JaredDR09
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Amid the news of Lance Armstrong's use of performance enhancing drugs, and other stories such as the amazing recovery of Adrian Peterson from his ACL injury, it got me to thinking. In this post I will attempt to explain why I believe many, if not all, professional athletes are taking some form of performance enhancing drug.
On Adrian Peterson's injury, I believe that many people attribute recoveries such as this to these men simply being "freak athletes". While this is true, it is, in my humble opinion, rather naive to think that this is the reason for his recovery and subsequent amazing performance this season. NFL players do have access to some of the best in the biz in the rehabilitation department, but what enables them to perform at a high level day in and day out, and recover from their injuries in far less time than the average person? I believe it is a combination of these rehab experts, and performance enhancing drugs. Without getting too much into it, steroids essentially allow the body to heal at a much faster rate than is normal. For example, professional bodybuilders take steroids and this allows them to train harder and longer, and recover from the microscopic muscle tears much faster, and the cycle begins again. You might say, "Well why don't these substances show up on the tests the NFL performs?" When you perform a test like those the NFL does, you have to know what compounds you are looking for. These tests are not cheap, and if the NFL were to perform tests for every known substance, on all ~1700 players, the costs would be incredibly high. Think the NFL wants these expenses added on to their budget? I don't. This doesn't even account for substances which may not be known to the NFL, and men with an NFL paycheck can afford these top of the line substances.
A rather eye opening read on this topic is an excerpt from the book The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball's Drug Problems, by Will Carroll, a sportswriter specializing in the coverage of medical issues, including injuries and performance-enhancing drugs. I have uploaded this excerpt, and you can download it and read it here if you wish:http://www.2shared.com/document/zVR2XeWl/Carroll__2005_-_Profile-The_Cr.html
Hopefully this sparks some interesting discussion!
On Adrian Peterson's injury, I believe that many people attribute recoveries such as this to these men simply being "freak athletes". While this is true, it is, in my humble opinion, rather naive to think that this is the reason for his recovery and subsequent amazing performance this season. NFL players do have access to some of the best in the biz in the rehabilitation department, but what enables them to perform at a high level day in and day out, and recover from their injuries in far less time than the average person? I believe it is a combination of these rehab experts, and performance enhancing drugs. Without getting too much into it, steroids essentially allow the body to heal at a much faster rate than is normal. For example, professional bodybuilders take steroids and this allows them to train harder and longer, and recover from the microscopic muscle tears much faster, and the cycle begins again. You might say, "Well why don't these substances show up on the tests the NFL performs?" When you perform a test like those the NFL does, you have to know what compounds you are looking for. These tests are not cheap, and if the NFL were to perform tests for every known substance, on all ~1700 players, the costs would be incredibly high. Think the NFL wants these expenses added on to their budget? I don't. This doesn't even account for substances which may not be known to the NFL, and men with an NFL paycheck can afford these top of the line substances.
A rather eye opening read on this topic is an excerpt from the book The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball's Drug Problems, by Will Carroll, a sportswriter specializing in the coverage of medical issues, including injuries and performance-enhancing drugs. I have uploaded this excerpt, and you can download it and read it here if you wish:http://www.2shared.com/document/zVR2XeWl/Carroll__2005_-_Profile-The_Cr.html
Hopefully this sparks some interesting discussion!
