If you aren’t aware of the steroid scandal in professional sports and Congress’ recent involvement in what is to be done about it, you probably haven’t left your house, turned on your TV or read a newspaper recently (which consequently means you wouldn’t be reading this sentence, but the fact is you are reading it so I can tell you’re not that much of a recluse). Therefore, you must have noticed most of the change being effected is at the professional level. That’s all well and good, but I want to know why we aren’t hearing more about what is being done in the college ranks to cut down on this problem at the source.
Well, according to Northeastern Director of Sports Medicine Ben Miller, Husky athletes are only tested by the NCAA twice a year and only 26 players in the whole university are subjected to these screenings each time. Eighteen of these players always come from the football team, while the other eight are tested in a different sport each year, Miller said. Although the NCAA’s testing is a little underwhelming, Athletic Director Dave O’Brien says the university takes care of additional testing on its own.
“We think we’re pretty vigilant about staying on top of the medical conditions of our athletes and providing a significant deterrent to drug use,” O’Brien said in a phone interview yesterday, noting players are also eligible to be tested at NCAA championship contention. “It probably ends up being 10 to 15 percent of our athletes and with our testing it comes out to 20 percent or so. When you combine the two, it’s a reasonable probability that half of our athletes are tested.”
Up until a few years ago, Miller added, the track team was the only other program besides the football team to be tested by the NCAA until the current rotating system was implemented. The important thing to realize is no more than 16 non-football players are being tested a year for steroids by the NCAA.
Excuse me for being frank, but doesn’t that seem ridiculous to anyone else? I realize other sports have smaller rosters and football is very physical. But that’s like if only engineering majors were monitored for cheating on tests and every other major just had a percentage of students examined once every 16 years, otherwise having the other cheek turned to it. Just because an area is more prominent and cheating could help one advance in it doesn’t mean it should be the only field to really watch. I’d say performance in baseball, track, cross country, rowing and swimming could all benefit heavily from anabolic or androgenic steroid use. It’s not really seen in basketball, but steroids could feasibly make me jump higher, thicken and strengthen me to box out for rebounds better and elbow pesky guards trying to steal said rebounds in the face harder. If I’m taking HGH, I might even gain an inch or two (I speak only in terms of height, of course).
The point is, it can help in other sports — there is no doubt about it.
By no means am I making any accusations here, but I’d like to be able to know that Carlos Pena made it from the Northeastern baseball team to the Detroit Tigers without taking steroids as he hit all the home runs he has along the way. I’d like to know that Reggie Lewis wasn’t doing more than cocaine on his road to NBA stardom and having his number retired in red and black. It’s nice to know the Red Sox have had testing done three times this year without any names surfacing as steroid users, but there really isn’t any way to find out if a player took performance enhancing drugs to get where they are and make the big bucks. I just don’t want to have to think about it anymore, I just want the game to be pure, in each sport.
We don’t even need blood tests anymore; nothing more invasive than peeing in a cup is required to test athletes. I hate to seem like I’m jumping on a bandwagon by addressing this issue and acting as a flag waver in a sea of color guards, but I really think testing more than 26 players is needed through the NCAA. I realize these things don’t come for free, so if money is an issue, then a quarter of the athletes in every sport should still be randomly tested. I mean, let’s at least make it 26 percent rather than 26 total. Random tests aren’t that scary unless the chances are stronger. I don’t feel like this is specifically a problem on Huntington Avenue, and maybe it’s not even a huge issue in colleges – there is no way to really know. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics report about four percent of college athletes use steroids, but again it’s tough to tell. Let’s not forget the Original Whizzinator. Either way, more league-wide rules need to be implemented rather than school-by-school to insure better prevention.
“I think any of us in administrative positions within the sports industry would be remiss if we didn’t enhance the testing, the detection and the education around steroids,” O’Brien said. “To think we don’t have a problem with steroids would be naive. I don’t think we’re immune to that at Northeastern.
“We’ve made a decision that we’re going to increase our testing and make sure the tests we conduct are very sensitive to detecting steroids. We feel pretty good, we have a comprehensive approach to try to deter steroids.”
It isn’t just the cheating-like angle of the issue either, it’s also the health concerns.
“[Steroids are] not healthy,” Miller said in a phone interview Monday. “There’s a real health issue with steroid abuse. At any level, but particularly a young age level. There are many adverse health effects so I think it’s a concern we have to take as a college-level group.”
In the face of this, Miller and O’Brien said a “steroid panel” is being considered to try to prevent and educate players on the use of steroids. O’Brien called the idea an “educational seminar for our student athletes.” If this is carried out properly it could be a great idea. Jose Canseco should be brought in to talk to players about the adverse effects. I’m serious. At least someone like Ken Caminiti’s widow — someone like that could really drive the point home.
But the problem as a whole is not going to be resolved until the NCAA polices its league on drugs better in every sport and players are deterred from obtaining them to begin with. If something doesn’t change soon, sports could be looked at like professional wrestling. A freak show and a joke for casual entertainment. I don’t want that to happen; these sports should feature athletes working hard to compete at a high level and earn the respect of their fans, not taking shortcuts to make future paychecks.
– Tim Coughlin can be reached at [email protected].
