Agents guide prospects: Part of NFL preparation covers proper use of steroids

The New York Daily News gives us some insight on how prospective NFL players prepare for the draft -- and some of it is juicy.

For some of those players, the months leading up to the draft also include lessons on performance-enhancing drugs, says longtime Cincinnati Bengals strength coach Kim Wood.

According to Wood, prospective NFL players attend pre-draft camps run by agents where some trainers and medical personnel school the millionaires-in-waiting on the drugs that will help improve their position in the draft. Wood describes the camps as cult-like facilities where the young men are taught to do whatever it takes to boost their signing bonuses and salaries - and their agents' commissions.

Wood paints a sick picture of meat factories getting the players up to snuff before the NFL draft:

According to Wood, prospective NFL players attend pre-draft camps run by agents where some trainers and medical personnel school the millionaires-in-waiting on the drugs that will help improve their position in the draft. Wood describes the camps as cult-like facilities where the young men are taught to do whatever it takes to boost their signing bonuses and salaries - and their agents' commissions.

"It's like a cult, it's like boot camp, because they want to remake these guys," says Wood, the Bengals' strength coach from 1975 to 2002 and an outspoken critic of performance-enhancing drugs for many years. "If you can influence the mind, you can influence the money."

Most NFL prospects, of course, have already been exposed to steroids in college or even high school, Wood acknowledges.

The players look at their future, and look at the millions to be made, thus they juice up like the Chargers Luis Castillo prior to the NFL combine.  The agents look at their commissions.  Wood and steroids expert Charles Yesalis disagree on some aspect of the issue:

"They are told that they are special, that they deserve to be rich because of their physical skills," adds Wood, who worked with hundreds of players during his NFL career. "It's like they tear down their personalities and then rebuild them so they are dependent on their agents. By the time they go through the camp, they are willing to do anything to make the team, including drugs."

Doping expert Charles Yesalis, a Penn State professor, says Wood exaggerates the role that pre-draft camps play in steroids and sports.

"There's not much difference between the offensive line of a Division I school and a pro team," Yesalis says. "I think the majority of guys entering the draft have already been around steroids. Most of these guys have been already talking to agents, sometimes for years. There's nothing special about the months before the draft."

 

But according to Wood, those months mark the first time an agent doesn't have to share a player's ear with his coaches or teammates. The player is focused on one goal - going as high as possible in the draft - and his No. 1 ally in that crusade is his agent.
(more after the jump)

 

Agent also school the player son how the beat the drug tests, which seems to be working in the NFL these days:

Agents, Wood says, use those months to prey on the players' insecurities, including any issues involving their physical appearance. He says they also school them on the intricacies of drug tests.

"They tell them they can move up in the draft if they lose 15 pounds of fat or make their biceps or pecs bigger," he says. "They are taught how to beat drug tests and what drugs are undetectable. They learn how to cycle on and off the drugs. They are taught, 'This is what you have to do to make it in this league.'"

Wood says he doesn't believe players gain much strength or speed from PED use in the months before the combine and the draft. But there are other benefits - including weight loss and muscle definition - that can boost a prospect's standing. Wood says NFL general managers are more impressed by a player with six-pack abs than one with a six-pack gut, no matter what the skill level really is.

"It's become a beauty contest," Wood says. "A fat slob falls in the draft even if he is skilled."

 

This is the second report of agents pumping up their players; the other report involved MLB agents.