The latest doping revelation in the NFL raises some serious concerns. Brian Cushing, the Houston Texans linebacker, violated the NFL’s anti-doping policy last September. His suspension was announced earlier this week and after playing the entire season (after his positive test), he was voted the Defensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press.
First off, what caused the delay from the failed test in September to the announced suspension in May? There should be due process, but to the point where a cheater can play the entire season and then be punished does not seem right.
Secondly, after playing the entire season, Cushing was voted the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. The Associated Press didn’t like being duped so they decided to have a revote for the award. After the revote was taken, Brian Cushing was still the Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Having a revote makes sense. However, the voters in the AP made a mockery of the system by praising and rewarding a cheater. When Marion Jones admitted to cheating, she was stripped of her medals. There was no revote or determination of her worthiness. She cheated and was properly disciplined.
Apparently that is not how the voters of the AP feel. Their vote in essence rewards cheating. If Cushing was suspended for a quarter of the season and didn’t have the numbers he had, he would not be the Defensive Rookie of the Year. Yet, after knowing he was dirty, didn’t sway the needle to a clean player.
Maybe next time the AP voters will take their vote seriously and reward a clean player rather than a dirty one. If not, message is heard loud and clear: performance over values. My grades: A for effort, but F for execution.
Showing posts with label NFL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NFL. Show all posts
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Tony Mandarich Owns It...After the Fact
In this week's Sports Illustrated, Rick Telander, follows up on the Tony Mandarich cover story he wrote in 1989. Mandarich comes clean and admits to steroid and HGH use back in the day both while playing in the NFL and college football for the Michigan State Spartans (MSU). He also admits being hooked on painkillers throughout his NFL careear. All of this is detailed in his book, My Dirty Little Secrets-Steroids, Alcohol and Painkillers: The Tony Mandarich Story.
It was primarily Mandarich's size and SI's initial coverage that led NFL scouts to drool over him at the 1989 NFL Draft where the Green Bay Packers selected him second, ahead of Barry Sanders, Derek Thomas and Deion Sanders. He lasted three years with the Pack, considered one of the biggest busts until Ryan Leaf hit the 1998 draft and redefined the word.
Mandarich in his book alleges that 15 members of the MSU Rose Bowl squad were on the juice. Similar to the crisis in baseball where no one knew that anyone was using roids, the former coach at MSU, George Perles, has a similar recollection: "I wouldn't know about steroids. The NCAA did all the testing. They're the ones you should talk to." Perles is now a member of the school's board of trustees.
In the article, Tony states how he essentially created the Whizzinator in eluding the NCAA from detection after roiding up before the 1988 Rose Bowl. Per Mandarich: "[For] the Rose Bowl in 1988, we were tested two weeks before on campus, and then we heard there was going to be a second test [in Pasadena]. I'd already gotten back on Anadrol-50 (brand name for oxymetholone), a steroid which makes you significantly stronger within a day or two, and now I'm freaking. I'm in this large 24-hour store, about midnight, brainstorming, thinking how am I going to beat this test?
"In the pet area I see this rubber doggy squeaker toy. I get that, then I go to another area and get a small hose, and in the medical area I get some flesh-colored tape. I'm like the Unabomber getting supplies. Back home I rip the squeakers out of the toy, tape the hose into one end and experiment by filling the thing with water. At the Rose Bowl I taped the toy to my back, ran the hose between my butt cheeks, taped the end to my penis, and covered the hose tip with bubble gum. I had gotten some clean urine from somebody else. The tester stood behind me, couldn't see anything, and when I removed the gum everything worked fine."
Mandarich improved upon his Rose Bowl invention at the Gator Bowl the following year by customizing a squeezable glue bottle to replace the doggy toy. "A quarter twist of the cap, no leak, no moving parts—it was almost too easy," he says.
At least Tony is being honest now. Let's ignore for the moment that he lied all throughout his career and as recently as 2003 when he was quoted in article as not living up to the expectations on the football field. I'm sure this admission had nothing to do with selling a book.
It was primarily Mandarich's size and SI's initial coverage that led NFL scouts to drool over him at the 1989 NFL Draft where the Green Bay Packers selected him second, ahead of Barry Sanders, Derek Thomas and Deion Sanders. He lasted three years with the Pack, considered one of the biggest busts until Ryan Leaf hit the 1998 draft and redefined the word.
Mandarich in his book alleges that 15 members of the MSU Rose Bowl squad were on the juice. Similar to the crisis in baseball where no one knew that anyone was using roids, the former coach at MSU, George Perles, has a similar recollection: "I wouldn't know about steroids. The NCAA did all the testing. They're the ones you should talk to." Perles is now a member of the school's board of trustees.
