According to a paper presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Session, it has been revealed that professional footballers who have large body size are not prone to any risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the message was presented in a cautionary as well as hopeful tone but there certainly is good news for retired pro footballers.

Even though many pro footballers are known to have consumed steroids during their active years, it does not increase one’s risk of developing such a disorder. The study was conducted on a good 201 former NFL players in Dallas, Miami, Atlanta and San Francisco.

From News-medical.net:

Compared to other men, retired National Football League (NFL) players had a significantly lower prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, sedentary lifestyles and metabolic syndrome. However, the NFL retirees had a higher prevalence of elevated cholesterol and impaired fasting glucose that could lead to diabetes.

The retired NFL players were assessed by a survey and health screening visit. Coronary atherosclerosis (buildups of fatty plaques that narrow the coronary arteries) was determined with computer tomography measurements of coronary artery calcium (CAC).

When researchers compared the former NFL players CAC scores to controls, they found little difference, with 46 percent of former players and 48 percent of controls having significant CAC scores. When compared to physically active Aerobic Center controls, retired NFL players had a greater body mass index (BMI) and waist size, but no difference in other cardiovascular risk factors or CAC scores.

The condition of these players were then compared to those at the Dallas Heart Study and the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study in which the Coronary arthrosclerosis was determined with the help of digital tomography measurements of the coronary artery calcium. The research brought to light that there is no difference in the amount of sub-clinical levels of arthrosclerosis in the ex-footballers as well as the ones kept in controlled environment. In this research, even the ethnicity and the lineman status was considered. This means that 46 percent of NFL players and 48 percent of Aerobic Centre Controls had no difference in the CAC scores or cardiovascular risk factors.

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Kory Kozak, producer of ESPN writes about Tony Mandarich’s history with steroids. Most of his career in the NFL was driven by steroids. He was the biggest player college football back in 1984. He was unnaturally big at 308 pounds. Everyone of the field was afraid of him and every aspiring football player idolized him. When he was out on the field, he was dangerous. He would maim, flatten, and handled two players at a time. A regular football player could not do that even if he had an all-natural 260pounds of muscle.

Mandarich was high on steroids at that time. He downed the juiced every chance he got. He was the icon of steroids. He was into every kind of compound in the market, especially those that were meant for race horses: equipoise, Winstrol, Anavar.

From ESPN:

All the while, against the general rules of nature, Tony kept getting bigger, stronger and faster. He hosted his own combine at Michigan State that spring. The numbers were staggering:

Weight: 308 pounds
Bench press: 39 repetitions at 225 pounds
40-yard dash: 4.69 seconds.

The hype machine was at full throttle.

Sports Illustrated, memorably, put him on the cover, shirtless and massive. It called him “the best offensive line prospect ever.” It bragged of his insane 15,000-calorie diet and his love for Axl Rose.

By 1989, he had gained enough power to call the shots. He got the highest rating than any other NFL player. When he decided to get off steroids, he replaced them with painkillers. The steroids had numbed him from the pain during training and every game. Without them he became almost too sensitive to the muscle soreness. He would inject himself with all kinds of painkillers and eventually take oral pills. This went on until he got drowned in drugs and he became a recluse.

However, in 1995 Tony Mandarich changed for the better. He checked himself in a rehab and vowed never to return to being a junkie. From that point on he was going to do everything clean.

A year after he joined the Indianapolis Colts and he played – 320lbs of pure, all natural muscle. He tells the story of his steroid addiction in the book “My Dirty Little Secrets.” He had disposed any reminder of his past as a junkie except the cover of Sports Illustrated that did a story on him entitled “The Incredible Bulk.”

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The NFLDraftBible.com published a report that Brian Cushing and Clay Matthews were tested positive of steroids and tested positive for marijuana were Boston College’s defensive tackle BJ Raji, Florida’s wide receiver Percy Harvin, and Illinois cornerback Vontae Davis during the NFL combine. But the National Football League released a statement saying that the stories were malicious and ‘self-serving.’ There was no way anyone would know what the results were because they were confidential. The NFL officials did not even know them. Only the players did because the medical supervisors emailed the results to them. The league further said that it was expected that rumors like this would circulate during the annual combine. These reports should be investigated to avoid any embarrassment on the players because being linked to steroids these days is not a joke.

