Major League Baseball fans should be readying themselves for the smell of hot dogs and popcorn. Instead, they’re being forced to endure the stench of more steroid talk. Say it ain’t so, A-Roid!This week I’ve heard several Canadian analysts wonder why baseball gets such a hard time and the NFL, with its hulking 400 pound linemen, gets a pass. Excellent point. You hear players get busted all the time for steroids. They get 4 games but zero stigma.
Yet most are skittish about discussing the possibility of steroid use amidst Canada’s great sporting cash cow – the NHL. When it is discussed, the opinion is almost universal. No one believes the league has a serious problem with performance enhancing substances. The reason commonly given is that hockey players don’t benefit that much from it.
I don’t buy that. If you have a player blessed only with smarts, agility and fine hand-eye co-ordination, he might have an outside shot at the NHL. Steroids won't enhance those skills. But you've got to have either speed or strength too. Preferrably both. Ben Johnson was the poster boy for speed and strength.
Dick Pound is the former president of the World Anti Doping Agency. In 2006, not long after former Sens’ draft pick Bryan Berard tested positive for a banned substance, Pound openly criticized the NHL testing process. He said players can easily beat the system if they’re given tons of notice as to when the testing will happen.
"People use the [steroids] in the summer time. They receive the benefits of it but then the stuff's out of your system by the time you come to be tested," Pound said. "And if they say one of your two tests is going to be at training camp then all you do is stop doing things a month or three weeks ahead of time."
Berard wasn’t even suspended by the league because it was not an NHL test. It was an Olympic test. Thus, he was suspended for 2 years from international play.
Pound is now out of WADA and out of the NHL’s hair. I hope the league is super clean. I do. But until the NHL hires an outside group to conduct all tests in a 100 per cent surprise manner, I don’t think anyone should feel comfortable announcing that it's not a problem.
3 comments:
Steve;
Firstly, I would like to apologize for another long winded take, but here I go...
I like that this only comes up when other sports are having problems. The N.H.L. most certainly does have a problem.
I remember looking at Bates Battaglia one day while he was with Carolina and thought, holy geez... this guys head is too big for his helmet. Sure enough, he was a steroid boy.
I cringe to think how many are on roids at the moment, but it is better to find out and punish now, rather than wait and find out later that all the records today's generation will set will mean nothing.
The lesson learned from Baseball is that you will have to deal with this issue one day, don't wait and let it tarnish the integrity of your sport long-term.
I hate to say it, look at a guy like Lecavalier. I remember when he was a scrawny, awkward looking kid. When he came up, they were saying he was out of shape and was eating too much junk food. Now I see this incredibly strong, puffed out, big headed guy, who is great and a prototypical power forward. I love Lecavalier, but am hesitant to cheer for him.
I would love to hear that these guys are tested properly, even in the summer months, and that they are clean. Then the N.H.L. will truly have something they can hang their hat on. Then they can say that it's the Gatorade, but until then, we need to be hesitant.
The N.H.L. has many young fans that are extremely impressionable. I don't want the kids to think that they can get away with this, or need it to be able to compete. There should be evasive action in ensuring players aren't on them at every level, and "Extremely Stringent" penalties for those who are caught.
You get caught; you're gone for 2 years without pay, PERIOD. 2nd infraction, gone for life. PERIOD.
That should settle this. Hockey has proven that it does not need steroids to make it great and the league should feed off of that, do the right thing and clean this up while it still can and maintain some integrity.
Be proactive... get the sport as clean as you can while it is still relatively in it's infancy, and enjoy this great sport on level it should be played on!
Let's all hope that something will be done sooner rather than later.
T.G.G.M.
I've been involved in various high level sports, nutrition, and resistance training for 10 years...
Here's a few thoughts.
1. Look at the draft this year. To be 19 years old, 6' tall, and weigh in at a lean 220 lbs is 100% impossible without steroids. In fact, when you're under 20, its remarkably hard to bulk up on lean muscle mass.
2. Look at sports like bicycle racing. It's riddled with doping and these athletes don't make a fraction of what NHL players are paid. This shows that these athletes are willing to dope themselves up for far less monetary incentive. Is it possible that NHL players just happen to have a greater sense of fair play and ethics?
3. I am certain that if the NHL had players subjected to random drug tests during the summer when they're hitting the roids and weight lifting, that it would be surprising how many of them test positive.
4
Who ever thinks Bates Battaglia was ever on roids is the definition of a "fan". And so you know....... Fans don't know !@%!. Battaglia was a work horse his entire life. Every player in the league is given their own custom traing program in the summer. Battaglia was projected to be a power forward and in order to do that you need to bulk up. Drink a couple protein shakes, eat right, train hard, and rest right........ You would be amazed what the results can be. Then times that by a few summers....... Your a machine.
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