Should star athletes who are also steroid users or involved with criminals be given the adulation they continue to receive?

No, Kids want to and do follow their example.

No, they should be given less adulation.

without them their wouldn’t be any fun
i don’t think a kid knows what a steroid is
anyways it’s like using marijuana
more than 50%of our hollywood stars smoke it and we still love them!

@cyndihugs. Seems that is what ends up happening. This question was predicated as I think of my Bills this year with Terrell Owens now on the team. One side of me is secretly trying to forgive him or gloss over his personality issues..not sure what side will win out. If they make the playoffs all talk of his supposed foibles will disappear.

No, of course not, and in a perfect world they would not get that continued adulation. And isn’t that what some folks are trying to do by barring people from Halls of Fame or even sending them to jail?

The problem is that there are a lot of adults out there who place winning the game above almost anything, including playing fair and not cheating.

No. But we all know Michael Vick will get picked up by a team and paid an astronomical amount of money. Yes, I know he did his time, but he is still an ex-con. If I committed a crime, went to prison, my company would not hire me back and I doubt I would get any job in my field.

And the other side of the coin, heard on many Buffalo stations, is to give Terrell a chance, that the past is the past, he is misunderstood, poor childhood..etc…

The other consideration is that as much as they pay people like Vick, even more money changes hands and ends up in other people’s pockets. Even though an industry pollutes or is unethical there will always be someone who wants to get rich with it.

They absolutely should NOT. The Yanks are on a winning streak right now but with what we think about Arod, my feeling is “So what? They’re cheating.”

Yeah… i dont know where anyone gets the idea that known steroid users are given preferential treatment.
Barry Bonds will not see the hall of fame without paying admission, Manny Ramirez has all but destroyed his career, Alex Rodriguez has forever tainted his reputation. Americans are not very fond of steroid abusers.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic . That is true. But baseball basically ignored the steroid problem for many years with no testing. I agree that they seem to be clamping down now. The NFL’s substance abuse policy is a joke, and the NHL’s is non existent. If the Yankees win the World Series I would bet you that all with Alex Rodriguez will be heralded. Not saying it should be so, but the media loves this kind of thing. Maybe the public is ahead of the leagues on this one.

Yes they should; they still do something that nobody else can and entertain/sell tickets.

@dannyc Steroid abuse is now out in the open as it should be. People do not heap adulation upon these players when it is discovered. We scorn players once they are revealed to be using drugs.
Should we assume all players are using? No.
Should all sports step up testing? Yes.
There’s no forgive and forget happening.

No, they should be prosecuted and held accountable for their poor decision making and lack of responsibility in not doing the right things.