From The USA Today:

A string of denials and admonishments followed the NFLDraftBible.com stories, particularly in defense of the USC linebackers.

USC coach Pete Carroll called the report “absolutely false.” He told the L.A. Times, “This is an [sic] major example of irresponsible reporting, and the site that published this report should be ashamed of themselves.”

Cushing’s agent, Tom Condon refuted the story and called it a “vicious and false rumor.” Matthews’ agent, Mark Humenik, called for NFLDraftBible.com to retract the report, which he called a “grossly irresponsible and unfair accusation.” As of late Sunday, there had been no change in the reporting by NFLDraftBible.com.

Davis’ agent issued a similar denial. “Neither Vontae nor our office has received any notification of any positive test whether for marijuana or any other banned substance,” the agent, Todd France, told the Rockford Register Star.

The yearly combine is a crucial time of the year in which agents and the players try to gain advantage over the other to be drafted in the teams. The reports could be a ploy to discredit those players who were mentioned.

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Athletes from professional sports like the NFL, NBA, MLB, and the NHL are providing our evening entertainment by playing on the court, on the field, or on the ice. It is reminiscent of the era of the gladiators in the Roman Empire when they are brought into the arena to kill each other. Nothing much has changed today. The NFL jocks, for example, may be consider the gladiators of the 21st century. They are big, muscular, weighing over 200 pounds, loaded with testosterone aggression and when they are out on the field to determined to “kill.”

With the huge following and excitement generated by one season of football and the millions – no, billions – of dollars it makes in revenue, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell proposed that 1 or 2 more games should be added to the NFL’s regular season. Kevin Van Valkenburg of the Baltimore Sun reacted to the proposal saying that the players should be given the freedom to use steroids, human growth hormones or even marijuana to deal with the pressure that comes with the game.

From The Baltimore Sun:

If the NFLPA does go ahead with Goodell’s proposal, they ought to, at the very least, ask for this concession: If we want to take steroids or human growth hormone to stay healthy, or smoke marijuana for medicinal reasons to deal with the pain, let us.

You might laugh, but that’s the only way to make this proposal work. It’s ridiculous to pretend that drugs aren’t already a major part of life in the NFL. Teams could literally not field a full roster each week without painkillers, legal or otherwise. Marijuana isn’t just a recreational drug for a lot of NFL players, it’s the only way they can get out of bed on Monday mornings. And it’s much less addictive than a painkiller like Vicodin, which is legal.

The NFL boasted that they conduct regular drug test and are able to monitor the use of performance enhancing drugs. But these efforts are useless because to meet the people’s expectations of making every game better than the last and to rake in more income the players would need to use the PEDs or at least some drug for the stress that their bodies and their minds are going through every season.

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It is amazing that the use of steroids can go undetected under people’s noses. What is more remarkable is that they have knowledge of what this substance can do and yet its use is still tolerated in sports. There is no point of singling out just one sport because almost every one of them had a history of steroid use. What makes it more crazy is that despite the obvious physical evidence – increase in weight and muscle mass in a short period of time, more goals, more homeruns, athletes becoming bigger, buffer and faster, not to mention the positive urine tests – big time athletes continue to deny it to the point of facing perjury raps. It is downright vulgar.

Not until a string of scandals, deaths, and perjury charges had awakened everybody’s awareness did the sports organizations do something about this problem.

From the Northern Star:

There is no better word to describe this string of drug-fueled deaths other than “ludicrous.” More and more big name athletes are admitting to at least having tried banned substances in not just wrestling but all sports, including baseball’s Alex Rodriguez, who said he was “stupid” and “naïve” to do so. But it’s overwhelmingly clear the message the “big four” sports leagues and WWE are sending to its performers: be “stupid” now, don’t be sorry later.

As it stands, the first violation of WWE’s wellness policy is punished by a 30-day suspension without pay. Major League Baseball imposes a slightly harsher punishment for a first offense: 50 games without pay. The NFL, NBA and NHL all adhere to similar programs, and all tend to let their players off the hook far too easily.

As the anti-doping agency continue to improve their programs in catching steroid users and dealers, the manufacturing of newer substances and methods to cheat on the detection tests have also increased. The government and sports organization officials should be more serious in imposing more stringent rules on substance use.

