If you confess, America forgives!

When you think of steroids and sports, you can't help but picture the images of certain athletes in your mind: Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Marion Jones, and Reggie Miller (okay, maybe HE needs some). But there are many more athletes who've fallen into the trap of steroid use. Now pause for a second and think: Suppose you were one of the top athletes in the world at your sport, and you had millions of people anticipating your performance at least once a week. There's a lot of pressure on you right? Now you just had a breakthough year and almost got personal records on all your stastistics. The question may run through your head, "How can I get better?" Of course anyone can say,"just train hard!" Yeah, much easier said then done when half of the sports population's satisfaction depends on your performance. On top of that stress factor, let's say your agent just came out with a monster deal and has nearly doubled your salary (and it's only going to get higher if you keep getting better)! The question "How can I get better?" must go through the mind of any athlete in this dilemma. Unfortunately, because of the burden so many great athletes face, the answer is steroids. Now I'm not being Mr. Judgemental and criticizing people who use steroids, that's their choice. But with every action comes a consequence, and when the rules have been set that no steroids are allowed, that means NO STEROIDS! So when an athlete takes steroids and is caught, fans across the world will most likely be turned off from the athlete and become angry, because their performance was enhanced by a drug, not naturally. So an athlete takes steroids and is now faced the with the decision to confess or not. What should he/she do? Take a good look at this picture of Barry Bonds (Yes, both pictures are of him).

Now either he has consumed 10,000 calories a day for the last 20 years, and eats a dozen raw eggs a day, or he took steroids. One of these options seems a little more plausible. Steroids right? Wrong! Not to Barry Bonds. To this day he has not confessed his personal use of steroids, when almost everyone seems to think otherwise. There are still those individuals who think he's never used steroids, but those are the people whose mind only think like the court room. They think that the only two ways we can know for sure if Barry Bonds took steroids is either a DNA test of some sort, or confession. But with the world we live in today, there is much more substantial evidence that can prove he took them. Now because the majority of sports America believes Barry Bonds has taken steroids, and because he hasn't confessed, we are bitter towards him. His statistics may be recorded somewhere, but to millions they are deleted and forgotten (until he confesses). So until that day of confession, Barry Bonds will just be a Pee Wee Herman to Hulk transformer who held a bat in the MLB for 21 years.

Now Alex Rodriguez has proven to every athlete (especially the non-confessors), that if you confess, America WILL FORGIVE! He too, had America on their toes for years, wondering if he was an all natural player. He even sat down with down Katie Couric from 60 minutes and blatantly denied the use of steroids. However, on February 9, 2009 Rodriguez came clean and admitted his mistake to America. There were many disappointed (including myself) and left to question his integrity. But it seems as time went one, the confession was the only thing that stuck out. Even if someone questioned A-Rod, they couldn't help but remember that at least he confessed. Now when sports America hears steroids and A-Rod in the same sentence, we're all over it, because he CONFESSED! There's a drastic difference between A-Rod and Barry Bonds and their integrity. One has confessed, one hasn't. And because of that, there's a drastic difference on how America views the two. One is forgiven, one isn't. Is it any wonder that when Alex Rodriguez was set free from his personal trap of guilt, that Mark McGwire came out and confessed? Many say it's because "he's a batting coach now and needs to get that off his chest." I say wrong. It's because he realized that America WILL forgive you if you confess your wrong.
It's a life lesson we all need to implement in our lives. This is not just a principle for athletes and illegal substances. This principle of forgiveness rings true in any scenario of life. It's easy for us to point our fingers at these athletes who fall short and make human mistakes, but there's times we need to take a step back and analyze our own lives. We obviously don't need to appear on television and admit our faults, or even tell our closest ones. Sometimes we just need to confess to ourself the wrongs in which we make, and as a result we'll forgive ourself. There's no greater feeling then living a life without the pressure and burden of self guilt. Confess and be forgiven!