Hoots Corner

During Senate hearings on Tuesday, Travis Tygart (CEO of USADA and an advisor to the Taylor Hooton Foundation) told the Senate that his organization is close to announcing a plan to propose regulatory reform of the supplements industry.

In addition to enjoying the support of most professional sports leagues, Travis can count on the support of our organization.  We will work hard to see that this important set of changes are implemented.  Nothing less than the lives and health of our kids are at stake.

Don

At a Senate hearing Tuesday addressing the alarming proliferation of steroids within the relatively unregulated nutritional supplements industry, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said his organization was weeks away from announcing a new initiative that will propose regulatory reform of the supplements industry and will have the support of major professional sports leagues.

"It's an effort to educate and effect change in the legislation," said USADA's chief executive Travis Tygart, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and drugs. "The problem has migrated away from elite athletes."

Tygart said the initiative will have support from the NFL, NBA, MLB, as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee and other organizations. Various sports leagues recently have faced challenges to their anti-doping policies by athletes claiming contaminated supplements had triggered their positive drug tests.

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The Senate is beginning to consider the problem of supplements that are contaminated with steroids.

Multiple studies done in the past couple of years have shown that as many as 20% of supplements pulled at random off of our health food store shelves contain steroids or stimulants that are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

I urge you all to monitor this activity carefully and lend your support.  Our children are unknowingly being exposed to dangerous (illegal) drugs every time they visit the health food store.  Supplements are NOT REGULATED and until they are, these risks will continue to be real.

Don

An influential senator is looking into whether Congress should re-regulate dietary supplements because steroids and other banned substances are finding their way into over-the-counter bodybuilding products.

Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Philadelphia Phillies fan, is convening a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the issue Tuesday.

He said his interest was piqued in part by the case of Phillies pitcher J.C. Romero, who was suspended for 50 games this season after testing positive for androstenedione, a substance that slugger Mark McGwire used in the 1990s that was later banned by baseball.

Romero sued the manufacturer of an over-the-counter supplement earlier this year, arguing that it should bear the blame for his suspension because it misrepresented its products and ingredients.

"We're looking at whether there's adequate protection for consumers from getting these supplements which have steroids or steroid-like substances," Specter told The Associated Press in an interview.

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Many people that we encounter are of the belief that the only people that use anabolic steroids are the "big guys" in football and baseball.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  The following article indicates abuse in a number of other sports.

9/24/2009:  Steroid Abuse in Interesting Sports

 

While we’ve heard a great deal about the use of steroids in baseball in recent years, America’s favorite past time is not the only sport to be plagued with rumors over the use of performance enhancing drugs. In fact, many sports you might not even think about have reportedly had players and participants admit to taking steroids or to test positive for the drugs. Below are four examples from sports you might not have expected.

Tennis

While tennis may not seem to be a sport that would benefit from the use of steroids since so few of the men and women on the court look like they’ve been pumping iron, recent revelations and test results show that the sport definitely isn’t immune. Famous tennis player John McEnroe said back in 2004 that he had been taking steroids for years without knowing what they were. His comments came a few days after it was revealed that one of the players had tested positive for steroids. The player in question argued that more than three dozen other tennis players on the circuit had tested positive for elevated levels of the drugs, too.

Skiing

Sure, skiing requires athleticism but when you think of steroid use it probably doesn’t pop into your mind. Back in October 2001, however, members of the skiing team from Finland tested positive for steroids. But not only that: one of the team members agreed to take the fall for the rest of the team as long as he received a hefty payment of more than $200,000 USD. The charges of conspiracy emerged in late 2008. Unfortunately, the player probably did not receive the payment since several of his team mates tested positive for steroids within days of his confession.

Golf

Do you need to be an athlete to be a professional golfer? Some might argue that you do. However, most people would probably agree that performance enhancing drugs don’t seem to be the best match for golf carts and tee offs. However, it appears that golf is not immune to these problems either. One of the legendary players of the game, Gary Player, has told reporters that he knows of several other players who have used steroids or other types of enhancements to boost their performance on the green. Although he didn’t reveal any names, Tiger Woods claims that he doesn’t know of anyone on the tour that is using any type of steroid. Who’s right? Only random drug testing will tell.

