The NFL Drug Problem: Does Anyone Care?The National Football League is a lovely fantasy. It generates millions and millions in revenue, clobbers everything in the television ratings, and is a national obsession.What no one wants to talk about is that the sport almost certainly has a performance drug problem that makes Barry Bonds look like a Jenny Craig spokesman. Or do you really believe that in the last 20 years the average linebacker has grown from 225 pounds to 265 pounds and can still run 40 yards in 4.4 seconds?As in the case of Bonds, who grew bigger and bigger before our eyes, this is a story the reasonable sports fan understands. Surely those guys are taking something. But there's no proof.The NFL brags about its drug-testing program and while they catch a few players from time to time, the inference is that the majority of the players are clean. Yep, that's probably true. Those offensive linemen are bulking up to 335 pounds on good diet and weight lifting. Sure they are.But last Sunday the Charlotte Observer dropped a bombshell with a stunning, well-researched story on the use of steroids in the National Football League. This isn't speculation or unnamed sources, these are court and medical records that detail long-term, unrepentant steroid use by members of the Carolina Panthers, a team that went all the way to the 2004 Super Bowl.The story not only names names -- former Cal offensive lineman is one of them and another is former 49ers' tight end Wesley Walls, one of Carolina's most popular players ever -- but details the prescriptions filled for steroids and human growth hormone.The Observer quotes Dr. Gary Wadler, a well-known expert on performance enhancing drugs, who prepared a report for the U.S. Attorney General's office."Several of them were using disturbing, particularly alarmingly high amounts with high dosages for long durations -- some in combinations," Wadler said. "This wasn't just a passing flirtation with these prohibited substances. When I see (prescriptions) `renewed five times,' I say, `What are you trying to accomplish?' "According to the story, the players not only took the banned drugs, they suffered side effects from the use. Steussie was given anti-estrogen drugs to combat breast-enhancement, which can be a consequence of steroid use, and fellow lineman Jeff Mitchell complained that his testicles had shrunk and he was experiencing hair loss.But the real surprise is the way the players used the drugs with impunity. At the sentencing of Dr. James Shortt, who supplied the drugs, Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Holliday said the players considered the NFL testing program, "almost a joke.''It certainly seems like it. Wadler's report, based on the players' medical records, showed that Steussie and another player picked up prescriptions for drugs just days before leaving for the 2004 Super Bowl. (The Panthers lost that game, 32-29 to New England.)The point here isn't that a few members of the Carolina Panthers violated the NFL's drug policy. It is that players at the highest level of the game not only took performance-enhancing drugs, they did it repeatedly and consistently, even when they began to notice potentially serious side effects.The conclusions seem pretty obvious. Does anyone believe that this was a case of a few rogue players? What is more likely is that this is one of the few, verifiable examples of the kind of rampant drug use that is common in the NFL. The players are huge, beyond anything we've seen in the history of the game. There's a reason for that.And second, even when they knew the drugs might be causing life-threatening consequences, the players continued to take them. That speaks to an even more ominous theory. That the players felt that they simply could not compete in the league without the performance drugs.In other words, they felt they couldn't stop, even if they wanted to. Have we really reached the point where, to have a professional career, you have to use performance drugs?These are serious questions. Not that anyone wants to ask them. In Carolina the response to the story from fans was immediate. "OK,'' some said, "you made your point, now drop it.'' "Nobody cares!'' said another.Part of the problem may be the size of the media market. If The New York Times had come up with this evidence, you can bet it would have been an enormous story. But the facts hold up. Again, this isn't heresy, this is from court and medical records.The Observer came up with a stunner, the kind of story that should begin to expose a problem that could extend to the highest levels of the America's most popular sport. They laid out the facts, told the tale, and waited for the massive national reaction.They are still waiting.
i say, the jets should get better drugs lol...still funny that no one seems to care bout this issue until the thing blows up at some point...
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