FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2004, file photo, Hawaii's Bryan Maneafaiga (43) scores a touchdown against Nevada in Honolulu. With uneven testing for steroids and inconsistent punishment, college football players are packing on significant weight _ in some cases, 30 pounds or more in a single year _ without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams. But looking solely at the most significant weight gainers also ignores players like Maneafaiga. In the summer of 2004, Maneafaiga was an undersized 180-pound running back trying to make the University of Hawaii football team. Twice, once in pre-season and once in the fall, he failed school drug tests, showing up positive for marijuana use. What surprised him was that the same tests turned up negative for steroids. He’d started injecting stanozolol, a steroid, in the summer to help bulk up to a roster weight of 200 pounds. (AP Photo/ Honolulu Star-Advertiser, George F. Lee)
Steroids loom in major-college football
FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2004, file photo, Hawaii's Bryan Maneafaiga (43) scores a touchdown against Nevada in Honolulu. With uneven testing for steroids and inconsistent punishment, college football players are packing on significant weight _ in some cases, 30 pounds or more in a single year _ without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams. But looking solely at the most significant weight gainers also ignores players like Maneafaiga. In the summer of 2004, Maneafaiga was an undersized 180-pound running back trying to make the University of Hawaii football team. Twice, once in pre-season and once in the fall, he failed school drug tests, showing up positive for marijuana use. What surprised him was that the same tests turned up negative for steroids. He’d started injecting stanozolol, a steroid, in the summer to help bulk up to a roster weight of 200 pounds. (AP Photo/ Honolulu Star-Advertiser, George F. Lee)
By MATT APUZZO, ADAM GOLDMAN and JACK GILLUM
Associated Press /
January 1, 2013
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‘‘We can’t tell them what to do, but if went through a membership process where they determined that this is what should be done, then it could happen,’’ she said.
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Associated Press writers Ryan Foley in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; David Brandt in Jackson, Miss.; David Skretta in Lawrence, Kan.; Don Thompson in Sacramento, Calif., and Alexa Olesen in Shanghai, China, and researchers Susan James in New York and Monika Mathur in Washington contributed to this report.
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Contact the Washington investigative team at DCinvestigations (at) ap.org.
Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the first of a two-part series.
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