Re: Cunningham a bonehead
posted at 11/26/2012 11:00 PM EST
In response to Neal Page's comment:
I get that. I jusy think he's wrong. It's not an excuse, because it doesn't matter. The NFL suspends them. No one cares what the drug is, only that someone was suspended for testing positive. I think the NFL is so paranoid about tradename drugs running rampant in the NFL, that they put it on the banned list to avoid problems.
Again, if you look at the money MLB has lost in recent years, since 2005 with the roid thing before Congress, etc, to force testing on that finally, Goodell and the owners want no part of that heat. They saw the revenue decline, regardless of what our little bald buddy Bud Selig tries to spin us.
My premise is that players may not know or care/think they can get away it, where Adderall is not a banned substance. I think they'll know or care more now.
Again, all these players clipped in the last 2 years, almost exclusively are in year 1, 2 or 3. You don't see any veterans being bagged for this because they weren't around it when they were in college. Ritalin was the big thing back in the day and now it's Adderall. It's all about branding.
Throw in the fact that Teva bought out Barr/Duramed 2 years ago and wants to protect its brand, and in no way, does the NFL wan the pharma lobby dancing around the NFL logo.
If they don't test for this, then it's negligence.
Get it?
In general, there is more pressure from the Feds on these leagues to address what needs to be made illegal. Personally, I think this particular drug isn't that bad (not good if abused, obviously), but also nowhere near roids or other drugs that have greater health risk.
One major reason our healthcare costs are such a problem is the money to be made off it, obviously, but also doctors being paid off to write fake scripts.
This is about money.
I think people do care about the drug. Like you, I don't think Adderall is that bad, I do think steroids are bad though. Don't you already think less of a player who uses steroids than one who uses Adderall?
Here's an example that will probably make me look foolish, but I don't have another way of explaining it:
Say a player has an overall madden rating of 90. He gets busted for PEDs.
If we're under the impression that he's using steroids, we can assume his overall rating without the PED is an 80
If we're under the impression that he's using adderall, we can assume his overall rating without the PED is an 88.
Public perception does matter to these players, they are people afterall. I see your points and agree with many of them. I also appreciate that you come up evidence to back up your claims. I'm not hear to argue why Adderall has been on the banned substances list since 2006.
My underlying question is: When Cunningham says the PED he was busted for was just Adderall, do you believe him?
That's the only thing I want to know. Either way though, we don't have all the facts.
