NFL Skates By Again!

In a similar vein to my other post today, the other hot topic in sports right now is the announcement of MLB suspensions in the wake of the Biogenesis scandal. While MLB and baseball pats itself on the back saying they have finally turned around PEDs in baseball, I would tell them to simmer down. Does anyone really think Tony Bosch is the "Thomas Edison" of PEDs? Have we already forgotten Victor Conte? For every PED lab that gets busted, I guarantee there are 9 that go undetected. While I agree that PED use in baseball has turned around, I would still estimate conservatively that there are about 10 times more players using than are busted. But at least the players are changing their tune and getting involved in cleaning things up. That's a huge development.

All that being said, I would like to redirect the focus on the NFL. For the life of me, I can't figure out how the NFL is able to skate by without any repercussions from PED use, when baseball gets continually hammered. After reading about and thinking about this a lot, I think it has to do with a combination 3 factors:

1. Baseball's reliance on stats and historical records.
2. The average baseball fan is older and more traditional.
3. Many of baseball's greatest players of this era have been implicated.

I would be willing to bet that if Tom Brady, Laurence Taylor, Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice and about 20 others had been busted, we'd be looking a lot harder at the NFL and PEDs. If one were to look, you would see things like the above infographic.

This just in... NFL players are HUGE! Research over the last 70 years has shown the overall weight of NFL players has increased about 1.5 pounds per year. That's unbelievable! Even more amazing is the body transformation. Another study showed that while the height and weight of players has increased, the body fat % has not kept pace, staying similar or actually decreasing over that time!!! Don't forget the amazing speed. How about a 6'8" 280 lb D-lineman running a 4.6 40 yard dash! That's just one example.

So is this all attributed to nutrition, weight-lifting and supplements? Hell no! PED use in the NFL is rampant, and anyone who says otherwise is just not watching football. I don't think human beings have evolved that much over the last 70 years. Charles Darwin is probably rolling over in his grave at the mere suggestion. The really interesting corollary is that if I'm right (and I think I am), either the NFL has the worst testing in sports, or the teams/league are all in on it. Judge for yourself.

I love football, but I'm not a blind idiot. When AP comes back less than a year after an ACL tear and almost breaks the single season rushing record, I know something is up. I also love baseball, and it just seems inherently unfair that if a player has a huge year (Chris Davis), or has a resurgence in his 30's, he's automatically using PEDs. By the way, if you think the NBA and NHL are PED-free, I've got a nice beachfront property to sell you in South Dakota!