If an NFL star is suspended for steroids, and no one talks about it, did
it really happen?
Brian Cushing, the Associated Press' Defensive
Rookie of the Year was suspended by the NFL for four games for
violating their policy on performance-enhancing substances. This isn't
that abnormal. What's shocking, is the power the NFL has in keeping
their image as a "clean" league.
Cushing tested positive for some sort of drug last September - and yet he was allowed to keep playing, and was finally suspended this weekend? We're talking seven months here, folks. Did it really take the league over half a year to hold an appeal hearing, and deny Cushing? Or was the league more interested in shielding the shield - and keeping the NFL's image steroid-free?
If a player tests positive, he needs to be suspended immediately, pending an emergency hearing. Once that player is found guilty, he needs to be suspended - immediately. Otherwise, I would tell all my players to roid themselves like crazy during the playoffs. Before the Super Bowl? Dude, I'm bringing in Mark McGwire, Ben Johnson and Keith Richards as "specialized medical consultants." If they get busted, who cares? We'll worry about that next season.
Basically, the NFL's confidentiality policy on drug testing is the problem. We never find out exactly caused a positive result on a drug test. Was it a masking agent? Steroids? Viagra? Why exactly is the league protecting cheaters?
If
the player has a bonafide prescription for meds that triggered the
positive, that's one thing. But if it's something not prescribed by a
doctor? The league needs to lay these morons out, and make the whole
thing transparent and public. Do the modern-day equivalent of throwing
the player in the stockade for four games - release the information,
including every damn detail about why the test shows as a positive.
Think of it like a DUI arrest, where there is a police report with the blood-alcohol level. I don't care if Troy Polamalu has an elevated level of Rogaine, I want to know about it if it's illegal. That way any player who throws out the BS about taking some sort of tainted supplement gets laughed out of the league.
But these things will never happen. Because the league simply doesn't care. Heck, they condone steroid use by allowing NBC to trot Rodney Harrison out every week, after he was busted by the league for human growth hormone in 2007. It projects the image of a league who doesn't take PEDs and fair play seriously.
While we may never find a way to effectively bust HGH users, that doesn't mean our professional leagues shouldn't continue trying. The NFL just doesn't realize how badly it embarrasses itself when it doesn't embarrass the players who cheat.
Cushing tested positive for some sort of drug last September - and yet he was allowed to keep playing, and was finally suspended this weekend? We're talking seven months here, folks. Did it really take the league over half a year to hold an appeal hearing, and deny Cushing? Or was the league more interested in shielding the shield - and keeping the NFL's image steroid-free?
If a player tests positive, he needs to be suspended immediately, pending an emergency hearing. Once that player is found guilty, he needs to be suspended - immediately. Otherwise, I would tell all my players to roid themselves like crazy during the playoffs. Before the Super Bowl? Dude, I'm bringing in Mark McGwire, Ben Johnson and Keith Richards as "specialized medical consultants." If they get busted, who cares? We'll worry about that next season.
Basically, the NFL's confidentiality policy on drug testing is the problem. We never find out exactly caused a positive result on a drug test. Was it a masking agent? Steroids? Viagra? Why exactly is the league protecting cheaters?
Think of it like a DUI arrest, where there is a police report with the blood-alcohol level. I don't care if Troy Polamalu has an elevated level of Rogaine, I want to know about it if it's illegal. That way any player who throws out the BS about taking some sort of tainted supplement gets laughed out of the league.
But these things will never happen. Because the league simply doesn't care. Heck, they condone steroid use by allowing NBC to trot Rodney Harrison out every week, after he was busted by the league for human growth hormone in 2007. It projects the image of a league who doesn't take PEDs and fair play seriously.
While we may never find a way to effectively bust HGH users, that doesn't mean our professional leagues shouldn't continue trying. The NFL just doesn't realize how badly it embarrasses itself when it doesn't embarrass the players who cheat.
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