Loren Wade, Chris Benoit and Barry Bonds. All were athletes, all are linked to steroids, but only two were murderers.
The third is about to break one of the most impressive records in sports. Given these examples, youth and collegiate athletes around the nation and especially at ASU have an interesting choice before them. They can ignore Bonds or they can ignore four dead bodies.
Together the three athletes dominated the news in the past month.
Benoit, the Canadian pro wrestler who in late June strangled his wife and child before choking himself with his own workout equipment, had a history of steroid and testosterone abuse.
Former Sun Devil running back Loren Wade was convicted this summer in the killing of ex-ASU football player Brandon Falkner. According to Scottsdale police, he had steroids in his bloodstream at the time of the murder.
Finally, in the most popular of the three stories, San Francisco Giants outfielder and former Sun Devil Barry Bonds is close away from matching Hammerin' Hank Aaron's record of 756 career home runs.
And, oh yeah, his head has swollen to the size of a watermelon from all the steroids he allegedly injected into his butt.
Direct blame for the deaths of the Benoit family and Falkner cannot be laid at Bonds' feet. However, it is undeniable that Bonds and other baseball stars helped to show the world the power of steroids.
Steroids turned the Bonds at ASU, the skinny base stealing RBI machine, into the Bonds of today; that hulking mound of muscle, so thickly piled on that it looks to be straining his skin.
Steroids gave Bonds the ability to keep playing and making millions long after his collegiate speed left him. Steroids gave Bonds the ability to break the single season home run record, and soon the all time record. Steroids will give Bonds immortality, the Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson kind.
Sadly, Benoit will receive another kind of immortality, more along the lines of OJ Simpson.
Wade will receive nothing other than decades in jail. With his conviction, his memory is already fading from the public's consciousness.
So what separates steroid users? Why are some international superstars thanks to their steroid heightened abilities, while others end up as killers or burnt out wrecks with no testicles?
Like so much else in life, cash and talent are the answers.
Bonds was already a professional baseball player when he allegedly started using. His natural talent brought him money, which then allowed him to use high quality steroids on advice of good doctors. The steroids amplified this talent, turning him into the man he is today.
Loren Wade was a decent running back. However the chances of him succeeding in the NFL were slim to none, with or without steroids. As a student, he had neither the talent nor the cash of Bonds.
He was most likely using lower quality steroids in a less safe environment.
So should steroids be allowed only to the rich and talented?
No.
Despite claims to the contrary, the rich and talented are inevitably role models for the rest of us. We all want to be like them, the supermen of our time.
If it turned out that Bill Gates took smart pills with possible nefarious side effects, parents and teachers of nerds around the country would doubtless be sneaking those pills to their children before SAT tests.
When we see the great cheat to get greater, we think we can use the same tactic. Too often, as Wade and Benoit show, it ends in tragedy.
Therefore it is up to Bonds and the rest to understand that by immortalizing themselves by any means necessary, they are helping to destroy others.
Send steroids or any other narcotics to john.dougherty@asu.edu. Letters are also acceptable.
