A necessary lesson for young athletes

When you think of the Monsters of the Midway, you think of Dick Butkus. He enjoyed a hall of fame career with the Chicago Bears by working hard and dedicating himself to being successful on the field.

What he didn't do was take steroids or human growth hormones to create a bigger body. And, now, Butkus is trying to convince high school athletes they don't need to either.

Butkus has launched a nationwide campaign with his son Matt to get young athletes to sign an "I Play Clean" statement. He did so after a 2007 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey reported that 500,000 teen athletes had experimented with steroids.

That's an astounding number. But it's probably even higher, Butkus believes.

"What about the ones that lied and did try it," he said.

Today's professional athletes certainly aren't the role models they once were. The baseball steroid scandal and the stripping of medals from past Olympians come to mind immediately. And then there's cycling, where the Tour de France last week had to kick out yet another cyclist for testing positive for a performance enhancer.

"When are these idiots going to learn that it's over?" said Pat McQuaid, the leader of the International Cycling Union, in an Associated Press story Saturday. "They continue to think that they can beat the system. They're wrong."

Indeed they are. And hopefully, the young athletes coming up today will think twice before putting themselves in that kind of trouble.

The Illinois High School Association is helping them make the right decision. In March, it set penalties for students found to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs next year. In essence, a student who tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs would be found to be ineligible to compete for 365 days from the date the results were reported to the student and the school. But an athlete could apply for reinstatement in 90 days after the completion of an approved educational program and after another test shows the student is drug-free. This second chance sends the right message to our young people.

Butkus also wants young athletes to think about what steroids can do to their bodies. Increased risk of heart disease, strokes and cancer; facial hair growth in females and breast development in males all are side effects. Steroids also can lead to depression and suicidal thoughts.

Many high-schoolers don't know what can happen and that's why we applaud Butkus and those helping him deliver that message. And we encourage all high school coaches in every sport in the suburbs to have their athletes sign the pledge to play clean by training hard, eating well and playing with attitude. Parents, too, need to be aware of the dangers and the allure of steroids and encourage their sons and daughters to sign the pledge.