By David Gibb

I have come to pride myself on the fact that I have never written a steroid column in my time at The Chronicle.

In the last two years, steroids have replaced bloated contracts as the topic that sports columnists write about when they’re feeling angry and under-appreciated.

A writer struggling to make a living will hardly ever hesitate to jump on a multi-millionaire athlete, especially since writers so often believe themselves to have the moral high ground.

If there is a player on the team a writer covers who was mentioned in a document like the Mitchell Report, there are two simple and formulaic stories from which the writer can choose: telling the fans why they should forgive the player, or explaining to them why they should condemn him and all that he stands for.

The problem is that the steroid issue is not black and white. It’s so complex that it’s not even a single shade of grey. That’s why I don’t write about it, generally. Steroid use in professional athletics is about more than sports.

It’s about psychology, anatomy, biology, and physics. It’s about sociology, economics, religion, and culture. It’s about competition, jealousy, and pride.

The decision to use steroids by an athlete is one that is as much about their personal life as it is their professional one. Steroid users aren’t just “cheaters,” they’re people who in a society and a profession that demand the highest level of excellence feel pressured to be even better than they already are.

Are steroid users cheaters? Most of them, yeah. Anybody using steroids without a legitimate prescription and proper medical cause is not only a cheater, but technically a criminal. Are steroid users evil? Some of them, possibly, if you believe in evil to begin with. However it’s hard to believe that juicing somehow makes one more evil than, say, Ty Cobb, who assuredly never touched steroids, but was one of history’s greater bigots.

There’s pretty clear medical evidence that steroid use will kill you. The likelihood of cancer, heart, and brain problems shoots through the roof with anabolic steroid use. It’s not good for you. In the past, I’ve always thought that this was the bottom line. Steroid use is like smoking: if you do it, you will die, but if you’re still crazy enough to want to do it, who is anybody to judge you? However, one story in the news this week actually managed to get me riled up about steroids. That’s why I’m writing this column.

Thoroughbred horse racing is not a popular sport on college campuses, and many consider it to be the sport of the ivory tower elite. However, for those who missed it, the Kentucky Derby, one third of the famed Triple Crown, was run this weekend. Favorite Big Brown won ran away with the race, winning by several lengths, but the big story of the Derby was that of Eight Belles, who finished second.

Eight Belles was only the fortieth filly (that is, female) to run in the Kentucky Derby’s 134-year history, came in at 12-1 odds, and managed to place second in the race. However, less than a minute after finishing, Eight Belles was lying on the ground with two broken ankles. The horse was euthanized on the spot, with her death overshadowing the win for Big Brown and jockey Kent Desormeaux (arguably the finest jockey of a generation).

Eight Belles was an absolute physical specimen. If you have it in you to find a horse beautiful, there is no denying that she was a beautiful horse. She was also massively, off-the-charts huge for a female. Now, only a few days later, it has been made public that a necropsy on the horse will test for the presence of steroids.

I should have known better than to think that a single important sports story would remain uncorrupted by steroid coverage.

However, if Eight Belles was on steroids, its owner and trainers have a lot to answer for.

I’m not an animal rights advocate in any sense of the word. I like my steak rare and my veal hammered thin. Giving a horse steroids, though, is where I draw the line for animal cruelty.

You see, Eight Belles had no way of knowing what steroids were. She was not presented with the known side effects and allowed to make a choice for herself on whether or not she wanted to do them.

There was no way she could have stuck a needle full of juice in her own backside. She was just a horse, a naturally well-muscled creature, who somebody may have decided to turn into a freak.

Say what you will about the morals of human athletes, but those who choose to use steroids don’t come to it innocently.

They do research, decide exactly what they’re going to use, even put together doping calendars. They are making conscious decisions every step of the way. They know that they will be judged if they are caught, and they know all too well what they are doing to themselves.

But a horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one can talk to a horse, of course. Nobody told Eight Belles that steroid use would help her career.

What does a horse get out of steroid use?

A shortened lifespan.

For all the good steroids do to a horse, you might as well feed it poison.

That’s why if Eight Belles tests positive for steroids, it’s a very big deal. It’s an issue bigger than sport, it’s about us as humans and how we interact with the world around us.

It’s one thing to make a decision to cheat; it’s another thing to turn a dumb animal into a cheater on our behalf.