Leadership Quote by Howard Berman

Berman’s line reads like a warning wrapped in an acknowledgment: he doesn’t romanticize athletes as purely moral actors, and that’s the point. By saying steroids “can seem necessary,” he shifts the frame from individual bad choices to a system that manufactures coercion. The verb “seem” does double duty. It concedes the athlete’s perspective - the felt reality of trying to keep a job, earn a contract, or stay relevant - while leaving room for the lawmaker’s judgment that the necessity is constructed, not natural.

The phrase “highest levels” is political shorthand for the prestige economy of modern sports: the razor-thin margins where a fraction of speed becomes a career, and where institutions (teams, leagues, sponsors, media) profit from superhuman performance while insisting on “clean” narratives. Berman’s real target isn’t just the user; it’s the incentive structure that makes doping rational. “Quick rewards” names the brutal time horizon of competition: scholarships, roster spots, endorsements, and the constant fear of being replaced. “Long term consequences” signals what policy arguments often lean on - public health - but also what athletic culture routinely discounts because the future is somebody else’s problem.

As a politician, Berman is building a case for intervention without sounding naive about why people cheat. The subtext is legislative: if the market rewards risk and punishes restraint, then morality lectures won’t solve it; enforcement, regulation, and accountability for enablers have to change the cost-benefit math.