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19 replies

Is football next for a steroids scandal?

Rob KremerRob Kremer1,000+ posts
I was having lunch last week with a couple friends, who both played NFL football. One was an all star running back in the 1960's for the Rams and Bears, and the other played D-line for the Cowboys in the 1980's.

The 1960's friend asked the other why football hasn't had any similar steriods scandal like baseball. That triggered a long, detailed, and ****ing recount of my friend's personal knowledge of steroid use in the NFL, not just in the 1980's but also today.

He said of the 700 or so linemen in the NFL, at least 500 are on sterioids today. He told personal stories - his all pro roommate openly used them, once asked him to inject him (friend refused.)

He told how the players avoid testing positive: the testing date is in August, all the players know when they have to cycle off to test clean, and the team actually has advisors who basically help them avoid positive tests by teaching how long each kind of drug stays in their systems. He said the whole testing regime was a complete joke.

This fellow is now a high level corporate exec, very active in the community, youth sports, family man - a very credible guy. I believe every word.

So the question is: how has football avoided scandal? No tattle tales?
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CPLZCPLZ1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Rob Kremer:
The odd thing to me is that there doesn't seem to be much concern about football as compared to baseball. Do people just have different standards for football players?


I think TR nailed it, but let's look at why.

A number of people have brought up the fact that if both pitchers and hitters were using it, that leveled the playing field.

In, football, if both offensive and defensive players of all positions were using it, I think the level playing field argument would be valid.

In baseball however, we don't measure our players against their opponent. We measure them against another statistic.

Home runs is the perfect example. We want the stat to transcend time and eras and be able to weigh the value of the current player based on the baseline and peaks set by past performances. The fact that PED's will contribute to player being able to hit a ball harder/further, skews the data and relevance of time honored statistics.
coach2709coach270910,000+ posts
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2313476

This is an article from 2006 I believe. I feel it shows people are just burying their head in the sand for football.

quote:
Twenty years ago, it was rare for a player to weigh 300 pounds. But more than 500 players were listed at that weight or more on NFL training-camp rosters this summer -- including San Francisco 49ers guard Thomas Herrion, who collapsed and died after an exhibition game in August.


quote:
Baron's study, conducted at the request of the NFL Players Association, found that while players generally weren't dying sooner than average, offensive and defensive linemen had a 52 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than the general population.


quote:
Scripps Howard was able to compare mortality rates for professional-football players with the 2,403 Major League Baseball players who have died in the last century. The comparison found that football players are more than twice as likely to die before age 50. Asked to speculate on the cause for this difference, experts noted that football players generally are heavier than baseball players.


quote:

• Twenty-two percent of those players died of heart diseases; 19 percent died from homicides or suicides.

• The average weight in the NFL has grown by 10 percent since 1985 to a current average of 248 pounds. The heaviest position, offensive tackle, went from 281 pounds two decades ago to 318 pounds.


While I don't think steroids / HGH is the sole cause of this I do believe it plays a part.
Last edited by coach2709
TPMTPMHSBaseballweb Member since 2003
quote:
Originally posted by thegame2003:
Maybe there is just not much outrage because the records being broken aren't considered as sacred as baseball's....


I belive this to be true and part of the reason why so many are so outraged with steroids in baseball.

I think if Bonds had not broken the HR record that everyone would still be whispering about it.

Also, we accept that football players look like hulks, not baseball players, when they do, something appears not right. It's easier to hide who might be doing what.

Regardless, what's fair is far, you can't hound one sport to clean up their act and not the other.
igballigball500+ posts
I think part of the reason for the football fan's apathy to PED's has to do with the whole gladiator mentality of the game. You don't recognize players on the field as much as numbers. They are being bred and marketed as a subspecies of human whose only purpose is to play this ridiculously brutal game for a few years and then go away and die. Just look at the pension fight and you'll see how they are perceived after they've outlasted their usefulness.
Last edited by igball
CPLZCPLZ1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by InTheMit:
Honor is not just something bestowed upon someone. It is earned with every breath you take. Obeying the law is the honorable thing to do. That's what I pass on to my son.

Amphetamines, steroids, HGH, Trauma Drugs, Gene Therapy ....where will it end? Who will take a stand for our young ?


Honor has nothing to do with what a politician may decide to make into law.
I InTheMit10+ posts
CPLZ:
We are going to have to agree to disagree. Laws are normally enacted by officials duly elected with a ballot box. Right or Wrong, laws are laws and as a country that depends on laws to support this great society, we must submit to them for this country to exist.....unless you have a better idea?. OBTW, We do have a system to amend or abolish laws we don't feel just. The system might be slow but I hear it works most of the time.
Obeying the law and safe guarding our children are imho HONORABLE obligations.
This is just some of my personal opinions and if you don't agree with them,it's ok. : Again, we are going to have to agree to disagree if that is the case.

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