In the article, Tony states how he essentially created the Whizzinator in eluding the NCAA from detection after roiding up before the 1988 Rose Bowl. Per Mandarich: "[For] the Rose Bowl in 1988, we were tested two weeks before on campus, and then we heard there was going to be a second test [in Pasadena]. I'd already gotten back on Anadrol-50 (brand name for oxymetholone), a steroid which makes you significantly stronger within a day or two, and now I'm freaking. I'm in this large 24-hour store, about midnight, brainstorming, thinking how am I going to beat this test?
"In the pet area I see this rubber doggy squeaker toy. I get that, then I go to another area and get a small hose, and in the medical area I get some flesh-colored tape. I'm like the Unabomber getting supplies. Back home I rip the squeakers out of the toy, tape the hose into one end and experiment by filling the thing with water. At the Rose Bowl I taped the toy to my back, ran the hose between my butt cheeks, taped the end to my penis, and covered the hose tip with bubble gum. I had gotten some clean urine from somebody else. The tester stood behind me, couldn't see anything, and when I removed the gum everything worked fine."
Mandarich improved upon his Rose Bowl invention at the Gator Bowl the following year by customizing a squeezable glue bottle to replace the doggy toy. "A quarter twist of the cap, no leak, no moving parts—it was almost too easy," he says.
At least Tony is being honest now. Let's ignore for the moment that he lied all throughout his career and as recently as 2003 when he was quoted in article as not living up to the expectations on the football field. I'm sure this admission had nothing to do with selling a book.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Terrell Owens Enters NFL's "Reasonable Cause" Testing Program
Not answering the phone can have dire consequences on an athlete's perception, just ask Terrell Owens. It was a miscommunication between the NFL and Owens that led to him missing a random drug test. The NFL's policy states that a missed random drug test places the player in the "reasonable cause" testing program with up to 24 tests per year. At the NFL's discretion, the league can fine or suspend a player who misses a random test.
Like most of his past transgressions, Owens is not taking any personal responsibility for this latest mishap. His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, is the fall guy. Owens provided the NFL with contact information after the season for his agent and stated that the league had a previous contact number for him that he never provided. Owens included the agent's number "because I know he always answers the phone." Even for Owens, that was a bit over the top. If any other athletes are represented by Mr. Rosenhaus, you may want to check on his recovery because T.O. just threw him under the bus.
T.O. went straight to the Barry Bonds / BALCO playbook saying that in his 12 NFL seasons he has never tested positive "for substance of any kind." Track stars and baseball players were so arrogant and adamant in their denials because they were ahead of the curve. They could also boast the "never tested positive" line even when observation or circumstantial evidence made one question the truthfulness of their claims. It has been said Owens, 34, has the body of a 25 year old. Is that all from hard work or in conjunction with PED's?
I hope for Owens' case that he is not using any PED's. In T.O. land, this is a win-win situation. If he never tests positive, vindication with the ultimate, "I told you so" moment and even if he does test positive, there will additional media attention and someone on deck to be thrown under the bus so in T.O.'s mind, he didn't do anything wrong.
Like most of his past transgressions, Owens is not taking any personal responsibility for this latest mishap. His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, is the fall guy. Owens provided the NFL with contact information after the season for his agent and stated that the league had a previous contact number for him that he never provided. Owens included the agent's number "because I know he always answers the phone." Even for Owens, that was a bit over the top. If any other athletes are represented by Mr. Rosenhaus, you may want to check on his recovery because T.O. just threw him under the bus.
T.O. went straight to the Barry Bonds / BALCO playbook saying that in his 12 NFL seasons he has never tested positive "for substance of any kind." Track stars and baseball players were so arrogant and adamant in their denials because they were ahead of the curve. They could also boast the "never tested positive" line even when observation or circumstantial evidence made one question the truthfulness of their claims. It has been said Owens, 34, has the body of a 25 year old. Is that all from hard work or in conjunction with PED's?
I hope for Owens' case that he is not using any PED's. In T.O. land, this is a win-win situation. If he never tests positive, vindication with the ultimate, "I told you so" moment and even if he does test positive, there will additional media attention and someone on deck to be thrown under the bus so in T.O.'s mind, he didn't do anything wrong.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
13% of Sports Coverage Roid Related
Today, May 22, 2008, the NYT devoted 13% of their Sports articles to steroid related topics.
