The San Diego-Union Tribune , relying on "hundreds of media reports, archives, plus public records and interviews with players and league personnel," has compiled a comprehensive list of NFL players linked to performance-enhancing drugs, or the "NFL equivalent of the Mitchell Report," according to the paper's Brent Schrotenboer. The Union-Tribune's list includes 185 names of players at every position , including 52 Pro Bowlers and four Pro Football HOFers. Penn State Univ. professor Dr. Charles Yesalis said, "Because of the secretive nature of all of it, it's very difficult to come up with any kind of solid handle." Some experts "see shortcomings in the league's drug-testing program." These include that "there is not testing on game day" and that "only 10 stimulants are on the NFL's banned list, compared with more than 50 banned" by WADA. WADA member Gary Wadler, who serves as Chair of the organization's prohibited list and methods committee, said, "I'm suggesting this is so complex, so far beyond the pay grade of anybody in professional sports, that they really need to externalize it and get out of the (drug-testing) business and leave it to the people who know what they're doing." Wadler also said the NFL is "probably petrified of a two-year or four-year suspension of their superstars, given the monetary issues in these professional sports." But NFL VP/Law & Labor Policy Adolpho Birch said that the NFL "does 12,000 drug tests a year on about 2,000 players, compared with 4,500 by WADA and the [IOC] at the Olympics, where there were about 11,000 athletes." Birch added that "it would be difficult to do game-day testing because of 'the nature of team travel,'" and that NFL testing "accounts for game-day stimulant use by testing the next day." Birch, in regard to WADA, said, "We have experts in the field, the same experts they consult, the same laboratories" ( SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/21 ). FORWARD PROGRESS? California-based intractable pain clinic doctor Forrest Tennant, who served as the NFL's drug adviser from '86-90, said, "When we started testing for steroids, I had team doctors who wouldn't take my phone call, I had owners who wouldn't talk to me, and the [NFLPA] began to hate me. I knew my days in the NFL were numbered. They said publicly they wanted this policy. They just didn't want it implemented" ( SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/21 ). Sports Business Group President David Carter said of the differences between reaction to baseball and football players using performance-enhancing drugs, "There's a greater ability to see and relate to baseball players. So the disappointment and outrage is slightly different" ( SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/21 ).
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Merriman Part Of Paper's List Of NFL
Players Linked To Performance-Enhancers |
