Handling Your Friendly Neighborhood Bookie
Football and basketball players tend to be more attractive to gamblers than athletes from other sports. Not all gambling, however, is on major contests of national interest. Local gamblers have their own systems and networks for small colleges and even for some minor sports. Gamblers have been known to bet on snail races, so no athlete should assume that he or she is immune from this problem.
Let's say that a gambler, or even a teammate, approaches you to keep the score close-not to lose the contest, but just to shave enough points off the final score so that gamblers can beat the point spread and win their bets. They offer you a few hundred dollars in cash for you simply to take it easy if it looks as if your team is going to beat the point spread. The point spreads for major contests of national interest and even for some local events are listed in the sports section of most newspapers.
The money being offered to you may seem like a lot at the time, especially if you really need it. But in the long run the few hundred or even thousand dollars you might make from gamblers would be meaningless next to what it could cost you, your teammates and coach, and the school. Games, championships, and careers have been lost to involvement with gamblers.
Gamblers will try to make you believe that by shaving points you aren't doing anything too terrible. You might even fool yourself into thinking that all you are hurting are people who are breaking the law by betting with the gamblers. But consider the following:
- Shaving points is illegal and punishable;
- Not trying your hardest in any contest is unethical;
- Not even the best players can control a contest well enough to determine the final score. Many contests have been lost that were just supposed to be kept close
Drug and Alcohol Use and Abuse
There is considerable disagreement over whether drug and alcohol use and abuse are worse among athletes than among the general American public. What is clear, however, is that athletes at all levels have no less of a problem with alcohol and drugs. Athletes actually may take a wider variety of drugs because they believe it will help them compete better. Each drug, however, brings with it more problems than benefits.
"Getting Ready" Drugs: Athletes in many sports must endure considerable pressure in the course of competition. To deal with this pressure, some take uppers, downers, or both in combination. They may look on these drugs as a necessary evil that enables them to be ready for competition. Besides, they often think, taking drugs isn't so terrible since the ones they take are prescription pills that many adults take more or less regularly.
Weight Control Drugs: In some sports, athletes must be concerned with maintaining a particular weight classification in order to be allowed to compete. Some take dietary supplements to gain or diuretics to lose weight. Given the American concern over weight control generally, this practice isn't seen as all that terrible. In fact, the dietary supplements or diuretics may come from or be recommended by coaches or trainers. However, athletes often ruin their competitive edge by trying to "make weight" through chemicals.
"Bulking Up" Drugs: Anabolic steroids have been used by wrestlers, football players, some field-event athletes, weight lifters, and women athletes in many sports in order to gain muscle mass and strength. Steroids, originally devised to reduce inflammation in injured joints, are known to produce several physically harmful side effects. For this reason, and because sports were never intended to be contests between chemicals, steroids may not be used by athletes.
A new system for testing use of steroids by athletes was unveiled at the Pan American Games in 1983, resulting in disqualification of 15 athletes, some of whom were from the United States. Several other athletes left the Games before being tested; for fear that they might be disqualified for the 1984 Olympics. Even apart from considering the problems of being caught as a steroid-using athlete or the effect that use of steroids might have on the fairness of competition, the point that athletes should remember is that steroids are dangerous, especially in the dosages that must be taken to remain or become "chemically competitive." Steroid users have been known to experience significant changes in their reproductive organs and livers. Some who are only in their early 30s are suffering from hardening of the arteries and heart damage.
"Recreational" Drugs: Most people, whether sports fans or not, know of the widespread use of cocaine and other so-called recreational drugs among professional athletes. The point is frequently made that use of recreational drugs, which include alcohol, easily leads to abuse of these drugs. Possibly because of the high price of cocaine, marijuana, and other hallucinogenic drugs, college students who want or need a "rush" often rely on a relatively cheap standby, alcohol. Since alcohol is available, legal (depending on the user's age, of course), and cheap relative to other perception-altering drugs, people may consider alcohol to be less of a problem. But because it is considerably cheaper and easier to obtain than other drugs, too often it is subject to overuse and abuse by college students.
Why is it that so many athletes take illegal drugs or abuse legal ones? Because they believe it will help them improve their performance, deal with the pressures of competition, or fit in better with other athletes. The fact is, however, that drugs are not a solution for any of these problems, and there is a great deal of evidence that considerable damage can result from drug use. Most professional sports leagues, professional players associations, and even the NCAA have programs or are planning to develop alcohol and drug abuse programs for athletes. Some coaches consider athletes who have abused drugs and alcohol to be "damaged merchandise" and remove them from the team.
Our point is not to preach to you about drug and alcohol abuse, however. When people are deciding what to put inside their bodies, few minds have ever been changed by preaching. We only ask that you do two things before indulging: (1) weigh seriously any thought of using alcohol and drugs against the potential physical and legal costs you may face; and (2) consider the respect that any athlete should have for his or her body.
