AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > December > 25 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USPro athletes must end silence on steroids
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The traditions have changed. They don’t hang Christmas lights because that was Taylor’s job. They don’t open presents first thing Christmas morning — they drive 30 minutes to a cemetery. They leave flowers on a gravesite. They hold hands. They say a prayer.
“His favorite drink was Sunkist orange,” Don Hooton said. “I don’t think I’ve ever told anybody this before, but we have a special cup we use and we all drink a little bit of that orange soda. Then we pour the rest out for him.”
There is a pause. Three and a half years later, there are still pauses, tears, confusion. Does it ever stop? The father kneels down every morning. He talks to the son he buried. He has reached the point where he can usually do an interview like this without crying. Doctors tell him, “Time is your best friend.” But it never really gets better.
“You lose a kid who’s 17 years old — it’s incomprehensible,” Hooton said by phone. “Even today, it seems like a dream. People say, ‘I can’t imagine what it’s like.’ And I say, ‘I can’t imagine, either.’ “
Taylor Hooton committed suicide on July 15, 2003. He was a high school student with a 3.8 grade-point average in Plano, Texas. He was going into his senior year. He played baseball. He took steroids. He suffered from depression. Nobody realized to what extent he was depressed until he fashioned a noose with two belts tied together and looped it around a doorknob and over his bedroom door.
Most of us learned of Taylor at last year’s congressional steroid hearings. Amid the cowardice (Mark McGwire), the lies (Rafael Palmeiro), the deceit (Sammy Sosa) and the self-promotion (Jose Canseco) on display before a House Government Reform Committee, it was the testimony of Don Hooton and other grieving parents that stood out. They told stories of their teenaged sons, who, following the examples set by professional athletes, sought to get stronger and faster with performance-enhancing drugs. All the stories ended in tragedy.
Why recount this now? Because there has been too much lip service and too little action. Because while Major League Baseball has pledged $1 million to the Taylor Hooton Foundation to help educate and raise awareness about steroids, the players are still hiding behind their paychecks. Because Don Hooton phoned the NFL and, he said, “They wanted nothing to do with us.”
Because there is a Baseball Hall of Fame ballot sitting on my desk and, for the first time, there is a decision to make about enshrining an athlete who is largely recognized as an artificially ballooned cheater.
Hooton wants to be careful. He believes he and his foundation have been painted as “controversial” and anti-pro athletes. That’s not his intent. Picking on McGwire or Barry Bonds, he knows, doesn’t solve any problems.
But with Hall of Fame ballots due in five days, there is no better time to think of Taylor Hooton and wonder why nobody with a Nike deal will speak up. It’s not about money. It’s about a face and a voice.
Magic Johnson has done wonders to raise awareness about AIDS. Why do so many remain invisible regarding steroids?
Why are so many hiding behind security gates, protecting their legacy?
Experts estimate 5 to 6 percent of all high school students have used performance-enhancing drugs. The NFL continues to suspend players, but the league otherwise has done little to find a solution. Even the Navy football team has been hit by a steroids scandal.
Steroids. In the military.
“It’s just very disappointing,” Hooton said. “Mark McGwire made a contribution to the foundation, which was appreciated. But I wish he would step forward and say something.”
McGwire is the one being picked on most today for a simple reason: He is the one up for Hall of Fame consideration. He refused to answer questions about his past in Washington. He promised to speak out, to help educate youths about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs. Of course, he hasn’t.
Hooton’s position on enshrinement for steroid users is just as one would expect: Not now. Not ever. His reasoning: Forget whether it was against a sport’s rules — it was against the law. We don’t give honorary economics degrees to bank robbers. We don’t honor felons.
“What bothers me about the Hall of Fame is the message that it sends to kids,” Hooton said. “They think: Sure, steroids are damaging to the body. But Mark McGwire got the big prize. He’s in the Hall of Fame. Look at what society rewards.
“I read something back when the baseball season was opening about a father sitting down with his son over dinner and talking to him about drugs. The next day, they go to a baseball game in San Francisco and the father gives a standing ovation to Barry Bonds. What kind of message does that send?”
The Taylor Hooton Foundation has several impressive partners: MLB, DEA, USADA, Dick Butkus’ “Mean and Clean” campaign. But it needs a face.
“Somebody has to put goodness in front of money,” he said.
