NFL Drug Testing Woes »
In meetings this week the NFL continues to deal with arguments surrounding their drug testing procedures. Although adamant and supportive about keeping recreational drugs out of the sport, the NFL still appears to be far more laxed in regards to performance enhancing drugs. The league is doing all it can to keep the issue out [...]
Spiral of Denial author interviewed on doping in football »
Q1. With your knowledge about the game and drugs: How extensive is the use of HGH in the NFL? Matt Chaney, Author of Spiral of Denial: I believe use of recombinant hGHis a widespread problem in the NFL, impacting competition. Recently, Tampa Bay Bucs running back Earnest Graham estimated 30 percent of NFL players use [...]
Health Liability will make or break Football »
By 2008, I was impressed American football continued to get away with butchery, even killing. Like me, many former players saw through the football mythology, understood The Spectacle, the power of denial for issues that impacted the health of athletes. Popular sentiment held football as essential for American life, right? Yeah, we older guys heard [...]
The Courson Plan for drug testing in Football »
The reality was obvious: American football was beset by muscle doping and related systemic problems at all levels by the 2000s, professional, collegiate, and secondary school. The primary evidence was increasing sizes, the documented history of anabolic drugs in football [steroids from about 1960 followed by human growth hormone, clenbuterol, GHB, IGF-1, and more], and [...]
Steroid use unpreventable in high school football »
As the high schools of America were drawn into national debate on anabolic steroids, prep coaches and officials maintained that use was minimal. Politicians and media expressed outrage, proclaiming that kids mattered while denouncing pro athletes as poor role models. Studies concluded teens used steroids, and kids said the drugs were accessible and becoming more [...]
Increasing body sizes in football »
There existed no evidence of systemic muscle doping in American football—so said insiders, media, and fans. That was the basic public excuse during the problem’s first 50 years. Approaching 2010, America continued to avoid potentially painful reform over drugs in football, preferring instead to gorge on the nationalistic blood sport as it stood. The smoking-gun [...]
Science dispute over GH isoform test »
It’s shadow boxing so far, the so-called debate over science of rhGH testing for pro athletes in America, as opponents shout from across the mat. Staying put in one corner, the anti-doping agencies claim they stand on sound science in their current Olympic blood test for recombinant human growth hormone. Posturing in the other corner, [...]
Human Growth Hormone: FAQ »
The New York Times recently published an article announcing a new anti-doping test for HGH. This gives us an opportunity to write a Q&A post, so that you’ll all be experts on HGH doping and HGH testing. I’m half-serious, by the way. The quality of reporting on doping issues is so terrible, you can read [...]
Platelet-Rich Plasma Treatment – a Bust? »
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are something fairly new in the world of sports medicine. It probably received its most press in early 2009 when Pittsburgh Steelers wide-out Hines Ward used it to try and speed the healing of a medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprain. Whether or not the treatment actually helped, Ward played in the [...]
Science of HGH Testing »
So yesterday I commented on the news of rugby player Terry Newton receiving a two-year ban because he tested positive for growth hormone. Now I’ve had twenty-four hours to look the story up I figure its time to discuss the actual test itself. Growth hormone has long thought to be untraceable due to its incredibly [...]
