Professional Sports: Rewarding and Punishing the Same Behavior

Professional sports: rewarding and punishing the same behavior

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has felt the heat for some time, and it’s not the kind a 90-mile-per-hour fastball brings. When allegations of steroid use among some of Major League Baseball’s biggest stars first surfaced, Selig argued that the league’s policy on steroids was “as good as any in professional sports.” The policy? Random drug testing, with a 10-day suspension for the first time offenders. Congress and the general public were not satisfied. So , Selig announced a tougher “three strikes you’re out” policy: A 50-game suspension for a first offense, a 100-game suspension for a second, and a permanent ban from baseball for a third. Players may incur fines as well. Other professional leagues have followed suit. The PGA Tour even announced its own drug-testing policy, which began in the 2008 season.

But here’s the problem: The same system that punishes those who take performance-enhancing drugs may also reinforce such behavior. And the current t repercussions for players may not serve as a strong deterrent. A fine of $10, 000 or a 10-day suspension may be a relatively minor setback compared to the millions that can be earned for becoming an all-star power hitter.

Take Rafael Palmeiro as an example. He tested positive for steroids. Though Palmeiro insists he took them inadvertently, the type found in his system (stanozolol) is not the kind found in dietary supplements. His punishment? Palmeiro received a 10-day suspension and forfeited $167, 000 of his $3 million salary, and a banner celebrating his 3,000th hit was removed from Camden Yards.

Now consider all-time home-run king Barry Bonds. Bonds has set records, and made millions by hitting lots home runs. Although there are widespread and detailed reports that he has taken performance enhancing drugs (particularly between 1998 and 2003, when federal agents raided the company was allegedly supplying him), the allegations have never been...