A wish for the holidays.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves / MLB, Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
Comments
By kenny d
December 26, 2006 11:28 AM | Link to this
enough already with all of the steroids attention being focused upon MLB. The steroids problem in the NFL and the NBA is far worse than it is in MLB. baseball gets all the attention because the change in statistical performance is quantifiable and thus noticeable. BUT look at these NFL players and NBA players. They no longer look like men, they look like horses. Do you remember Mailman Malone when he played for the Jazz and how huge he was? Do you remember when he played for the lakers and how puny the mailman looked, almost as if he was the mailman’s little brother?
steroids in baseball has destroyed how meaningful all the records are.
but the steroids problem is far worse in the nfl and the nba
By roid rage
December 26, 2006 11:47 AM | Link to this
I agree with you Kenny…ignore the fact that the baseball players are cheating and concentrate on the football and basketball instead. Of course I’m juicing my head off and attempting to make it to the big leagues this summer. My b*lls have disappeared and my head is too big for any of our batting helmets. But who cares, the football guys are taking way more than me so worry about them more. great argument, thanks buddy.
By Blame athletes?
December 26, 2006 12:16 PM | Link to this
Losing a family member is very traumatic and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. But at the same time, it’s very strange that many parents want to blame athletes when something bad happens to their kids but take parental credit for the good things. If you have been around your kids every day all day for 15 to 20 years and an athlete whom they have never met or spoken to has more influence with your kid than you do, you have to question your parenting skills. It’s not just about putting food on the table, parents need to have constant discussions about life and other things with their kids. And start taking some responsibility because history shows that the media believes they can sell more papers by blaming athletes than by blaming parents because they never call their “consumers” out about their parenting skills. If an athlete has a better connection to your kid than you do, maybe you should try to develop a relationship with your kid. Especially, when that athlete has never met your kid.
By love erin andrews, not the falcons
December 26, 2006 12:31 PM | Link to this
ROID RAGE: you should concentrate on all the sports but it is annoying that all the talk focuses solely on baseball and totally ignores football and basketball when the roid problems are much worse in those two sports. i am actually angrier than anyone about how it means nothing to hit 50 hrs or 500 hrs, or for that matter 600 hrs, 700 hrs. but the roid problems in the nfl and the nba is just disgusting. 300 pounders in the NFL was a big deal twenty years ago because you were considered an oversized freak of nature. Now, these days, if you are barely cracking 300 pounds in the NFL, you are considered undersized.
By Geoffrey Paul
December 26, 2006 12:33 PM | Link to this
There is ZERO scientific evidence that steroids is the root cause of the bad things that happened in Hooten’s life, or any of the other kids whose parents they trotted out on capitol hill. All the evidence is anecdotal and follows the classic fallacy of “A happened, then B happened, therefore A must have caused B.” This is pathetic, and is only symptomatic of the way we handle many, many things in our society. When will we learn that scientific study and empirical evidence carries weight, and “common sense” based emotional arguments carry absolutely no weight? Having a kid commit suicide is very sad. So is emotionally attributing it to a factor without doing one bit of empirical study in order to determine whether that factor had anything to do with it. People commit suicide for lots of reasons. In fact, one of the highest corrollary factors for suicide is education level (suicide rates are much higher in countries where education levels are higher), but you don’t hear anyone saying that this kid committed suicide b/c he was smart (3.8 GPA). Why? B/c it would be irresponsible! B/c just b/c educated people are more likely to committ suicide doesn’t mean education CAUSES suicide. The same is true of steroids. Our society seems to prefer having “bogey men” that we can attack with emotion based arguments, because it is quicker and easier than doing the necessary research and work to determine actual solutions to our actual problems. Steroids and terrorism are the bogey men of our day. Sad. It’s sad b/c both of these things may be real problems, but as long as we continue to make decisions based on anecdotal evidence and emotion, these issues will continue to be ignored by thinking people who know they can’t rely on the propaganda that is put forth- and that is exactly what it is at this point, baseless propaganda. I for one am tired of it, and want real research.
By enigma
December 26, 2006 12:50 PM | Link to this
Taking into consideration the outrageously high salaries of athletes in all areas of professional sports, and the perceived notions that these are our nation’s roll models, which ply their trades in a very public venue, I consequently believe that these athletes should be held to much higher standards of character and morals.
If loyal, diehard fans would show some consternation toward steroid cheaters by no longer supporting them, or their products, and if professional sports leagues would get serious about really ridding their respective organizations of steroids by banning any athlete caught using illegal substances for life, we would no longer have a serious steroid problem.
Yes, that would be harsh, but effective…
By Jen
December 26, 2006 02:42 PM | Link to this
Geoffrey Paul, you could not have said it any better.
He’s right. There is ZERO scientific evidence linking steroid usage with mental AND/OR physical disease.
There is some ANECDOTAL evidence that steroid use MIGHT exacerbate a prevalent problem, such as mental illness or disease. In that light, alcohol does the same thing.
I, for one, could CARE LESS if grown men and women take steroids for whatever reason they take them. I don’t believe in the ‘purity’ of sport. Because everyone who participates in sport of pecuniary gain is ALWAYS looking for SOME way to get an edge…protein powers, creatine, nicotine, you name it.
Call me cynical but I think it’s much greater than 90% of professional athletes take some sort of performance enhancing drug….even if it’s a pain killer so they can just plain get out there and play.
