Just the other day I was reading a story of a runner doping himself.  It used to be that these were the only sports where you seemed to hear of these actions.  Remember Ben Johnson vs. Carl Lewis?  I feel like that’s where steroids become popular in sports.

But stimulants and enhancers have been around for a very long time.  And if I had to take a guess I would say that they’re not going anywhere.  And if I were to take it a step further I would say that sports themselves don’t want banned substances to go away…..

Don’t you think that if major sports really wanted steroids and other banned substances to go away they would enforce it?  Think about.   Solution: lifetime ban for the sport on the first offense and problem solved.   Seriously.  If baseball, football, basketball, whoever, made a strict rule that any player found doping would be banned for life?  There would be zero issues with steroids in sports.

But allow me to explain at the simplest levels why this will never, ever happen.

1.  It’s a business

Like any other business you need to make money.  Let me give you an example.  If the government place a one million dollar fine for every time someone littered we would have the cleanest country on the planet.  Also, we’d lose a ton of money on littering fines because no one would litter.   If athletes really knew that a first offense would be mean a lifetime ban then one of two things would happen.  One, too many athletes would be suspended and then the level of play would go down.  And two, there wouldn’t be as many fines and suspensions that actually help a team somewhat financially.

2.  Performance

I don’t care what you say.  There’s a reason that supplements, pills, whatever are such big business:  performance.  Without great performance you lose your fan base.  Sure it’s fine to make an example of a few guys here and there but ultimately sports will never be policed in the ways they should.  Why?  The leagues want the level of play to keep getting better and better otherwise fans will get restless.

3.  The attention

You realize how much air time this shit gets?  Any publicity is good publicity.  You know some executives get off on this shit.  No I’m not saying it’s a primary motivation to keep drugs around in sports but come on.

* I just think (and have always thought) that the drug problem in all sports could easily be solved by a lifetime ban on any offense.   That unfortunately will never happen…ever.