Lawyers Maurice Suh and Howard Jacobs have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Association (USADA) on behalf of an anonymous professional cyclist that has been identified as Rock Racing’s Kayle Leogrande. The organization in charge of catching “cheaters” in sports has been accused of “cheating.” Read the rest of this entry »
John Lombardo, M.D. is the drug advisor to the NFL on anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. He has granted waivers to football players who have tested positive for anabolic steroids based on medical need. The medical rationale was “testicular disease” in each case.
John Lombardo, has granted waivers to players who have failed drug tests but then explained their medical need for testosterone. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello won’t disclose names or reveal how many players have been allowed to pump synthetic hormones into their bodies except to say it’s “a very small number.”
This is the National League Football (NFL) version of the therapeutic use exemption that can be submitted after failing a drug test. An interesting article by Tom Farrey of ESPN the Magazine suggests this is a precedent opening the door to widespread use of hormones in sports like football. Read the rest of this entry »
Sylvester Stallone has apparently endorsed anti-steroid crusader John McCain for President. Sylvester Stallone has been using his Rambo promotional tour to advocate growth hormone and testosterone in age management medicine. Senator John McCain is well-known for his anti-steroid grandstanding in Congress. Nonetheless, Senator McCain’s positive reaction to the endorsement was priceless as seen on Fox & Friends stating “I’m going to Philadelphia and running up the steps.”
Senator McCain has expressed his disappointment with Roger Clemens’ alleged use of anabolic steroids and growth hormone, but that is probably only because Clemens has not endorsed him. Read the rest of this entry »
Agents for Roger Clemens at Hendricks Sports Management released a detailed statistical analysis of Roger Clemens’ performance over the course of his career. In summary, the report lists various factors occurring later in his career that contributed to the maintenance of a high quality of pitching by Roger Clemens. These factors include adaptions in “style of pitching” including “mastery of the split-finger fastball,” reduced pitch count, contractually shortened seasons, and a reduction in travel.
The report also uses statistics to show that Clemens’ performance had unpredictable “ups and downs” or “peaks and valleys” over the course of his career. The report asserts that “straight trend lines in performance” simply do no exist in Major League Baseball. Read the rest of this entry »
More websites are covering Eric Walker’s Steroids and Baseball website that we discussed last week, including the New York Times. Walker suggests there is “no evidence” that anabolic steroids have increased home run hitting. He points to the power factor statistics to support his claims. Most baseball fans have never heard of Eric Walker; fortunately the NY Times gives us some insight:
Walker was a National Public Radio correspondent in the early 1980s when he began filling the San Francisco airwaves with his theories regarding baseball — specifically, that on-base percentage was undervalued, fielding was misunderstood and power ruled all. One increasingly intrigued listener was Sandy Alderson, then a young Athletics executive, who soon hired Walker as a team consultant and with him devised the Oakland philosophy now called Moneyball. Read the rest of this entry »
I applaud Laurie Fox of the Dallas Morning News for breaking ranks with the sycophantic cheerleaders for Texas’ UIL Anabolic Steroid Testing Program.
The short history of steroid testing in public schools has yielded little, if anything. In the handful of local school districts that already test for steroids, no positive test has been reported. The same is true for limited state programs in Florida and New Jersey.
“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Lloyd Johnston, a noted researcher at the University of Michigan. “My guess is that the payoff relative to the cost won’t be high.” Read the rest of this entry »
Most people at every point on the steroid regulatory spectrum, from the advocates of steroid legalization to anti-steroid zealots, agree that anabolic steroid use by teenagers is bad. There are a few people who believe steroids are good for children, pre-teens and teenagers. But in general, most people agree with government efforts to reduce steroid use in teenage athletes. Unfortunately, they seem to accept all anti-steroid efforts without question regardless of their efficacy or lack thereof. People seem to be content with “feel good” endeavors that accomplish little. Read the rest of this entry »
The $20 million dollar Mitchell Report on anabolic steroids in professional baseball relied largely on the testimony of two former baseball trainers, Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee. And the only reason the Mitchell Report contained such such evidence of steroid use by baseball players was because the Department of Justice forced Radomski and McNamee to cooperate with investigators from the Mitchell Report as a condition of their plea agreements. Was this an abuse of the government’s criminal powers? Was this legal? Was this ethical?
Read the rest of this entry »
Russia has funded the new Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RusADA) with new equipment and $5 million. RusADA is an independent agency created to test athletes for anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Representatives from RusADA are visiting the United States to learn more about the U.S. doping control program – United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) – and strengthen relationships with their U.S. counterparts. Read the rest of this entry »
Here are the video clips of panelists in the steroid debate that argue for the use of anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs in competitive sports i.e. Norm Fost, Julian Savulescu and Radley Balko. The video of panelists arguing against the motion, Dick Pound, Dale Murphy, George Michaels is available here. Read the rest of this entry »