Most professional sports leagues always state that there is not a problem in their league; the cheaters are in the other sports. Today, two leagues, the NFL and MLB were linked with some of their athletes allegedly using PED's while track & field was further being disgraced by new developments in the Trevor Graham trial.
When will roids in sports be taken seriously? Does half the articles in the Sports section need to be about PED's before the general public even raises an eyebrow? Do we need articles implicating every sport: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA. The reason why PED's are so rampant is because they work; athlete's wouldn't use them otherwise.
The NFL article referenced a steroid dealer, David Jacobs, who provided documentary evidence to NFL officials that implicated several players with the use of PED's. Jacobs has said he provided two players with roids and HGH and that these players would then supply others. Previously, the NYT reported that prosecutors reliing on information provided by Jacobs, investigated Matt Lehr, a lineman for the New Orleans Saints, and suspectied that he was distributing PED's.
MLB's coverage was an update on the Roger Clemens perjury investigation. Federal agents interviewed Kelly Blair, the owner of 1-on-1 Elite Personal Fitness in Pasadena, TX. The agents inquired whether Blair ever provided PED's to Clemens and his relationship with other players. Blair said he has never met Clemens. The feds have been focusing their investigation in the Houston area looking to link Clemens with PED's after 2001.
The Trevor Graham case is unfolding like a hot new HBO drama; you can't wait to get to the next episode. I'll recap the events at court from Wednesday through the end of the week later, but Wednesday's teaser had Trevor Graham, the coach accused of lying to federal agents speaking his mind. On a recorded conversations after December 2005: referring to the investigators: "I told them nothing, nothing." Another conversation has Graham tell the confessed drug dealer turned cooperating witness, Angel Guillermo Heredia, "it would be stupid, stupid" for Heredia to talk about their activity.
Trevor, in the future, you might want to avoid repeating the most incriminating word of the audiotapes. Telling the authorities "nothing" implies you were hiding something; saying it would be "stupid" to talk about their activity implies that you were involved in illegal activity which you could not discuss freely. This does not look good for you, TG.
Today is epic: three articles, three different sports which if the public is paying attention illustrates how pervasive PED's are in all sports. Instead most readers probably skipped these articles and went straight to the Yankee box score to see who hit a HGH aided HR. This message is not being skipped by the youth.
Most professional sports leagues always state that there is not a problem in their league; the cheaters are in the other sports. Today, two leagues, the NFL and MLB were linked with some of their athletes allegedly using PED's while track & field was further being disgraced by new developments in the Trevor Graham trial.
When will roids in sports be taken seriously? Does half the articles in the Sports section need to be about PED's before the general public even raises an eyebrow? Do we need articles implicating every sport: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA. The reason why PED's are so rampant is because they work; athlete's wouldn't use them otherwise.
The NFL article referenced a steroid dealer, David Jacobs, who provided documentary evidence to NFL officials that implicated several players with the use of PED's. Jacobs has said he provided two players with roids and HGH and that these players would then supply others. Previously, the NYT reported that prosecutors reliing on information provided by Jacobs, investigated Matt Lehr, a lineman for the New Orleans Saints, and suspectied that he was distributing PED's.
MLB's coverage was an update on the Roger Clemens perjury investigation. Federal agents interviewed Kelly Blair, the owner of 1-on-1 Elite Personal Fitness in Pasadena, TX. The agents inquired whether Blair ever provided PED's to Clemens and his relationship with other players. Blair said he has never met Clemens. The feds have been focusing their investigation in the Houston area looking to link Clemens with PED's after 2001.
The Trevor Graham case is unfolding like a hot new HBO drama; you can't wait to get to the next episode. I'll recap the events at court from Wednesday through the end of the week later, but Wednesday's teaser had Trevor Graham, the coach accused of lying to federal agents speaking his mind. On a recorded conversations after December 2005: referring to the investigators: "I told them nothing, nothing." Another conversation has Graham tell the confessed drug dealer turned cooperating witness, Angel Guillermo Heredia, "it would be stupid, stupid" for Heredia to talk about their activity.
Trevor, in the future, you might want to avoid repeating the most incriminating word of the audiotapes. Telling the authorities "nothing" implies you were hiding something; saying it would be "stupid" to talk about their activity implies that you were involved in illegal activity which you could not discuss freely. This does not look good for you, TG.
Today is epic: three articles, three different sports which if the public is paying attention illustrates how pervasive PED's are in all sports. Instead most readers probably skipped these articles and went straight to the Yankee box score to see who hit a HGH aided HR. This message is not being skipped by the youth.
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