When salaries first began to rise in American sports, the initial surge was paid largely from television rights money, which was a new and growing source of revenue. ... If there is one thing we've learned in this big-money era in sports it's that making money isn't the same as keeping it. ... Now, the big money sets athletes apart from their fans and their communities and seduces them into thinking they are immune from societal restriction and problems, despite the too frequent examples of athletes who are bankrupt, in drug/alcohol rehabilitation programs or even in jail....

• Word Count: 924
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Steroid is a drug, and like other drugs, people take them to escape reality, and they enjoy what the drug does for them. Steroid users like what the drug has done for their size and strength, and it has taken them away from their original, smaller body. ... Steroids have taken sports to new levels. ... And with the growing number of youngsters willing to do anything to win and get to the next level it almost becomes necessary for an athlete to use a performance-enhancing drug just to compete. ...

• Word Count: 524
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Imagine being swarmed by the media after stepping out of your thirty two thousand dollar car, leaving practice to go to a photo shoot for the cover of Sports Illustrated. ... In some cases, young athletes seethe high paying professional ranks as an avenue for escape from an impoverished lifestyle; a lifestyle of substandard housing, high crime rates and drugs. ... Playing games on television, movies, shows and every boy's dream, a spot on sports center. ... As Brian Shaw said of a nineteen year old Kobe Bryant in Sports Illustrated magazine, "nobody was going to listen to him when he w...

• Word Count: 1069
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School