In addition, the NBA is still reeling from the ref point shaving scandal, and Michael Vick has been barred from his training camp for allegedly abusing dogs. But it all makes great print, and we as a culture are eating it up. This is what we do in our sports crazed society.

Let's get back to Bonds and the Tour de France. If you are a young person who at least appears to have potential to get a scholarship or perhaps one day make it into professional sports, the message you must be receiving is that the sacrifice you must make to achieve your dreams includes at least considering taking performance enhancing drugs. After all, it seems very likely that this leads to the scholarships, the big contracts, the endorsements, the fame, and wouldn't it all be worth it if you took performance-enhancing drugs?

All right, so most of you are jumping out of your seats in total disagreement with this suggestion. But I only make it because as a culture we are already teaching our youngsters that they need to do whatever it takes to gain competitive advantage over other youngsters.
It isn't a far leap to go from hiring a personal skills coach or strength coach and succumbing to going one step further and taking steroids - especially when we at least strongly suspect that other athletes might be doing it.
We condone this as a culture. Many honest people in the business world make a boatload of money simply by working hard at their jobs.

That's the way it should be, but ask those same hard working, honest people in corporate America if they know of someone in their profession who went to the dark side and behaved unethically when it came to gaining access to power, influence, or more money. How many scandals in Connecticut do we need before we recognize that we have a culture of greed when it comes to gaining access to power and money?

Do we really believe that just because it is sports at the high school or youth level that kids and their parents (and too many coaches) won't do anything they can to gain that competitive advantage over other kids and their children? Youth programs that foster elite play must at least see how access to their elite teams will be sought after vigorously or else the kids who don't make it pretty much know that they will never make it. Can't we see how powerful a driving force this might be for parents and kids, especially in our culture where winning is so important? Is it possible that one kid in our area will be tempted to go that extra step to gain competitive advantage? Is one kid an acceptable number? How about two, or 10, or whatever?

I've been writing for a while now. I don't know if what I'm saying has sunken in. My guess is that the people who have gained access to elite teams recognize the tremendous advantage they have over families who haven't gained access. My guess is for too many parents and their children, access to elite teams is not just about gaining access ... it is about limiting access as well. After all, this is a competitive country.

Let's put ourselves for a moment in the place of a mom or dad who are talking with their son or daughter about what their child needs to do to make it onto a varsity team or get a scholarship to college. The kid listening to mom or dad isn't stupid. That kid knows how much family time has been given up to drive him or her all over for individual skill or strength training, camps, elite showcases and tournaments.

That kid knows how much money mom and dad have spent giving her or him all the competitive advantage they could possibly use. Mom and dad have told their kid countless times how much they have to want it or sacrifice if they really want to reach their dreams in sports. And then mom and dad start talking about the evils of steroid use. To a young kid, won't that be a contradiction? Think about it.

Just don't be surprised when a young man or woman from our area follows through on the temptation to take steroids or other performance enhancing drugs. And don't be surprised when we find out it is already happening.

Rick Collins - Newington Town Crier - 08/09/2007