The NFL: Steroids and Human Growth Hormone

by Michael A. Sommers

In the National Football League, where players must be incredibly fast and strong just to survive, it seems almost inevitable that the use of performance-enhancing drugs would be a problem. This book looks at the history of the use of steroids and human growth hormone in the NFL, with special attention paid to the players whose lives have been turned upside-down by performance-enhancing drugs.

48 pages, Library Binding

First published August 15, 2009

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the book "The NFL: Steroids and Growth Hormones," by Michael Sommers and thought it was very interesting. This book, as stated in the title, is about the use of steroids and specific growth hormones in the NFL. This book discusses an issue that is very important and relevant to todays sports and competition as well as throughout history. The way this book was written was very important to portraying the messages along with the information and stories. The author’s style in this book is very descriptive with a lot of information. This is important in order to get a good idea of the stories regarding the issue containing many details. The writing is very good and contains many facts and stories which make it very interesting and descriptive. The visuals, most specifically the pictures, were very important in adding to the descriptions of different specific stories and information.

I learned a lot about the history and usage of steroids as well as different types and current day monitoring while reading this book. Now the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is something that is well known and monitored very closely by professional sports leagues and teams. Players are given suspensions and big fines. Just a few decades ago this was something that was overlooked in many cases. The point of using these steroids is to be bigger, stronger, more athletic, and more resilient than your opponent. Athletes use steroids to gain competitive edge over their opponent to win games.

I would recommend this book to any children and teens in anywhere from elementary school all the way to high school. The information is basic enough so an elementary student could understand the basics; however, it is also interesting enough that a high school student could read it and really learn a lot. I think the best level is middle school though because you can learn a lot out of it. And while it is not necessarily considered a very challenging book, it gives basic information with a lot of interesting supporting details. Also, the great thing about this book is that it can be for someone who is interested in sports and has heard about steroids and substance abuse before or someone who has barely ever heard about it. There is a lot of information about this topic and this is a great book to learn about it