“Destroyed" by Peter Martin

Summary:

         Peter Martin makes his point that athletes on performance-enhancing drugs are not simply trying to cheat their way to victory; they are victims who are risking their own lives. First, he addresses the fact that performance-enhancing drugs are used in every sport and, unfortunately, are here to stay. Second, he talks about how the fans, writers, and other people connected to sports are upset about the way the sport is being tainted by the use of drugs. He continues by comparing today’s sports to that of the first Olympians, where cheating and enhancement drugs were taken more seriously. Martin concludes his piece by saying the purity of the sport doesn’t matter as much as the health and safety of the athlete.

Paraphrase Paragraph 10:

         Martin states that performance-enhancing drugs are indeed tainting the pure image of sports, however that is all the fans and observers seem to care about when they should be more interested in the health of the athletes, who are more important than a game (582).

Quote:

“It is the players, much more than the games, that we must protect” (Martin 582).

         I particularly like this quote because it conveys the heart of Peter Martin’s message and holds everything he is trying to tell the reader. It also touches on the idea that the glamorization of sports –or rather the fans getting too caught up in the game– has made it so that athletes tend to become faceless people who are only there to make a touchdown for the viewers’ entertainment. Fans and viewers seem to frequently forget that athletes are humans too, and that their life is more important than a Sunday night football game.

I commented on Jennica and Andrew's blog's.

Works Cited:

Kennedy, X.J., Kennedy, Dorothy M., and Aaron, Jane E. "Destroyed" by Martin F. Peter. The Bedford Reader. 11th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 580-582. Print.