NASCAR Racing

Argue all you want about the athletic merits of a golfer, but there’s no question it takes a real athlete to sit in a car and drive around an oval at high speeds over and over again. And these athletes might very well be getting into the picture, too. A couple of years back, one of the drives – Ron Hornaday – for the NASCAR truck series admitted to doping for two years. His wife claims he was taking the steroids only because he was worried that he had cancer – that’s probably the worst excuse ever used.

Source:  http://www.testcountry.org/steroid-abuse-in-interesting-sports.htm 

One of our closest partners in our battle to end steroid abuse among our nation's kids is legendary NFL Hall of Fame player, Dick Butkus.

In support of the cause, Dick and his team are holding a Charity Fight Night at the Hilton-Chicago on October 15.  Proceeds will go to the Butkus Foundation.  I urge all of our supporters living in the Chicago area to think about attending.  I know you will have a great time!

Don

9/8/2009, Chicago Tribune

The face of the Bears franchise between 1965 and the early '70s was shared by running back Gale Sayers and middle linebacker Dick Butkus.

Neither Hall of Famer expressed any jealousy or animosity toward the other.

"I met him early on in the all-star games, before we even got to the Bears," said Butkus, who was a first-round draft pick along with Sayers in 1965. "And I like to think we are good friends ever since. So there was never any animosity between offense and defense."

In his autobiography, Sayers said of Butkus: "We remain great friends and have so many shared memories."

Current Bears stars Brian Urlacher and Jay Cutler quickly defused reports that there is tension between them since the Pro Bowl quarterback was acquired in April.

"Maybe it's just the sign of the times. People tend to forget that the ultimate objective is to have a good team and forget about the individual parts," Butkus said Monday via telephone from an education station at the Herbstreit Varsity Football Series at Cowboys Stadium. "Urlacher probably said [a disparaging name about Cutler], maybe, but he was probably just fooling around. Then it got blown up to where everybody has got to comment about it."

These days, Butkus is most passionate about his anti- steroid program called "I Play Clean," and he would like to see NFL stars get behind the initiative, aimed mainly at high school athletes.

A fight-night fundraiser for the initiative will be held Oct. 15 at the Hilton-Chicago.


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Steroids are known to cause aggression.  We saw it with our own eyes with Taylor.  There is even a name for it that everyone knows as "Roid Rage."

A number of violent events have been attributed to steroids including the death of wrestler Chris Benoit and his family.  This time, it is alleged that steroids may have played a role in the violence that Shawne Merriman showed towards his girlfriend Tequila.

Don

Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:37 am EDT

Steroid agression at play in Tequila-Merriman incident?

By Mark Miller

MTV star Tila Tequila said steroids may have been part of the problem late Saturday night when San Diego Chargers outside linebacker Shawne Merriman(notes) allegedly assaulted her, according to ProFootballTalk.

Tequila tweeted a whole slew of posts about the incident and has since removed some of them but one of them read "Steroid Abuse Can Cause Aggression" and linked to a story about Merriman's 2007 four-game suspension due to a violation of the league's performance-enhancing substance policy.

Merriman is building a story that he was saving Tequila from herself by not letting her drive home drunk, and Tequila hasn't bothered to say her side of exactly what happened. She says that will change today, what she's calling "judgment day."

So be sure you haven't heard the last of this PR War. It'll likely to drag on for a while.

Source: ProFootballTalk

Related: San Diego Chargers

Steroid use permeats many sports.  Mixed Martial Arts is certainly not an exception!

As stated in this article, the author is concerned that MMA is thought of as "Steroid-fueled monsters covered in blood pummel each other until their faces are unrecognizable. How is this savagery considered a sport?"

Don

9/2/2009

In a recent interview with Tatame, Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva stated that should he emerge victorious from his fight at the upcoming Sengoku 10th Battle with "Big" Jim York, a bout with Josh Barnett for the vacant Sengoku Heavyweight title would take place in November.

Nothing like rewarding steroid users with championship belts and a place to fight when they can't make a living in North America...

While the casual fan may not pay any attention to what takes place in MMA organizations across the Pacific, you can be certain that opponents to the sport will certainly take notice and have something to say about this, and so should those who are passionate about the sport.

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