The Internal and the External and the Eternal

Where is the Accountability?

A football player is being charged in a federal drug conspiracy case. He is accused of brokering a cocaine deal with a Federal agent, on behalf of a childhood friend. Both are charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine, along with conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver. A plea bargain is currently being worked out whereby he will plead guilty to using a cell phone in violation of Federal law, accepting no other responsibility. If this plea bargain is accepted, then instead of serving 10 years in jail, he will instead serve 2 months in jail, followed by 2 months in a halfway house. One wonders if this means his "friend" is going to take it up the ass for the whole crime.

Sadly, this is not as surprising as it might be. None of it. Our world today is full of people engaging in crime of various types, all of whom hope to get away with it. That's not my issue.

My issue is, what is this man doing, still being a member of a professional football team????? Don't the Cincinnati Bengals care even a little bit about their team image? Or are they comfortable with being regarded as a team that would harbor convicted criminals? He hasn't even been suspended. They're even trying to arrange it so he can do his jail time in the offseason -- presumably not to interfere with the fortunes of the team. Clearly, there are no plans for his football career to end anytime soon.

Why the hell is he still ON the team?? Why are special concessions being made not to interfere with his career? What the hell message does this send to kids on the streets, kids who are messing around with trouble. Some kids are doomed, but others teeter on the brink of the decision: To dive, or not to dive. If they think their actions have no consequences, if they believe they'll only be held accountable on the most minimal level, what is to hold them back?

Many places won't even HIRE you if you've been accused of a Federal offense. Most people who screw up on this grand a scale find that their lives are more or less ruined. They serve their jail time when the judge orders it, and plenty of them lose their jobs over it. Their movements are restricted, their property is confiscated.

I understand that people screw up, and hopefully this guy is now older and wiser. But from what I can see, he has precious little incentive to keep out of trouble in the future. And next time, he might not be so lucky. Next time, he might be a has-been former ballplayer, down on his luck, who never learned his lesson. In other words, he might be just like most other Federal drug defendants.

Wonder if his story will make headlines then, or if it will just be some "of note" piece, one or two paragraphs tucked away on a back page?

Winning Isn't Everything

Okay, so there are a lot of things in this world I don't understand. And, okay, I'm not an elite international athlete. Maybe if I was, I could understand this one better. But I doubt it.

Why do I doubt it? Because I'm an athlete. Even at my relatively casual level, taking proper care of my body is very important to me. Theoretically, the more my life and lifestyle revolve around being physical, the more I should care. Yes? I care about my physical health, I try to do certain basic things. Eat right, drink enough water. Stretch out before and after training. Take care of an injury. Try to avoid alcohol, drugs, junk food, or other things that impair performance. The elite athlete, one would assume, would take it that much farther. Have a specialized nutrition plan worked out by a nutritionist. Take supplements. Carefully monitor body fat. Follow a strict and careful training regimen designed to maximize performance and minimize injury risk. Don't drink. Avoid mind-altering drugs, avoid anything that can impair you physically. Avoid anything linked to catastrophic physical problems such as, say, liver failure, kidney failure, cancer, brain damage, heart attack, sterility, etc.

So why do we have to do such extensive drug testing of our elite athletes? We not only test for every controlled substance under the sun, but also hormones, steroids, and substances which are legal in some circumstances. Many of the drugs we test for are linked with the catastrophic health problems.

And now, we are testing to see if you've put someone else's blood into your body. This can increase your red blood cell count, thus increasing your blood oxygen, thus improving your performance. They call it "blood doping".

Forget the money for a minute. Forget the glory for a minute. How stupid is it, to spend your entire life refining your body to its physical peak, and be slowly poisoning yourself at the same time? And is it REALLY your victory, if you achieve it by virtue of having SOMEONE ELSE'S BLOOD pumped into your body?????

Nope, I'm not an elite athlete. But I don't have to be. This one is so stupid and so wrong, it's mind-boggling.

So I'm not sure exactly what this indicates. I've known a few elite athletes in my time, and contrary to popular belief, not all body Nazis are meat-heads. So the argument that athletes are too stupid to know better doesn't hold water. Therefore, winning must be important. Winning must be so important that it's worth sterilizing yourself with steroids, permanently damaging your digestive system by puking up your meals, risking heart attack by pumping yourself full of stimulants. Winning must be so important that it's worth breaking the rules for, worth risking being stripped of that glory you "won" and publicly humiliated on that same international stage that you used to reign over. It must be worth premature aging. It must be worth hobbling around like a crippled 90-year-old at the age of 35. It must be worth your future children, your health and safety, the health and safety of those around you, your good name, and your very life. In other words, it must be worth everything.

It isn't, though. If wearing a gold medal is more important to you than dying, then you have far bigger problems than a drug test can find.

Only those with nothing to lose should risk their lives.

ISKF Nationals in Hawaii

Just got the official word from the competitors at Nationals in Hawaii -- our Mountain States Shotokan Karate team did great! The women's team won team kata and took 3rd in team sparring, the men's team took 2nd in team kata. Tarra took 2nd in kata and 3rd in sparring, and Amber made it to semi-finals in kata. The UNC team did well also, took 2nd in team kata for the collegiate division, and Hannah placed 3rd in both kata and kumite in that same division. Sensei Heermans, from Vail, won the Senior Division, and also passed his Godan test (meaning his is now a 5th degree black belt). I'd like to give special props to Leonard, who took a good bell ringer in sparring and actually went to the hospital -- but returned the next day to help our men to their 2nd place team kata finish. Yay Mountain States!!