No Wimpiness in Fantasies

The reason most often cited against the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports is the damage these drugs have on the human body. In North American professional sports at least, this is not a valid reason at all. If everyday sports are about health, professional sports are just the opposite. How many professional players go through a career without major surgery? Is there any successful player retires without some sort of handicap? And as fans, do we not urge them, pressure them or praise them into ignoring and thus deepening the injuries from which they already suffer? If there is a profession that after five, maybe ten, years, the workers will, almost without exception, have problems walking and will develop severe arthritis, we would insist criminal investigations and stringent regulations. This is precisely what happens in professional sports, except the investigations and regulations part. We, as fans, for our gratification, make the athletes damage their bodies beyond repair. How can we then say they should not use drugs because drugs damage their bodies? We should instead insist that the health of the athletes be the most important factor. But then, that is not very fan like, is it? Our quarterback wants to rest because there is no soft tissue in his knee anymore? We can’t this kind of wimpiness in our fantasies, can we? How would we feel when we stay home from work with the slightest hint of a cold? We would have to live entirely in our own world of wimpiness. That just simply will not do!