Re: “Boys join unhealthy body craze” (TNT, 11-19).

The obsession with muscle-building isn’t new; boys have always wanted to look like their heroes. “Champ,” a Norman Rockwell painting from 1922, shows a scrawny teenager clutching his barbells while peering at a poster of a massive weightlifter.

What is new is the availability of steroids, which should be treated as the dangerous drugs they are. Social pressures have also increased. Educators and parents put far too much emphasis on precociousness and early achievement. They want kids to hurry up, grow up, master college skills, become star athletes, choose majors, choose …

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Re: “A matter of conscience, not of criminal indictments” (Eugene Robinson column, 5-27).

Hurray for Robinson. For a long time I have been really peeved at the interference of political and legal bodies in the ethics of athletics. It seems to me that enhancement drugs, gambling on the game, etc., are internal issues related to the particular sport and not a matter to be put before congressional hearings and the court. I felt this way about Pete Rose’s issues, and I certainly feel the same about baseball and Lance Armstrong.

You cannot expect athletes to do nothing when compatriots use …

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