (now retired) who helped shepherd the largest steroid investigation in history, similar questions were posed to me. Why should we pursue the illegal distribution of steroids?
U-M head football coach Bo Schembechler approached FBI Agent Greg Stejskal in 1989 to discuss steroid use among athletes.
Photo courtesy of Greg Stejskal
In 1989, University of Michigan head football coach Bo Schembechler and his strength coach, Mike Gittleson, shared a big concern. They believed steroid use was becoming pervasive in college football. Their concern was not only that some players and teams were getting a competitive advantage but that high school players were beginning to think that steroid use was a necessary and accepted practice in getting to the next level.
Bo and Mike knew steroids were an effective performance-enhancing drug, but could also cause very serious health problems. Not the least of these is severe depression. I learned of numerous cases of young, aspiring athletes who committed suicide after using steroids. (One of those suicides was the son of an FBI agent I knew.) I also thought of my own daughter and son, who at the time were beginning to participate in sports. Would they be faced with the choice of having to use steroids to reach their athletic goals?
Many believe steroid use is a victimless crime. It’s not. Using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) affect the very integrity of the sport in which they are used. I see three sets of victims. The first is the players who choose to remain clean but must compete against the “enhanced” players. The other victims are aspiring athletes who use PEDs to continue pursuing their sport, or become disillusioned and quit. The third victim is the fan — more on that just ahead.
When we began our steroid investigation, dubbed Operation Equine, our goal was to pursue the steroid dealers, not the users. We reasoned prosecutors would have little interest in going after users, whether they be gym rats or professional athletes. However, in retrospect, perhaps the only way to snag the media’s attention would have been to arrest celebrity athletes. We were also stunned when Major League Baseball stifled a yawn when presented with facts about all their “juiced” players.
Our investigative team was faced with a quandary when one of the dealers we arrested told us he had been supplying Jose Canseco and other members of the then Oakland A’s. (Later we learned one of those A’s was Mark McGwire.) No doubt, these are headline-generating names. For the reasons outlined above, we chose to pursue this dealer’s suppliers, not the star players/users.
Back in 1994, information about the players’ use of steroids was given to the office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball. It was ignored for nearly a decade. Yes, nothing happened for nearly 10 years until Canseco himself became the messenger. (Ironically, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in northern California didn’t deem steroid dealing a crime worthy of prosecution at the time. What might have happened had they prosecuted the Oakland A’s dealer there, the future home of BALCO?)
If Roger Clemens did use steroids, the ramifications were far greater than just a high-profile athlete using a substance to enhance his performance. The past and future are forever altered. Here’s where the Fan as a Victim enters the picture. In baseball, perhaps more than in any other sport, you not only compete with your contemporaries but against players from the past through statistics. These statistical achievements have long been considered sacrosanct, the lifeblood of every baseball fanatic.
These numbers transcend generations of players and fans. Thus, the use of PEDs not only potentially alters the final score, but has, to some extent, destroyed the integrity of those precious stats. Maybe more importantly, when star athletes turn to PEDs, they inadvertently encourage the same behavior by young aspiring athletes who seek to emulate their heroes.
People may argue about whether Congress should be involved in these issues, but persons testifying in front of Congressional committees under oath must tell the truth. Or invoke the protection of the 5th Amendment. To do otherwise renders the whole process a farce.
Ironically, if Clemens had used steroids during his career and admitted it, he most likely wouldn’t have been prosecuted. However, he now faces a serious charge of perjury, and perhaps worse — a tarnished career that no stellar statistic can ever repair.
It goes beyond just saying it ain’t so.
Greg Stejskal is a retired FBI agent who lives in Ann Arbor.
