Monday it was revealed that professional wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife, seven-year-old son, and then killed himself over the weekend after being a no-show for WWE events. It goes without saying that this is a horrible crime and a tragic incident. It is unknown why someone like Benoit would commit such a heinous act. After all, he was one of the most respected, popular, and revered wrestlers in the business.

Wrestling has a stigma about it. Many people see it as lame or write it off as a fake sport for small-minded people. The truth is that to perform as a professional wrestler, it takes a significant amount of skill, endurance, training, and athleticism, more than most people consider or respect. In addition to the rigorous physical aspect of wrestling, the performers in the bigger circuits are on the road for the majority of the year. Unlike most pro sports, there is no off-season for professional wrestlers.

With the intense pressures put on professional wrestlers to perform to their best abilities also comes the temptation to use performance enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids. A large amount of anabolic steroids were found by police in Benoit’s house, which raises questions about whether or not “roid rage” was a factor in the violent acts he committed.

There is no excuse for what Chris Benoit did, whether he was hopped up or not. There is a special place in the afterlife for people that do the things he did. The consensus in the public seems to be about the same. Before the details of the death of the Benoit family’s deaths were released, WWE’s Monday Night Raw program aired tributes to Benoit which also had the tributes being posted on the WWE website.

After the murder suicide act became clear, all tributes were removed from the WWE website and company chairman Vince McMahon delivered a public apology before Tuesday night’s ECW broadcast. The broadcasts have even been committed to not saying Benoit’s name at all.

Although “roid rage” is not an excuse, it is a problem that should be dealt with and if this is indeed “roid rage” the Benoit murders is one of the highest profile incidents of it. Or perhaps this is a combination of the pressured lives that some athletes lead, combined with steroid use.

Steroid use is something that should be ended in society. That seems like an obviously correct statement that most people will agree with, but steroid accusations remain prevalent throughout professional sports.

Perhaps the most controversial subject in sports right now is the fact that Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants is only a few home runs away from breaking hank Aaron’s career record. Of course it is no secret that Bonds has been accused numerous times of using performance-enhancing drugs along with the likes of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Even Lance Armstrong has been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs in the past.

Besides the obvious health effects associated with steroid use, athletes take great risks in their reputations in using them. The reason is for the pressure to perform well in their sports-the emphasis on competition.

It may seem to defeat the purpose, but perhaps less emphasis on competition should be emphasized in professional sports. At least competition to the point where they ruin people’s bodies should be discouraged in sports.

In the competitive world of sports, maybe a new emphasis should be placed on competition for integrity and honesty, relying on natural skill and training over quick fixes provided by dangerous substances that damage the human body, both physically and mentally. The country as a whole could benefit from less emphasis on competition, certainly with the advantage of keeping mental health in tact.