Special Sports

World According to me

T.O. gets medicine to help him in playoff game; Clemens gets called before Congressional Committee for Injection in His Butt: Is it the Location of the Shots?

Today (Jan. 11, 2008), on sports talk radio, I heard a former player/commentator commentate that he knew Cowboys' receiver Terrell Owens would be able to play up to his capabilities in the playoff game against the Giants because of the medicine the doctors and trainers would be giving him.  No one interrupted, skipped a beat, or called a halt.  Everyone talking just concurred.  They also thought T.O. would be close to full strength as well.

This is where the whole performance-enhancing substances argument gets totally muddled for me.  Somehow, when some medico types load up an NFL receiver with pain killers, an injection of local anesthetic, and some inflammatories, it's medicine.  But if some pitcher is accused of taking an injection in his ass, it's cheating and literally becomes a federal case.

For a long time, I have been intending to put together a photo montage of professional athletes who got naturally bigger as they kept playing into middle age to blow the entire "look how big"  this athlete or that athlete got when he started taking steroids.  How could he get that much bigger?  It's just not natural.  There had to be some drugs or some enhancers involved.

Really?  Is that what you want to believe so badly to be able to hate the athletes you already hate?  Just pay some attention to the history of professional athletics.  Long before steroids, athletes packed on the weight and broadened out in a perfectly believable and natural way.  I wish I had the photo archive to put together a side-by-side comparison of the same pose and size photo, but what I have is the internets (sic: George Bush).

Everyone makes a huge deal about Barry Bonds going from 185 to 230 pounds.  Willie Stargell, arguably one of the top power hitters of his era, began his career in that same 185 lb area until he won the World Series at a weight which was estimated between 250 and 300.

How about the man considered for decades to be best "pound-for-pound" boxer in history?  He was lightweight champion of the World.  That's a 135 pound limit.  In his 40s, he was still competitive at the light heavyweight 175 lb limit.  He won the super middleweight title (168 lb).  I can't recall a single accusation that he couldn't have gained that amount of weight and accomplished all that without performance enhancing drugs.

Athletes who perform at a high professional level into what many of us consider middle age have always put on weight and gotten bigger and broader.  George Blanda may be the torch bearer for this group, but I could have used Steve DeBerg or Howard Ehmke.

Although Archie Moore may be the best example.  He began as a middleweight, won the light heavyweight title, and fought heavyweight into his 50s.

However, my favorite ludicrous argument about Barry Bonds is that the increase in his cap size is given so often as the most irrefutable evidence that he did steroids and HGH.  Even though, it is a medical fact, that people do continue to have increases in their head and footsizes into old age.  It is not uncommon for a person who never took steroids or any other performance enhancer to see an increase of a couple hat sizes and an entire shoe size during their lifetimes.

Take, for a concrete example, former NFL MVP Earl Morrall:

Not only did he go from a rail thin 180 pounder as rookie to a full 220 pound Super Bowl QB, but in this photo, he can't even get his old Colt helmet on.

My favorite comparison, though, is always Babe Ruth.  Over and over, I hear that beer and hot dogs are not performance enhancing substances, but, purportedly, that's what the Babe used, and who can argue with the results!

News surfaced over the weekend that 50 Cent, Wyclef Jean, Timbaland and other rap stars had been implicated in a steroids investigation.  Some hip-hop fans were shocked as were maladroit sports fans and commentators who continue to blather on about the miracles of steroids abuse.

All the talk about popping some pills and taking some injections turning people into buff, muscular super athletes is so erroneous and ill-logical that it was a good thing this scandal came along to offer actual examples of what you get when the average dude abuses steroids: (keep in mind that Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson was a professional boxer for awhile before rapping, acting and going to prison.)

I know guys who never stepped inside a weight room who have better physiques than these dudes:

Home