Can children be taught the value of sportsmanship in an era of steroid abuse among professional athletes and ever more aggressive parents in the stands at little league games?

by Austin Temple

Created on: July 03, 2009   Last Updated: July 05, 2009

Children can not learn sportsmanship in the current social climate. Not only because of steroid abuse and overaggressive parenting. It's a combination of a multitude of things. Now, this article isn't saying that no one can learn sportsmanship in this day and age, however, I'm saying that the majority of student-athletes and young kids will not learn and/or value sportsmanship as much as it has been valued in the past.

First, let's take a look at how athletes are viewed nowadays. Not only professional athletes, who act as heroes and standards for children playing their sports around the nation, but those children themselves.

First, we'll examine professional athletes. Baseball players used to be looked at as the American sports standard. Babe Ruth, Henry "Hank" Aaron, Mickey Mantle and others were more well-known and beloved than the President of the United States. Conversations revolved around them, arguing over who would hit the most homers, who had the fastest pitch, who was the best. Now, if any player does well, all the media talks about is the probability of steroid use, HGH, or other banned substances. Alex Rodriguez (3B, NYY) was thought to be the glowing standard of "doing it the right way," until earlier this year it was revealed that he, too, had been using steroids.

It's the same in football, where 2 players from the Vikings, and multiple players from the Saints have been suspended for using illegal substances including DTs Kevin and Pat Williams and HB Deuce McAllister. These are the players children are idolizing! They buy their jerseys, their cards, their games. They post pictures on their walls and pretend to be them in the backyard. Once they are proven to have been using illegal substances, those children subconsciously begin to accept it as the norm, and become more likely to do so themselves. Baseball and Football have begun more testing, however players simply continue to find ways to mask substances, or simply find new ones that aren't tested for. The increasing trend proves that as more professionals do it, more of the up and coming players- also known as kids- will do so in the future.

Next, we'll examine the children themselves. In the past, high school athletes were idolized by others around them. Teachers respected them, and most were simply good ol' American boys. I say "boys" with no disrespect to females, it's just a simple fact that the majority of athletes, and steroid users, are male. Their word was trusted. However,

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