Comments
Jarhead
Thu, Oct 14, 2010 : 6 a.m.
trutoblu76, I agree that we should NOT spend less on the drug war. However I take issue with spending money and time chasing a drug that 4 medical and drug organizations say are not addictive and occur naturally in your body, everyone's body. You have steroids in you right now and have all your life. Please, don't equate steroids with cocaine or meth. Somewhere between 20 and 25 years old your HGH starts dropping off in production. HGH helps keep your joints fluid and repairs tendons and thats why older people move like they do. Somwhere between 25 and 30 your testosterone starts dropping off in production. There are a whole host of things that test does to repair your body. Two of the main things is muscle developement and energy. You can go to a New Age Clinic and get prescriptions for both to fight the effects of aging. I am sorry about your freind who died from an overdose. I too know people who have done that. But did she die from an overdose of testosterone? No, of course not. And that is my point. Our gov should quit spending time and energy chasing steroids and put that time and energy towards the real drugs. Only in the US do you spend years in prison for doing test. In canada its a $25 ticket. In Europe its a prescription drug. Every year 50,000 people die in car crashhes, over one half of those are due to alchohol. But Alchohol is leagal. Why? Because your lawmakers drink martini lunches while deciding yours and my fates. No one dies from steroid use. This is an overblown excuse for the gov's argument. Some people think that if you take steroids you will end up huge like the hulk. Steroids enhance what you are training to be. Look at cyclists, or baseball pitchers. If you take steroids and sit on your butt nothing will happen except that you wasted you money. Everyone should rent the dvd "Bigger, Stronger, Faster'. Also Bryant Gumble did a show called Real Sports and investigated steroids. It aired once and was forced to never show it again. You may find it on u-tube. 10 years ago I had a bone marrow transplant. During the recovery period they gave me steroids, the same steroids the Gov says is illegal and will kill you. But it saved my life. Hmmmm
Don
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 9:45 a.m.
I am so tired of this subject. Performance enhancers have always been and will always be in competitive sports. As just one example, I remember when greenies were common in baseball at a time when travel took longer than it does now; an alert player performs better than one who is dragging. The time, effort, and money spent on this issue is what's criminal when so many other real societal problems go unaddressed.
Milton Shift
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 2:23 a.m.
Steroids suck, but I don't see why people care so much about it that it ends up before Congress, on TV, etc. so often. Big deal, I say. If people want 400 pound freaks bashing each other to death in a Colosseum, so be it. We have much more important issues to deal with: ones with broad implications for society in general, not just a tiny handful of people.
Jarhead
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 9:25 p.m.
schleggy, your children? I don't think they can afford them. One of the great arguments by the gov is they don't want steroids to get into the highschools. There was a study and they found that 4% of high school students had used steroids. Of that number two and a half percent were prescribed by their doctors. That left one and a half percent that tried it for sports or body building reasons. Conversly, there was a study that reported that by 10th grade 40% of teenagers had used or tried alchohol, pot, cocaine, crack, pharm drugs, and meth. Now where do you want your gov spending their time and your money?
Jarhead
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 9:14 p.m.
Steroids are a performance "enhancing" drug. People who take them are trying to make themselves be better. Now before everyone gets their panties in a twist, I'm not talking about abuse. Have you ever seen what abuse of vitamin A does? People who use steroids typically are middle income people with steady careers. They don't rob others to support their use. People who produce them are middle income also. In 2005 the dea did a raid, after a 2 year research, and busted abunch of small individuals making steroids in their garages and such. I think about 300 or so allover the country. It must have cost the gov about a billion dollars in man hours and overtime. It's an easy bust for the Dea agents, walk in and handcuff the guy. Not like going into a crackhouse, first you have to fight the dogs and then you have to trade fire with mac-tens and some very po'd drug dealers. When they did this operation, I wonder how many crack houses they drove by or how many meth labs they passed. I feel so much safer that Marion Jones is in jail and off the streets. Course that meth-head around the block is of no concern to my congressman.
Schleggy
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 9:01 p.m.
Forever27, name one issue that the FBI should be working that is more important then our children?! Drugs is what is killing this great nation and if I was the presidant I would call Agent Stejskal out of retirement to keep fighting them!
Jarhead
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 8:55 p.m.
