What’s The 401?!?!

Multiple NFL Players Violate Substance Abuse Policy…Shocking!

In all honesty, I’m surprised that it took this long.  Numerous news sources are reporting that as many as, and possibly more than, fifteen NFL players have cases pending with the league for violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy.  The drug believed to be the culprit?  Bumetanide, a diuretic used to help people lose weight, but which also has been known to mask the use of drugs including steroids.  Two players for the New Orleans Saints, running back Deuce McAllister and defensive end Will Smith, are believed to be among the group.

Examining the apparant uses for Bumetanide, it appears that there are a few different reasons why NFL players would fuck with it.  The first and most obvious would be the whole weight loss thing.  Chances are these are guys who came into camp overweight after enjoying the off-season a little bit too much… so they popped this thing to help them get down to their playing weight for the start of the season.  In McAllister’s case… his return from injury could have been a catalyst for coming into the preseason out of shape and overweight.  The more ominious reason for use, however, is the drug masking piece.  If this drug can actually mask the use of steroids then perhaps the players caught using it were doing more than just trying to make weight… that will be the excuse.  Maybe they were trying to mask their usage of other performance enhancing drugs. 

Look, there’s no question that the NFL is a dirty league.  It’s the sports biggest… yet its most obvious… secret.  The physical ability displayed by players in the league is at times freakish.  Or is a three hundred twenty five pound lineman running a forty yard dash in 4.5 seconds normal to you?  The sport is dangerous, which makes every starting spot tenuous… even at times for the stars… because the difference in talent from the top of the depth chart to the bottom is miniscule.  Guys need to come back from injuries quickly or risk their jobs… that goes for the entire roster… guys at the top need to continue to perform… or they risk their jobs because the guy right under them is chomping at the bit to get his shot at the big time.  What if your back up is juicing?  Well, just the thought of it, could compel your starter to juice to keep that edge. 

Al Pacino said it best in Any Given Sunday.  It’s a game of inches.  And anything that any player… or encouraging coach for that matter… can do to give him the edge that allows him to take that step one inch forward… he’ll do it.  Baseball gets a bad rap, but I’d be willing to bet even at the peak of the steroid era only 25 to 30 percent of baseball players were on what Barry Bonds commonly refers to as… the shit.  I bet the number for the NFL is closer to 60 percent, if not more.  Now I’m just throwing numbers out there for sake of arguement… but it’s interesting how baseball gets blasted when it’s players use steroids, but the NFL seems to have gotten a definitive pass on the issue for the last 30 plus years.  So… go ahead Arlen Spector… keep being concerned about the Patriots using video cameras to get an edge in the Super Bowl.  Your focus should be on the hundreds of players looking to get an edge by dangerously using performance enhancing drugs and not only putting their lives at risk… but embracing a drug culture that trickles down to America’s youth who have goals to play professional football… and who are battling for that same inch and looking for that same edge the day they step onto the football field.  Who better to emulate than the players who already are… where America’s youth is trying to be.