The NFL & Steroids

[JMK]

The spotlight has been turned a little bit to the NFL, for better or worse. Personally, I don't think the NFL's steroid testing policy is all that it's cracked up to be.

Listening to the Dan Patrick show today, and coupling his info with that found here: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2025197 , it's pretty obvious one of the following is going on:

-NFL players rarely use steroids, and their testing policy works just fine.

-NFL players DO use steroids, and somehow don't get caught, either through luck or because they know how to beat the testing system, or because HGH is not reliably tested, they're all using that.

-The testing policy in reality stinks and needs to be changed.


The NFL conducted 10,000 urine tests last year, and almost everyone testing clean. I can't remember the percentage of guys who tested positive but it was ridiculously low.


Mitchell, a center, filled a testosterone prescription seven times, while Steussie, an offensive lineman now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, obtained 11 refills over an eight-month period in 2004, CBS reported.

How could a league conduct 10,000 random tests in one single year, and miss a guy who refilled 11 times???? It doesn't make sense in any way. So is the policy weak, are the NFL'ers superior cheaters, or could it be that only Carolina Panthers cheating? ;)

Oh, and by the way, if Todd Sauerbrun, a PUNTER is juicing, I'd bet my last dollar that players at every other position are too. I mean come on, you're a freaking punter, what the hell do YOU need steroids for? Give me a break, something is going on in the NFL, we just haven't been able to figure it out yet.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well that was before the Super Bowl, honestly I don't know why a punter would want to be juiced the only positions in football it helps are in the lines. I don't think the NFL has that big of a problem as this is all realted to the HCL which the NFL didn't know existed at the time so this is not their fault. Also at least the NFL has a stirct policy third offense and your banned from the league it takes 5 for that to happen in MLB.

[jjwr]

They talked about it on Sportscenter this morning, apparently the steroids in question are among those you constantly need to update your testing for and it seems the NFL was not up to Olympic level standards on these so it wasn't finding them.

[JMK]

I guess we will find out eventually but I still think that the chances are that if one punter is doing it, then many others are as well, not to mention players at other positions. It's like Sammy Sosa with his corked bat. It's not like the one time he got caught was the one time he tried to use a corked bat. I don't remember where the stat is, but the average weight of an NFL lineman has ballooned over the past 20 years by a huge amount, like 30 pounds or something. That's not a result of eating more McDonalds. ;)

[jjwr]

If these players know they can get around it by using a certain type of steroid then I guarantee a number of them are using them.

I wouldn't look so much at the lineman though, most of these guys are just simply massive and a lot of it isn't muscle, not that they are not strong but some of these guys are quite fatty as well as being large, a number are in the obese range.

I would think you would be looking more at the other power positions, the guys that need to be lean and still be strong, Running Back, Full Back, Linebacker and maybe Safety. Most CBs and WRs aren't remotely big, TE's maybe. Kickers & Punters I can see, while these guys end up playing for quite a while very few stay with the same team and get good $$$, that alone could be incentive to use 'roids and get as much distance on kicks as they which will allow them to make a higher salary or get a longer deal from the same team.

[JMK]

I think people are more willing to turn a blind eye to football players using roids than they are to baseball players. I think most people see football as much more physical and grueling on the body and if it helps players to stay in one piece through their career, then they're more lenient. On the other hand, a ball player does it to achieve more power and send that flyball another 10 feet into the stands instead of onto the warning track, or a pitcher who wants to throw 97 instead of 91.

I totally agree with jjwr, I think a lot of the power positions use it frequently. These guys just aren't muscular anymore, they're ripped. It takes a lot of working out to get the look many of these guys have, probably more working out than these guys would care to do.

[jjwr]

Agreed, some of these guys are downright huge. Look at David Boston, the guy is a monster.

The big difference between Baseball & Football is in Football if you have a RB who is juiced up he still needs a Coach to call plays for him and a defense to get him the ball back and a offensive line to block and WR's to seal the outsides, etc...so much goes into each play that the roids alone won't make a huge difference.

With Baseball you take a already great player who connects regularly(Bonds) and add in a bunch of Steroids and all of a sudden you have a player with the same great insticts at the plate who is now driving the ball out of the park.

Baseball is a individual game, Bonds taking steroids directly affects his stats, his teams performance, the record books and baseball history. In the NFL it can easily do the same thing but the player himself doesn't have that kind of control over it.

Its definetly not right either way and neither side should do it but to me its worse in baseball than it is in football.

[JMK]

Yeah, it definetly is worse in baseball. Users in the NFL still need so many things to happen on each play in order for them to have access to the advantages brought on by steroids.

Baseball is all about one on one matchups. What scares me most is that now if you try to get rid of it in the NFL you will still get some juicers who are stronger and faster and more aggressive than a guy who isn't. Being such a physical sport, someone will get severely hurt.

You're right about Boston, he's a bodybuilder. Then you've got guys like Romonowski who reportedly took it, Jim Haslett admitted to taking it, I think it's more widespread than people would like to admit.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I don't think it is as widespread as it was in the 70's and 80's. Also the NFL is going with an even tougher policy that follows Olympic standards, that alone should get rid of the ones who are using it.

[Jedieb]

Alot of those lineman really have bulked by gorging themselves at McD's. They're by far the most UNHEALTHY players in the league. They pack on the pounds anyway they can to make them that much more effective on the line. Once they retire and both their exercise routines and metabolism slows down they're headed for disaster. This is something the league is going to have to address or you're going to have a bunch of fat lineman dropping dead in their early 40's and 50's.

[JMK]

Originally posted by Jedi Master Carr
I don't think it is as widespread as it was in the 70's and 80's. Also the NFL is going with an even tougher policy that follows Olympic standards, that alone should get rid of the ones who are using it.

The NFL says they're going to try and get their testing program to the Olympic standard:

The NFL has proposed toughening its testing standards to conform with a change in standards by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee.

It's not as tough as the Olympics yet, but hopefully it will be, and hopefully the penalties will be even stiffer.

[JMK]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bayless/050429&num=1

I'm in 100% agreement with Bayless. Definetly worth the read.

[Jedi Master Carr]

It was a good read, there is also something else to consider most americans don't care that NFL players might take steriods. There was a poll one time and it showed that. I guess they suspect it in football.

[JMK]

It's such a strange phenomenon. People are FAR more lenient towards NFLers with regards to steroids. I guess they feel that it is much more of a team game where one person's impact isn't as a great as the impact of an entire team, and the fact that the NFL does not cherish its records as much as baseball does. It is very weird indeed and I hope the tide turns and all cheaters are seen in the same light.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Yeah those reasons are part of it.

[Ryan Pode]

NFL players also tend to believe more in parity. Simply because their aren't as many options availible if they don't make that 53 man team. They want it all fair. While in baseball you have 4 teams in one club.

[JMK]

The NFL has also taken great pains to paint their players as 'warriors', 'family men', stand up guys and 'true sportsmen' that embody everything good about athletics. Despite some of the classless tools and gangsta thugs that litter the league, I think this is the image most casual fans buy into. In this respect, I think people are more willing to overlook the fact that these guys may be juicing more than any other sport.