Bigger Stronger Faster Page #4

the war in Iraq.

Apparently,

the United States Congress

takes this whole national

pastime thing kind of seriously.

I'm a baseball fan.

I always have been.

Let me just start by saying

that I am a huge baseball fan.

For me baseball is not a game,

it's a passion.

We have every right

to be concerned

that the national pastime

and all that it represents

has been threatened by the

selfish actions of a few.

There's something simply

un-American about this.

CHRIS:
If using steroids makes

the Bash brothers un-American,

what does that make

the Bell brothers?

Congressman Kanjorski, do you

think that this is not a matter

for the U.S. Congress

to be deliberating?

I just don't think

it's necessary.

Why are we just gonna

call seven people

and of what importance

are they?

In the last 52 years

we've only done it 25 times.

by the un-American

activities committee.

Are you now or have ever been

a member of the Communist Party?

Well, sir, I'm not here

to talk about the past.

I have never

used steroids, period.

Did you know that other

players were using steroids?

I have never seen a syringe.

I have never seen steroids.

But in locker-room gossip-

you may not have seen it.

People talk, right? "this guy's doing

something, that guy's doing something. "

Now Mr. McGuire, would you

like to comment on that?

You don't want

to comment?

Are you taking the fifth?

This is about values.

It's about our culture.

It's about who we

define ourselves to be.

When we want to define

to a foreign country

what we're about and

you're gonna show a film,

what would you

go show?

CHRIS:

Hey, how about "Rocky IV"?

There's nothing

more American than that.

The big Russian trains

in a high-tech facility

with a whole team

of scientists and trainers,

and of course

he takes steroids.

Meanwhile, Rocky's

out there lifting logs,

chopping wood, training in

a barn the all-natural way,

'cause only Commies would

take steroids, right?

Sure, Sly,

whatever you say.

Truth is, steroids were

the secret weapon

that helped American

fight the Russians

on the Olympic

battlefield.

And it all

began here,

York BarHenry

in Pennsylvania.

CHRIS:
When you

were an Olympic coach

did you see a lot of

steroid use going on?

Much.

- Yeah.

- Much.

Smitty's 83,

one of the old-timers.

He was the coach of the Olympic

weight-lifting team back then.

Was it ever thought of

as cheating at that point?

No. No, because we figured

everybody was taking it.

We figured

even steven.

Smitty told me the story

about how anabolic steroids

were first introduced

to the U.S. Olympic team.

It was the late 1950s

and the Russians were

dominating America

in the space race

and at the Olympics.

But one night the

Russian coach got drunk

and told

the American coach

they'd been injecting their

athletes with steroids.

The American coach

raced home

and developed an even more

powerful steroid

specifically

for team U.S.A.

So if steroids actually helped

America beat the commies,

How did it get

such a bad rap?

MARIA SHRIVER:
Last week former

N.F.L. Defensive lineman Lyle Alzado

told N.B.C. News that

steroids were the cause

of his inoperable

brain cancer.

How long were you

on steroids?

Most of my

pro career.

You know,

I played 16 years.

And it got me where I wanted

but also got me very sick.

CHRIS:
Lyle Alzado went from being

the toughest son of

a b*tch in the N.F.L.

to being a sad

dying man.

Everything I saw on T.V.

taught me that steroids kill.

Some alarming news

about steroid use tonight.

REPORTER:
A drug bust

in Phoenix, Arizona,

not for heroin

or cocaine,

but for something

just as dangerous.

Health damage from steroids

can include

heart, joint

and reproductive problems,

this is a drug

that kills.

What happens is that

these retarded idiots

that give us the news,

these talking heads

that babble on T.V.

give us this rhetoric

that comes from

not one single expert.

And they say ridiculous things

like steroids will kill you,

they'll rot your kidneys,

they'll give you cancer,

they'll do all these horrible

things that are just not true.

CHRIS:
John Romano is the senior

editor of a bodybuilding magazine

and he disagrees with what his

media colleagues think of steroids.

Well, how come we hear

constantly in the news

that people are dying

through taking steroids?

- Show me the bodies.

- Lyle Alzado.

Lyle Alzado didn't die

from steroids.

I trained with him

for two years.

He didn't die from steroids.

He died from a brain tumor.

I don't know of any of

my colleagues that link

his central nervous system

lymphoma to his use of steroids.

CHRIS:
Dr. Charles

Yesalis has published

over 70 articles

on the use of steroids

and is one of the top experts

in the world on drugs in sports.

- Are steroids killing people?

- good question.

They've been

used in medicine

since the late 1930s.

I hope we haven't been

purposely killing people.

Can they be used safely?

Yeah.

These drugs are a boon

in the medical profession.

They're a miracle drug for

people with muscle wasting.

They are a miracle drug

for burn victims,

for cancer patients, people

recovering from surgery.

CHRIS:
And for people with

A.I.D.S. like Jeff Taylor.

Jeff has been fighting

H.I.V. for 25 years

and he says

steroids saved his life.

Back in '92 I was

down to two "T" cells

and very sick. I'd

developed P.C.P. pneumonia.

Both my lungs collapsed.

I almost didn't make it.

I came out of a hospital

weighing 125 Ibs.

So I started researching and

found a clinical trial in L.A.

They were studying Anavar,

an old bodybuilding drug,

to test how it worked

for people with H.I.V.

So I signed myself up,

got a fairly high dose

and responded amazingly.

I gained 30 Ibs

in six weeks

and I gained

JOHN ROMANO:
So these drugs

have cognitive powers-

if you're sick

they'll help you;

if you're a healthy athlete

they'll kill you?

How can you say steroids are

a national public health crisis

when you have people dropping dead at

a rate you can measure by the minute

as a result

of alcohol and tobacco?

CHRIS:

According to the C.D.C.,

tobacco kills about 435,000

Americans every year,

alcohol kills

about 75,000,

and deaths from anabolic

steroid abuse- three.

But steroids also show up

in some other statistics-

emergency room visits.

But it's not exactly

number one on the list-

that would be alcohol;

or number two-

that's cocaine;

or number three-

that's marijuana.

Gotta be top 10,

though, right?

Uh, not quite.

How about top 25?

Top 100?

Keep going.

Try number 142.

That's even

after multivitamins.

yabba-dabba-doo yabba-dabba-doo,

Flintstones vitamins...

DR. YESALIS:

Education is important,

but what you have to

watch out for

is emChrisishing.

If you look

at "Reefer Madness,"

it caused you to be a

stark-raving, murdering lunatic-

Very funny to watch because

it goes so over the edge.

The next tragedy may be

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