Drugsand Sport: My horror and Resentment

Ben Cousins, Wendell Sailor, Mark Bosnich, Andrew Johns and Maradonna, all of them elite athletes and all used recreational drugs during their playing years.

Each revelation shocked the sporting world. Fans were aghast that their hero could sink so low so as to take drugs. I, on the other hand was not at all shocked, especially by Maradonna. Indeed, I would have more shocked to discover that he wasn’t a cokehead then to discover that he was. C’mon people the signs were there all along, including an unsavoury affiliation with the mafia. Anyhow, I was not shocked and I’ll tell you why:

Young men earning big coin taking the odd eecky or a bit of Charlie does not surprise me in the slightest. One just has to live in London for three weeks to discover that fact. Actually, young men who don’t earn big coin are also spending their weekends frantically alternating between frenzied bursts of energy and massaging each other’s shoulders. I have no doubt that had I been a professional footballer, earning the kind of money that they do, I would have also probably spent my off-season snorting Columbia’s finest of a hookers tits. Sheesh, I was a poor student and I still managed to be on first name basis with the bouncer at the local strip club, imagine what it would have been like if I had had thirty grand in my pocket. Imagine…

Anyhow, those days are over and I not condoning drugs, they’re bad news, but I am trying to point out that drugs are societies problem. Those those are quick to condemn players as poor role models are likely to have a friend/colleague/family member who uses drugs. Those former players who are quick to say, “it didn’t happen in my day” are probably the same players who engaged in alcoholic benders during their own playing days. Perhaps we need to move beyond focusing on what footy players are doing on a Saturday night after the game and focus on what society is doing on a Saturday night. Solve that problem and you solve the problem of drugs in sport.

Imagine..