The quest for physical or athletic perfection has led many athletes down the slippery slope of using anabolic steroids. However, it is a true mark of pitiable character when one trades his life and future on the use of steroids in a fake sport. WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, born in Montreal and raised in Edmonton, first killed his wife, then smothered his seven-year-old son, and finally hanged himself, in an apparent fit of psychological illness brought on by steroid use. No longer content with not actually hurting people in the ring, he decided to try doing it for real on the innocent people in his life. Sadder still, when Benoit's murder-suicide caused WWE's Raw program to be cancelled, a number of sports stations aired a tribute to Benoit, even after the news broke about what he had done. In a society that idolizes sports heroes, idolizing a manufactured hero in a scripted sport following the murder of his family sinks to a new low that even the most ardent trailer park-dwelling fan wouldn't touch.
Update: Although doctors have downplayed the role of steroids in his actions, they nevertheless found that repeated concussions left 40-year-old Benoit with a brain resembling that of an 85-year-old man with dementia.
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