Forever27 and Tater, I agree. I have a lot of issues with the issue of steroids. First off, most people are the victems of the media and what the government wants you to know. Also a whole lot of the media just regurgitates what they read ot hear without really investigating. I wonder how many people actually know what steroids are? Or HGH? In 88 or 89, congress called the DEA, FDA, AMA and NIDA before them to talk about steroids. All 4 organizations said NOT to make steroids a controlled substance! It is not addictive and it occurs naturally in your body. But the congress decided to make steroids and HGH illegal. Wonder why? Could it be money? I'm sure the congressmen know way more about steroids than the AMA. The federal government is good at making a panic, making you feel guilty about it, raising taxes and spending money to cure the epidemic, all the while not really taking care of the contry. Remember global warming?
Schleggy
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 8:46 p.m.
Count me as a Agent Stejskal supporter! I have no clue what that last sentence is supposed to mean (It goes beyond just saying it aint so) and I don't think it makes a lick of sense, but that doesn't mean the rest of the article doesn't make sense because it does! I think what Agent Stejskal is saying is just say no to drugs and that is a timeless massage! I will never get tired of reading Agent Stejskal's old old stories, thank you Ann Arbor Dot Com for letting him be a blogger, his stories are timeless even if they are old and I am sure it makes him feel good too since he is now retired and has probably told all his friends this same story over and over. Keep up the good work both of you (Ann Arbor Dot Com and Agent Stejskal!)!
Michigan Reader
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 6:06 p.m.
It looks like Greg Stejskal, like Bo Schembechler, is a very moral and upright guy. A good model for the FBI.
AAbob43
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 3:39 p.m.
I was a D-1 college athlete. We knew the guys who were using steroids. We thought they were idiots, and they were. Some went on to become national laughingstocks. They also screwed up their minds and their bodies. There will always be morons looking for some chemical advantage. Ultimately, they are the biggest losers, because they know they cheated.
zeeba
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:28 p.m.
So being a bad influence is a crime? By the agent's reasoning, Tiger Woods should be locked up for promoting adultery. Harry Carry should have been sent to the pen for encouraging alcoholism. And Charles Bukowski should have been permanently incarcerated for being a bum, not to mention writing poetry about it. This is the kind of rigid, enforced morality that is all too popular with many in law enforcement and on the right wing. When will they realize that in a free society, personal behavior may be harmful, but it's no one else's business?
Matt Cooper
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 1:36 p.m.
@Forever27: Only problem with the major sports governing bodies dealing with this issue is that they have no power. They have no power of arrest. No subpoena power. They cannot compel any type of testimony nor can they levy any punishments. And if you think for a minute that the teams involved care one cent about any sanctions the leagues might try to impose, guess again. Let's say the Red Wings are exposed for having, say, 6 players "juiced" during games. So they forfeit those games (fat chance of that!) and get fined a million dollars. So what? To Mike Illich and Illich Holdings, a million dollars is nothing. Okay, so let's make it ten million. Still nothing and the team turns around and sues the league for excessive punishment. Allowing the leagues and/or teams to police themselves on this issue, is, as has already been shown, the equivilent of allowing the inmates to run the asylum. It just doesn't work.
lumberg48108
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 1:12 p.m.
Interesting take but does he believe his points are crimes, as the headline reads and story implies? "I see three sets of victims. The first is the players who choose to remain clean but must compete against the enhanced players. The other victims are aspiring athletes who use PEDs to continue pursuing their sport, or become disillusioned and quit. The third victim is the fan more on that just ahead." You can make the case they are using illegal drugs but his aforementioned points are not criminal acts...
bunnyabbot
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 1 p.m.
I think the feds should deal with it as well as the sport organizations. It goes to the integrity of the league. Sports figures are paid spokespeople for consumer products, they are faces for charitable organizations, people bet on all aspects of games. Fans spend a lot of money of tickets and jerseys. Gee, back in the day a ballplayer would stumple to the ballpark drunk and stomp out a cigerrette before stepping up to bat, they didn't get paid millions of dollars, often died broke but they were true ballplayers.
Forever27
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 11:54 a.m.
I would still rather see the federal government deal with other issues. This is something that should be dealt with within the organizations such as the NFL, NCAA, MLB, ect...