And you know what? That’s fine. Let them. They’re adults. They’re making a lot of money off of it. People are making a lot of money off of them.
If this were more out in the open then it would be a whole lot easier to talk about it with kids and let them know they should stay away from these drugs for now.
And why should kids stay away from them? Because they’re not done growing. And there IS some scientific evidence that shows taking ANY kind of hormonal supplement is potentially harmful for the completion of the growth stages of human life.
But let’s get real, here.
By kenny d
December 26, 2006 03:20 PM | Link to this
The Hootons need to chill out a bit. Steroids is a problem and it is a disgrace. But the Hootons need to go an take a long hard look in the mirror. They need to stop pointing fingers at others. Their son did not commit suicide because of professional athletes or because of steroids. More likely, their son was either mentally ill or there was something deeply dysfunctional about his life, his childhood, his relationship with a girlfriend or with his parents themselves. The core issue with suicide is that the suicidal person often feels unloved, not wanted, or not worthy. Hence, the reason why the kid probably took steroids in the first place - because his self esteem was zero already. He did not take it because of a professional athlete. He took steroids because something or someone in his life made him feel ugly, too skinny, too fat, too unworthy of the love and the attention he desperately wanted. Thus, he took steroids. And he killed himself because all of the steroids and muscles could not make him feel the way he wanted to feel: loved, wanted, worthy.
It is the same thing with a girl who undergoes plastic surgery. Most people who get plastic surgery have low self esteem and thus look to fix whatever the problem is. They have a self esteem problem they are trying to fix. They get the new breasts, the new lips, the new chin, the new nose, the big new behind, the botox injection, and then wake up and realize that they personally do not feel any better about who they are. Thus, a very small fraction of them kill themselves. They kill themselves because the same self esteem problems they had before the plastic surgery still exist. They still feel unloved, unwanted, and unworthy.
Granted the steroids may impair your judgment when you are down, just like other drugs and alcohol, and because of your impaired judgment, you may end up killing yourself when you may not have done so otherwise. You may have just stayed depressed and in need of psych help. I am not a doctor or a scientist, so i do not know the causal link between steroids and suicide.
How many of us are, to varying degrees, depressed people who think that someday we are going to get this job or make all this money or meet this beautiful man or woman who is going to fix all of our problems, and then we get the great job, all the money, and the great man and wife, and we find that we still do not have what we are looking for which is to feel loved, wanted, or worthy? Do we all go and kill ourselves? No! Not unless we are all suicidal in the first place long before we got the job, the money, and the perfect significant other. And if you do kill yourself, should you blame the job, the money, or the significant other? Or should you look in the mirror and realize that they had nothing to do with your suicide and that your suicide was more likely caused by your own mental illness or by something that has been deeply dysfunctional in your life since early in your childhood?
Have the Hootons ever thought that maybe, just maybe, their son hated himself and all around him, took steroids so that he would feel better about himself and those around him and so that his world would become a better place for him, but then gradually it dawned upon him that he did not feel better about himself or the people around him or the world around him, so he offed himself and said goodbye cruel world? Perhaps, he took steroids to make himself feel better and to make himself feel loved, wanted, and worthy. Then after taking the steroids, he still felt empty, unloved, unwanted, and unworthy. That is where the steroids may have kicked in to a certain degree. The steroids may have kicked not from a chemical reaction standpoint that caused him to kill himself. The steroids may have caused him to kill himself from a superficial standpoint because the kid must have been feeling like, my lord, i have now taken all this steroids to look how i want to look, i now look how i want to look but i do not feel how i want to feel and the people surrounding me do not feel about me the way i want them to feel about me.
So, if the steroids caused his suicide at all, it may merely have only increased the frustration levels to a great degree for someone who was already feeling deeply suicidal, empty, unloved, unwanted, and unworthy long before he took steroids.
The bottomline is that people do not kill themselves because they are using drugs, drinking too much, or using steroids. The suicidal thoughts have to already be there before you use the steroids, the drugs, or the alcohol.
My heart goes out to the Hootons. But I have grown very annoyed with them insisting upon focusing upon a very shallow superficial reason for the death of their son that may have far more to do with the dysfunctional dynamics of the relationship already existent between his parents and the kid than it had to do with any steroid chemical reaction..
By josh
December 26, 2006 08:25 PM | Link to this
Jeff schultz, you should not be a writer! You and many other writers never have any evedice to back your sH@t up! All you do is listen to the hipe and write what ever you think is scientific fact. Do some real reserch and then write the truth!
By world class
December 26, 2006 10:42 PM | Link to this
what a bunch of crap steroids did not kill that kid he had problems just like everyone else he just took his own way out steroids dont make champions genes do the law should worry about the real drug problems ie crack coke and meth those drugs kill people everyday