Performance Enhancing Drugs In Football

What illegal performance enhancing drugs are used by football players?

You know, in my experience, I've played a long time, as far as I played in the NFL but also played in the arena football league too. And I never saw a lot of illegal drugs. Now, were players taking them? I'm sure they were as you see players getting in trouble for steriods and THG which is a designer steriod that came out a couple years ago but my whole philosphy was I wasn't going to risk my life or risk my future over playing a game for a couple years. Some people thought differently, but I didn't. I thought if I couldn't make it on my own merit and my own skills then I wouldn't make it and I was forunate enough to play but I think it's not fair if players are cheating. Guys like other NFL players, like Lou Mindoski got in trouble at Oakland for taking THG, those designer steriods, which was not detectable by the NFL steriod policy because we couldn't test for it back then. So players, I think, definatly were cheating and I think that's not fair to other players that were clean and trying to do it on their own skills and own work ethic. And just like the problem that baseball's having right now with the Mitchell report coming out, steriods ruined baseball. It totally ruined the game that was America's pastime because it broke records that shouldn't have been broken--that wouldn't have been broken--if they were done cleany. And I think it's the league's job, the NFL, all the governing bodies of the NBA, major league baseball, to put a policy in place that tests every athlete the same way and has strict guidelines and rules because a guy should not be successful or gain advantage over another player if he's not doing it in a heathy way or in a fair way. And as we all saw with Marian Jones getting stripped of all her Olympic medals and every record she ever broken's been stripped, if things come out about players who've broken records, those records should be stripped. You should have to do it cleanly and everyone should be on the same playing field and people that don't, I think, are a disgrace to the game.

What are the effects of using performance enhancing drugs in football?

When I was in the NFL they used to give you reports or they used to give you documentation on the consequences of taking performance enhancing drugs. You can have liver failure, kidney failure, your toes can start falling off because of bad circulation in your system. There are a lot of things that are debilitating in the long run. And for people or players or even kids to take that chance with their body I think is wrong and should not be done. And I have never even seen a steroid. I do not even know what it looks like. I do not know if it is a pill or what is it? But I know that you should not take it. I know that it is not going to help you or help your family or help your body in the long run.

What are the consequences of a football player using performance enhancing drugs?

It changes a sport in a sense that if you get caught with it or if you test positive for illegal drugs or illegal enhancing performance drugs you're going to miss four games right away. If this is your second suspension you‘ll miss half the season. Football only plays 16 games, so if you miss four games you miss a quarter of your season. And it isn't like baseball where you test positive you miss 15 days. Fifteen days on a 162 day schedule is not much, you might miss, you know 6 or 7 games. It might be less then one percent of your season, but in football it's a quarter of your season. So, it affects your team, affects your chances of, you know, getting your contract renewed because of the team thinks you're dirty, thinks you are not a good player any more because you're not taking the drugs any more. So, I think it affects you differently in a negative light, and I think players that run that risk are doing a disservice to themselves.