“Athletes are not born to be 300 lbs or jump 30 ft.”- Lyle Alzado, from personal.psu.edu. Lyle Alzado was a former NFL great. What made him better than everyone else, was steroids. By using these steroids, he developed a brain tumor which was the cause of his death. If there are so many health risks, why do they use them? A lot of people say they should legalize them, but should they? In my opinion, no they shouldn’t. Then we will see more college and high school athletes do them, records will be broken easily, but most of all, they have to look at what exactly are steroids and all of the health risks.

What are steroids? There are the positive steroids, which can help cure cancer, diseases, and other illnesses. Then there are the negative steroids. These are the ones we hear professional athletes get in trouble for using. The negative steroids increase protein in your blood cells, which makes muscles grow more rapidly. In every sport, whether it’s college or professionals, drug tests are conducted. According to the NFL website, their drug test for steroids and PEDs checks for the 58 types of anabolic steroids, the 5 types of hormonal steroids, 14 types of steroids and HGH (Human Growth Hormone) along with the 26 masking agents and 11 stimulants. There are countless amounts of steroids.

There are many health risks from steroids. They cause tumors like Lyle Alzado’s brain tumor. He died at a young age of 43. They also cause liver damage, stroke, kidney failure, heart attack, and enlargement of the heart. Those are just a few of the risks from steroids, but there are way too many to use them or even legalize them.

Most college and high school athletes have an idol that is a professional athlete. Whether it’s their batting stance, style of play, or even their mindset, they try to be exactly like that idol. Some see their idol using steroids and start to use them too. The number of US college athletes that use steroids dropped 47% from 2000 to 2005 according to ESPN. Now 30% of college and pro athletes use anabolic steroids, and 10%-20% of high school athletes use them too. Most steroid users start in college and use them the rest of their career. This means so many pros end up using steroids.

Athletes notice while using steroids, it’s easier to play the sport. Old records, when there was no need to use PEDs, seem easier to break. Let’s use Hank Aaron’s record as an example. According to the Baseball Reference website, Hank Aaron hit 755 home runs in his caree, and never used steroids. Barry Bonds did break it but he used steroids. That’s why there is an asterisk by his name in the record books. In the top ten hitters on the home run leader board, there are four steroid users, and all four users played in the steroid era. Lance Armstrong was recently stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping. In the past decade, 34 MMA and UFC fighters have been accused and caught for using PEDs. Steroids make sports easier.
So should they legalize them? With all the health risks, all the old records in danger of being broken, and college players starting them early, is it really worth it? A lot of athletes have died later in their life because of health problems caused by steroids. It's definitely not worth it.