It’s an ageless phrase that we’ve all heard growing up as kids while playing the most simplistic of games. Now lets be honest, everyone has been presented with at least one situation where you had to perform at a very high level in order to be successful. In fact, one could argue that the only way to accomplish anything in life is to be the very best at what you’re good at. In the highly competitive and very lucrative era of professional sports, it is continuously apparent that some athletes will stop at nothing in order to stay a step ahead of their peers, and in most cases, one step ahead of the league’s drug testing process.

We are all aware of the highly visible BALCO case involving star athletes from Major League Baseball to Olympic Track and Field who have been implicated in the illegal use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). Some of our greatest athletes have succumb to the pressures to be the so-called ‘best in the world.’ While most have submitted to tearful apologies, they all seem to have the same reasoning (or excuse) for their transgressions: ‘I did not knowingly take performance enhancing drugs!’ Well, unless they were knocked out and abducted by aliens, the average fan has a very hard time believing that a human being would not know what is being placed into their bodies.

The more pressing concern and highly critical one is what message does this send to our kids? Some of whom may be future athletes; who should be learning the right way to achieve success in not only the world of sports, but life in general. Yet it seems that we are constantly being bombarded with news reports regarding athletes being found to have tested positive for PEDs.

While it may seem that some very high profile figures have become successful, it is very heart wrenching when there are reports that they achieved this success through dishonesty. These athletes often have little regard for those who may have been hurt in the process.

We have to find a way to get back to the basics to ensure not only the integrity of all sports, but also the health and safety of our kids.  Lets all hope that for every Mark McGwire of the world, there are ten Babe Ruth’s to maintain the integrity of our sports, while providing a positive model for our kids to pattern themselves after. In the end, those who achieve success by cheating never really win. Even if they don’t get caught, they still have to live with themselves. They have to face that fact that they were too cowardly to put in the work that it took to achieve the level of sustained success to which we should all aspire as human beings.