Steroids in the NFL date way back, in fact drug tests only started in 1989. Defensive Lineman Lyle Alzado is a big name when it comes to doping in football. He talks about it's addictive nature, rage inducing behavior. In his words, it made him do things only crazy people would do. Before it became illegal, everyone was using it. However, now it's a different story. There are drug tests, but like any professional athlete would do, they find loopholes.
Just like almost every professional sport, drug tests in the NFL are a complete joke. For some reason, testing is more strict in season. This is dumb because if anything, tests should always be year round and random to try to catch players by surprise. If they know it's coming they're going to work around it. The NFL doesn't even test for Human Growth Hormone (HGH's). This pretty much makes athletes recover in a crazy amount of time, get more protein, harder bones, better sleep, etc. It's an unfair competitive advantage if you ask me.
Eddie George started his NFL career in the mid 1990s and retired in 2005. He brought up a lot of great points about PED's in football and even described it's use as "rampant". He talked about colleagues adding 50 pounds of muscle in one year while also getting faster in that same year, and also how players suffered year long injuries yet recovered in 3 months. Yes, there is natural ways to gain muscle and yes there is natural ways to recover faster, but this is absurd. It's so obvious!
People will tell you that a huge increase in athletes abilities is normal because comparing now to the 1970s and 1980s, nutrition and training has come a long way. The thing is, when you have a 306lbs man running 40 yards in 4.65 seconds, there are questions to be asked. It's just doubtful. Players in the 80s admitted to steroids and that was still unheard of, so how are we supposed to believe that a "natural" player today is bigger and faster than a doping player 40 years ago.
So maybe I just broke someone's hopes and dreams, but let's be honest, these stars aren't getting huge off of quest protein bars and avocado subways! And as long as they keep getting their millions, they could not care less about getting caught. Who would want to watch slower, weaker and more injured players anyway? Yea they 're juiced but that's why people watch them!
SOURCE: http://www.si.com/nfl/video/2015/01/08/eddie-george-steriods-nfl
SOURCE: http://www.si.com/nfl/video/2015/01/08/eddie-george-steriods-nfl
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Anyone who does not believe in steroid abuse in the NFL is simply ignorant. Clearly, only the biggest and the fastest of them can play this sport but even at that there are people who I highly doubt. Simply based on physical appearance, some of these players have an impossible body to achieve. At least not without the use of drugs. I really do think that drug testing should be taken more seriously and more often.
ReplyDeleteI agree, these athletes must be on steriods. Imagine all the injuries that they get from getting hit and how fast they recover. And looking at how big they are its obvious that they are doping. I heard a lot of physical abuse to their wives, do you think its the side effect of steriods.Awesome work Chris, keep it up!
ReplyDeleteFinding out that the first drug test was not until 1989 was very shocking. I truly believed they had been testing athletes for much longer. Also I agree with about hoe the testing should be random it kinda defeats the purpose to test them if they know about it in advance.
ReplyDeleteThe NFL has huge problems with the safety of these athletes. Many of them get injured several times a season due the crazy nature of the sport and a lot of them use steroids to recover quickly. I personally think that it way too dangerous to play football with or without steroids.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point. Would we rather watch steroid free players who get hurt more often and are less spectacular? That being said, doesn’t that make all records and titles meaningless? What’s the point of having homerun records, passing records, etc. if they can all be ‘bought’ through drugs?
ReplyDeleteA few issues:
- Spelling/ grammar (inforced instead of enforced, run-ons, athlete, its vs it’s, etc.)
- Unclear where some of your information comes from (With no sourcing, it can be considered plagiarism. – ex. Joe Rogan’s comments and a similar version of your sentence “These fighters have been getting popped left and right.” can be found on http://mmajunkie.com/2015/02/ufc-commentator-joe-rogan-ufc-and-mma-in-general-is-a-steroid-epidemic. )
I didn't know we have to source sorry, I cited it and changed up that sentence.
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