More on the San Diego Tribune's steroids in the NFL treatise.
1. Why are 'roids not taboo in the NFL?
Baseball fans have loudly vilified Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and others in recent years for their alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.
But where's the outrage for football users?
A study by The San Diego Union-Tribune found 52 former Pro Bowl players with links to such drugs, plus 133 others in the NFL dating to 1962. Many were caught by drug testing or outright admitted it. Yet there have been few public calls for asterisks by their names, records and championships. Why do few fans seem to mind compared with the outcry in baseball?
2. The detailed NFl 'Mitchell Report'.
The list of 185 names contains players at every position, from every team, and from virtually every year over the past three decades.
There are 52 players with “Pro Bowl” on their resumes, and four who have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
3. A time line of Steroids and PED use in the NFL.
Milestone moments in the NFL's performance-enhancing drug history, along with baseball, NCAA milestones.
It was the first steroids scandal in NFL history, and it remains the biggest. On Aug. 29, 1989, 13 players from eight teams were suspended for flunking steroid tests.
To this day, many of the 13 wonder why they were singled out.
Frankly, juicing in the NFL will not end until someone in the US government (sorry Libertarians) decides to investigate it, or someone like Priest Holmes sues a juicer like Shawn Merriman for prematurely ending his career. How much did Holmes lose when a 'roided Merriman hit him in 2005?
So many people love the NFL: but as opposed to like when I was a kid, now for whomever wins the superbowl, I think, it is tainted, it be greatly or slightly, I don't know. If one percent of the players use, that is still quite a few. I'm sure it is higher but we will never know.
Posted by: stevieg | 09/21/2008 at 23:52
It is funny because I often bring up the NFL to people. How many sports are like the NFL, where a linebacker can carry 10-12% bodyfat at 240 lbs for the entire season? Not many, yet NFL is one of the least questioned sports--when comparing it to cycling and track, anyway. However, doping is a major issue across the entire sports world.
Most people make the mistake like "stevieg" above and assume that doping never came into play years ago. Unless stevieg is 90 years old then I doubt he could be too sure of that. This first became apparent to me a few years ago when I came across a story that was written about the Chargers using dianabol in the 1960s. This and many other accounts are briefly covered in this article, though I cannot find the original article with the full story. Likewise, the NY Daily News has another interesting piece on 1960s doping in the NFL.
Lastly, and someone made light of this the first time the Priest Holmes story was posted, take a look at Holmes and tell me you are 100% sure he is natural. The problem is people try to go merely by looks or performance. Steroids are not necessarily going to give you god-like looks at performance, though they may help.
Posted by: | 09/22/2008 at 17:23
By the way, oddly my name did not appear for the post above. Yes, it's Student again!
Posted by: Student | 09/22/2008 at 17:24
I forgot to mention that the fact that Merriman was on steroids when he hurt Priest Holmes does not matter. It is faulty logic to say that it was because Merriman was steroids that he was able to injure Holmes in a way that ended his career, which is what was implied, let me get out the jump to conclusions mat.
Posted by: Student | 09/22/2008 at 17:29
The case against Merriman is this:
1. All football players take a risk of injury implicit when they play the game
2. However they do not agree to risks brought about by unnecessary or excessive force or violence
3. Anabolic steroids increase strength and power, and enhance aggressiveness
4. Merriman tested positive for nandrolone
5 Merriamn hit Holmes, ending his career
6. By extension, Holmes took a more violent hit than he accepted as risk in the NFL
7. Thus give him a settlement based on the injury depriving his ability to earn a living
Not saying that Merriman's doping caused the hit to be career ending, that's not the point. The point is what a judge or jury would buy.
I would bring suite against Merriman, the team, the physician, and the league.
Aren't I a shark!!!!
Posted by: Steroid Nation | 09/22/2008 at 23:13
Yes, again, I've been around the block on knowing the NFL has had doping for a long time.
I guess the NFL's Ballfour was Dave Meggysey's Out of their league I believe, but I think it was more of a book about violence in the league and the player-author became a flowerchild.
Still, I don't know if Lyle Alzado entered the league way back in '71 (I saw a football card of his first year): but of course, he is an example of a user from quite a few years ago.
I would believe, those of us who can remember it perceived it in a different way but of course, surely amphetamines were used back then too... '69? Could be.
Posted by: StevieG | 09/22/2008 at 23:45
For Steroid Nation's post: I am reading now, in England, West Ham United, a premiere league team, in telling this as briefly as possible in the season 2006/2007 had 2 Argentine players via a snakeoil salesmen some might say, the players were basically loaned out, contracted players but their playing arrangement was not dutifully sanctioned under the rules of the Football Association, the governing board. The Argentine Tevez, played well in some of the games and to many people's perception, kept the London Team, West Ham United (and probably a bit of a larger club as far as that goes) from being relegated (pushed down) to the next lower league. Well, some sort of tribunal over there has just ruled that the team that may have gotten relegated in it's place, Sheffield United missed out on TV revenue and other revenues and this court has summed up damages as being, I'd venture to say 60 million dollars (30 million pounds).
So, I would guess, this is outside the scope of Steroid Nation but it seems a bit parallel to your reasoning. This story of West Ham, Tevez and Sheffield United is hitting the newspapers basically at this time.
Posted by: StevieG | 09/22/2008 at 23:55
As a Redskins fan, I wonder if that Merriman argument can be extended to Lawrence Taylor ending Joe Theisman's career. Or more recently, was Lavar Arrington on the juice when he ended Troy Aikman's career? We will probably never know because the NFL does not want us to know. The NFL's partners also do not want us to know, as this story was not even picked up by ESPN. But the main reason its not an issue is because the fans currently don't care. They like the big hits and collisions, and the fast running. It is like watching gladiators in the coliseum. MORE! MORE! MORE!
Posted by: CheatorBeat.com | 09/23/2008 at 08:54
StevieG. I will attempt to put an article about that West Ham United case on my web page during lunch today, but I may have a bit of trouble understanding it fully. I think your summary here, and the article I just found online will be sufficient, but you may need to check it for accuracy if you understand this European Football thing better than I. =)
Posted by: CheatorBeat.com | 09/23/2008 at 08:58
Interesting that someone remembers Dave Meggysey's "Out of Their League". I read that in high school, when it made a big impression on me. In fact, I bought a copy on Ebay last night...
Posted by: Steroid Nation | 09/23/2008 at 10:24
That brings him back on the track.
Posted by: home pest control | 04/26/2011 at 22:50
let's join our hands together to stop this kind of wrong doings. It may risk lives in the future if we just let them continue.
Posted by: Moncler Jacka | 03/22/2012 at 13:54