MA_Student
Black Belt
Teaching and fighting are completely different. If you took a teaching drug you wouldn't be at risk of hurting anyone. To me in something like golf or tennis or football then whatever but fighting is where even when not juicing there's risk of causing serious Injury to someone else so taking that junk puts people's health at even more risk.I don't doubt it at all.
I don't pass judgement on athletes who take banned substances. Don't get me wrong, I'm DEFINITELY AGAINST IT. That being said, I'm a school teacher. If there was an illegal substance that I could easily obtain that would take me from being a $50k a year teacher to a $5 million a year teacher, it would be enticing. If I knew most of my peers were taking it and very, very few were getting caught, it would be very hard to not do it year after year. Or if I was that $5 million a year guy who did it the right way and all the $50k guys were doing it and surpassing me, pushing me back down.
I'd love to say I wouldn't do it. It's pretty easy to say that when it's not a realistic thing for me. And even easier to say when it's not an every single day thing. It's easy to be honest when you don't have the true need and/or opportunity to steal big.
Like pretty much everything else, I try not to be so judgmental of situations I've never been close to being in.
A good friend of mine "played" 2 seasons in the NFL. He was an undrafted offensive lineman. He was a tremendous athlete, had the right size, had the right mental abilities, and was highly skilled. He worked very hard and was a great "locker room guy." He just wasn't strong enough. He was on the Cowboys' practice squad for a season, the Giants' practice squad for a season, then got cut and no one picked him up.
Being a 325 lbs lineman and only bench pressing 350 lbs isn't going to get you anywhere in the NFL. When 200 lb guys in other positions are lifting a lot more than you can, you have no chance. We all knew it, but we never discussed it with him - he never did PEDs. Had he done PEDs, he would've been an active player with a contract.
I've got the utmost respect for that. But I wouldn't have judged him if he did what he needed to do to play.
Also I couldn't do it because I'd consider myself a fraud. My attitude has always been you get what you work for. For example if I'd taken my black belt grading and taken a drug to help me pass it wouldn't mean anything because it wasn't me that did it it was the drug. That's just me I see why people would but to me I consider anyone who juices mentally weak. Like Jon jones goes around saying he's the greatest to ever live...does he actually believe that when he's been juicing for god knows how long. Can he truly think his skills are better than everyone else's when he has an unfair advantage. It's no different to if I win a race but have a minutes head start