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“I Play Clean” is the battle cry of Hall of Fame Linebacker Daniel Butkus against the rising incidents of athletes using steroids. Amid the baseball hullabaloo at least someone from the NFL did something proactive. He channels his passion for football to the campaign against steroids. Its target are high-school students, giving them the message to steer clear from performance enhancing drugs. Butkus said he finds it disgusting that sports and steroids are being correlated with each other.

The ex-Chicago Bear expressed his concern that one day NFL might just find itself facing the Senate or the Congress like the baseball players are doing for being tangled in the steroids controversy.

From Reuters:

“It just disgusts me and I hope it doesn’t come to a point where I’m sitting there watching a Senate hearing and have them drilling some ex-football players on their steroids habit,” he said, referring to baseball’s appearance before Congress. “I want to lick this before that happens.”

The NFL has had its share of steroids cheats, notably San Diego Chargers Pro-Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman, suspended for four games in 2006, and now-retired 1997 Defensive Player of the Year Dana Stubblefield, sentenced last month to two years’ probation for lying to investigators about his steroid use.

Knee injuries caused Dick’s premature departure from the NFL in 1973. His serious heart condition made him an advocate to medical causes the led to the Dick Butkus Center for Cardiovascular Wellness.

Butkus tells of the consequences that steroid use can bring to the heart. Some steroids are know to cause ventricular enlargement. Aside from that steroids can cause harmful effects especially when taken by adolescents. He shares the stories of parents whose kids were committed suicide caused by steroids.

Steroids have other potential side-effects such as growth stunts in adolescents, cancer, and liver damage.

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And NFL’s big burly guys don’t get slammed at all when it is so obvious that their quarterbacks reek with PEDs. One would wonder why the media isn’t cutting the Major League Baseball some slack when the NFL is equally guilty of having players on dope.

According to statistics in an anonymous survey 16% offensive linemen and 15% defensive linemen have admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. If the NFL officials rounded up the players that represented the numbers it would cost the sports industry its business.

The nature of both games make the big difference. NFL is a contact sport where you see tackles and muscled creatures wrestling each other on the field. Their use of the steroids seems valid. With baseball, players hardly need the brawn to be able to pitch or bat. The extra muscle could hamper their performance in the game.

From USA Today:

No one is screaming “Kill the pitcher!” in baseball. A much more refined, nuanced game, baseball doesn’t cover its players’ faces (other than the catcher’s), allowing the one-on-one, pitcher-hitter matchup to become a masterpiece played over and over. When the pitcher leans in to get the sign, we can see his eyes narrow. The batter, too, is on display for all to see in a way an NFL player never is, be he the quarterback, the kicker or the return man.

Thus, we feel we know the baseball player better than the football player. It follows that those we know better, we care more about, and perhaps even begin to trust more. So if they cheat, it bothers us more.

“In baseball, it’s one person,” said Michael Yessis, a specialist in athlete training. “In football, it’s the entire line buried in there somewhere. We look at them and judge them very differently.”

NFL at least had tested their players to find out who’s on the “juice.” Major League Baseball had to wait til a big story like Alex Rodriguez leaks out to the press.

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According to Minneapolis Star Tribune Vikings defensive tackles Pat Williams and Kevin Williams, also known as the Williams’ Wall, used a banned compound to be eligible for the $400,000 bonus. They will get said reward if they weigh at or below the prescribed weight during several weigh-ins conducted throughout the year.

This information was included in the NFL letter to the Williams’ lawyer in connection with both players’ appeal of their four-game suspensions. More on this from Star Tribune.

The letter was sent by NFL executive vice president Jeffrey Pash on Dec. 2 to Peter Ginsburg, lawyer for the Williams’, denying their appeal of the suspensions. According to the document, the players tested positive “on or about July 26″ and were advised by letter two months later. They appealed, and at their appeal hearing Nov. 20, both players said they took StarCaps “on more than one occasion” the night before a scheduled weigh-in. The supplement contained the banned diuretic known as bumetanide.
According to the letter, both Pat and Kevin Williams get their bonuses if they are at or below their prescribed weight 11 times during the year (eight during the season, three off-season). That weight clause, however, provided that the players “would not engage in any ‘last-minute weight reduction techniques,’ which included ‘use of diuretics.’” Pash also wrote “I accept the representations of both players that they did not use steroids.”

