By Jack Haines
Op-Ed Editor

First, it was the curveball. Then, it was the dunk. Heck, people even tried to ban the famed “Fosbury Flop” that was winning high jumper Dick Fosbury Olympic gold in revolutionary fashion. Could performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) be the next form of cheating legalized in the name of entertainment and big sport’s?

Well, probably not. Think about it, after all, the aforementioned methods of cheating were all natural and ingenious ways of increasing success in their respective sports. Could it really be argued that PED’s are natural ways of athletes finding a way to win that still doesn’t fundamentally hurt the game? Certainly not—the Fosbury flop was a new technique which allowed the high jumper to shift his center of mass and achieve a better jumping angle, therefore obtaining new heights, literally. The curveball probably came out of a smart, conniving pitcher who used his brains to leave his opponents looking foolish. Dunking was and still is the product of superior athletes, plain and simple.

While all these old ‘cheats’ left others in the dust for the time being, they were fair; they were methods developed from athleticism and intelligence—skills needed for the sport. With PEDs athletes truly are doing something outside of the game, something not fair. They are not using athletic intelligence, nor are they working any harder to get an edge (although steroids and the like still require copious amounts of training in order to reap the benefits, they are still a short cut that enhance athleticism unnaturally).

So if it is so truly easy to paint PEDs as being wrong, and if nearly everyone agrees that they are wrong, including athletes, than why are they becoming more prevalent? After all it seems that turning on SportsCenter leads to viewing at least one talk of PEDs ,HGH, EPO, or one of the countless non-distinguishable and ever-so-confusing acronyms now ingrained in sports vernacular.

The truth is, while steroids and testosterone-containing supplements may have really picked up since their blast-off in the 1980’s, PEDs, in the sense of any substance that makes you play better, have been around since technology made such drugs available. One of the most controversial aspects of the infamous Ball Four, MLB pitcher Jim Bouton’s published diary from 1969, is it’s chronicling of the use rampant use of amphetamines in the clubhouse.

In a separate allegation, it is said that all-time great center fielder Willie Mays had used amphetamines to help him overcome fatigue, and that it was such common practice that players occasionally shared the drugs.

Bouton, perhaps most importantly, notes the anxiety and depression he felt when he performed poorly. It is this point that leads us to a sad truth. Professional athletes are the most competitive people, paid millions of dollars by billion-dollar businesses to play on the most competitive of stages. The slightest of weaknesses can make the difference between an all-star and a nobody.

Where there is pressure there is the need to perform better and better, and while what we would hope to be the majority of players will combat pressure positively, there will always be cheaters. As technology expands and new forms of cheating develop, players will turn to that. Regrettably, cheating in all its forms is inseparable from professional sports. It is human nature at its most unnatural.