I have always maintained that when it comes right down to it, the majority of people don’t actually care about steroid use in sports, rather they’re offended by the personalities of the alleged offenders. Beyond the hue and cry of an uneven playing field, ignoring the fact that such a thing arguably never existed, look no further than to how people have reacted to the supposed steroid scandal over the last decade.
There’s been a litany of books detailing the pervasiveness of steroids in American athletics over the last decade, but what makes the news, what dominates the headlines, is not the actual details of the steroid use itself, it’s the salacious, seedy tidbits which titillate and create bestsellers. Game of Shadows, didn’t captivate with details of Barry Bonds’ alleged steroid regimen. Rather, it was the detailing of Bonds’ racially motivated jealously towards Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, his unseemly relationship with Kimberly Bell, Victor Conte’s lack of medical training and Marion Jones surly, outrageous behavior behind the scenes. Ditto for Jeff Pearlman’s The Rocket That Fell To Earth. People weren’t captivated by scenes of Clemens being injected by Brian McNamee, it was the details of his relationship with an underage Mindy Mcready and other such disasters that made the book a bestseller. Same with Jose Canseco’s tome, Juiced, people ripped the book off the shelves simply to be in the know of who was using and who was not. Steroid use may have been the motivating factor behind all three of these bestsellers, but it’s not what got them flying off the shelves and kept them on the bestseller list. (I’ll admit it though, I was one of the few saps who was legitimately entertained by Canseco’s ramblings) 