Diuretics, such as bumetanide, have the ability to aid in rapid weight loss by enhancing rapid water loss through urine excretion. Sports organizations like the NFL consider diuretics as masking agents since they can banned compounds such as anabolic steroids by diluting urine.

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This year is Olympic year so it’s more interesting than the previous years as far as doping is concerned.

Remember the canny seven Russian track and field athletes who resorted to urine swapping to pass drug tests?

The International Association of the Athletics Federation officials became suspicious when said women athletes were always present for unannounced random tests. The Russians were also very punctual, arriving at testing places even before the IAAF officials got there.

“There were no ‘no shows’,” one official told Reuters. “The Russians were always there.”

So the officials started storing the athletes’ samples. Further investigation revealed that the latest urine samples provided by the athletes did not match the DNA of the stored samples. The Russians were later suspended. The athletes include Tatyana Tomashova, the two-time world 1,500 meters champion; and Yelena Soboleva, the world indoor 1,500 meters champion.

And who wouldn’t remember the Greek athletes who figured prominently in this year’s doping list because of quite a handful of failed dope tests.

In March, eleven of the 14 members of the Greek weightlifting team tested positive for the steroid methyltrienolone in out-of-competition testing in Athens. Then there was champion hurdler Fani Halkia, sprinter Dimitris Regas, and Anastasios Gousis who got banned for testing positive also for methyltrienolone. All Greek athletes were suspended for doping.

In Tour de France four riders, including the third finisher Bernhard Kohl, were suspended for testing positive for CERA, the new generation variant of the blood-boosting drug EPO

There was Marion Jones’ sprint in and out of jail for her use of performance-enhancing drugs and her involvement in a check fraud case. Jones began her six-month jail term March and was released September 5.

The NFL’s diuretic case also was in the news which involved several athletes who blamed the StarCaps weight-loss pill for their failed dope tests. Pat Williams and Kevin Williams of the Vikings were among the players who tested positive for the masking agent bumetanide.

The Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds anabolic steroids cases also dominated the sports scene in 2008 and are expected to remain in the headlines in 2009. The much-awaited Barry Bonds trial will commence March next year

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The NFL players who got suspended recently because of tainted StarCaps supplement were not the first “victims” of the weight-loss product as reported by the Tennessean.

According to David Black, a toxicologist of a drug-testing lab in Nashville, a professional player had tested positive for the banned diuretic bumetanide in 2007. Black refused to identify the athlete but he said that athlete had requested Black’s lab to conduct a test on the StarCaps. The result? It tested positive for bumetanide.

“It took us a couple of Ph.Ds and a $300,000 piece of equipment to verify that Bumetanide was contained in StarCaps,” he said. “How is somebody supposed to know buying it off the shelf or off the Internet what it really contains? We spent an enormous amount of resources trying to understand this product.”

Black, who’s been part of the NFL’s original steroid testing program way back in 1980s, said that there are other risks bumetanide offers to athletes aside from testing positive for it and getting banned.

“Bumetanide is a potent diuretic for an athlete or someone in a situation where they might become dehydrated,” he said. “They’d be taking a diuretic without the knowledge of it. That could lead to serious health considerations. That could lead to electrolyte abnormalities, cardiovascular collapse, cardiac arrhythmias, heart attack, stroke and death.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that StarCaps contained the banned compound and reported those findings in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology on its Nov-Dec 2007 issue.

Unfortunately, NFL players are not the types who scan scientific journals on their spare time and that’s too bad for the five players who got suspended for violating NFL’s policy on anabolic steroids and related substances.

Kevin Williams and Pat Williams of the Minnesota Vikings and Charles Grant, Deuce McAllister and Will Smith of the New Orleans Saints – collectively known as the “Diuretic Five” –  tested positive for bumetanide during training camp.

The players, however, were allowed to rejoin their teams when a federal judge in St. Paul, Minn. issued a preliminary injunction to block their suspensions.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson said he needed more time to rule on the case involving the five players.

The league apparently has known that the StarCaps contained the diuretic but chose not to inform its players

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