Calvin Pace, Another NFL Drug Cheat -- Where's the Outrage?

Jets linebacker Calvin Pace is suspended for performance-enhancing drug use. Why isn't this a bigger deal?

Not to pick on poor Calvin Pace, who claims today to be the latest NFL victim of those sneaky, nefarious over-the-counter supplements, but come on here, people. At what point is it fair to start calling out the NFL on the performance-enhancing drug issue? This guy's no superstar, but he's an important player on a New York team. The baseball equivalent would be somebody like Ryan Church on the Mets or Hideki Matsui on the Yankees. Imagine if one of those guys had been suspended today for steroids? Would ESPN even think about leading SportsCenter with anything else?

More Coverage: Pace Suspended 4 Games

Over the past four years, twice as many NFL players (44) as MLB players (22) have been suspended for performance-enhancing drug use. But the NFL skates. The public accepts Pace's warmed-over excuse ("I didn't know it contained anything illegal!!!") without skepticism. The StarCaps players in Minnesota, who tested positive for a steroid-masking agent, become sympathetic figures. Confirmed drug cheat Rodney Harrison retires, immediately scores a sweet TV gig and ignites a debate about whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame. Nobody polls NFL Hall voters to ask whether his confirmed PED use will or should keep him out. Baseball Hall of Fame voters get two or three such calls a month about any number of guys.

There are several reasons for the double-standard, and not one of them is any good:

The most oft-cited reason I hear is that pro football is such a brutal, grueling game that everybody just accepts that you need some sort of drug to help you play it. Everybody's played baseball, and even at its highest level, the game seems attainable -- it gives people the impression that it's something they themselves could do. Football at its highest level is seen as hyper-fast, overly intense and physically brutal. We've all heard players talk about how they can't get out of bed on Monday mornings. Some of us have seen what it's like inside an NFL locker room after the game, players moving like partially mummified zombies, every contraction of every muscle an agonizing effort. How can we blame these guys, the theory goes, for taking something to help them through it?

That line of thinking might say more about our current there's-a-drug-for-every-affliction society than anything else, but it also defies responsibility. Whether they like it or not, whether they admit it or not, these players are role models. Is it really acceptable for them to create (and for us to be complicit in the creation of) an environment that tells kids the only way to make it to or in the NFL is to take drugs? That football at its highest level is impossible to play without chemical assistance? I don't buy it. And even if I did, I wouldn't want to be preaching it anywhere young football players could hear it.

The other factors fostering the double-standard are the age and the perceived effectiveness of the NFL's drug policy. The NFL started testing for performance-enhancing drugs in 1987, before any other pro sports league did. By 1990, they were testing year-round and suspending first offenders for four games. Baseball didn't start testing until 2003 and didn't suspend first-time offenders until 2005. So there's a perception that baseball players have been getting away with their cheating longer than football players have.

But so what? Unlike Mark McGwire, I'm all for investigating the past in an effort to avoid repeating mistakes in the future. But this point here is about what happens to the guys who get caught cheating in the present. A baseball player gets busted, it's "Shame! Shame! Shame!" A football player gets busted, it's "Too bad about that nasty, unregulated supplement industry. See you in October." Shawne Merriman keeps his endorsement deals. Harrison gets a national forum to act as authority on the league.

There would be value in making a stronger example of the players who get caught cheating. In refusing to give them the benefit of the doubt and take their "I didn't know it was illegal" explanations at face value. Pro athletes don't get paid millions of dollars just because they play a game -- they get paid millions of dollars because they play their games in public. Those who cheat deserve more of a stigma than that with which the NFL and its fans currently stamp them. It should be harder for a cheater to recover his good name than it is in the NFL. If it were, it might make those who follow him think at least one extra time before they cheat.

The NFL needs to be constantly re-examining this, too. It is fond of holding its program up as the gold standard of pro sports drug testing. But complacency is dangerous, and in this case it's unwarranted. A truly outstanding drug policy would be a deterrent. And while polls show that PED use among NFL players is down from about 20 percent in the 1980s to about 13 percent today ... that's still a pretty hefty percentage.

It's an axiom of any kind of law enforcement that the cheaters are always ahead of the cops. In this case, that means there are a lot more guys cheating than getting caught. The question is, with so many getting caught, why is it so easy for people to say the NFL's drug policy goes far enough?

The point, supposedly, is to stop the cheating. I understand the NFL is trying. I just think the numbers show that it has to try harder. And I think too many people find it too easy to give the league and its players a break on this.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-02-2009 @ 7:45PM

jmaneuv011 said...

I think at this point anybody who is a legitimate NFL or even college prospect is probably on steroids. It's probably been that way the past 20 years

7-02-2009 @ 7:56PM

Mingo said...

Who care anymore just pay you big bucks for your tickets and shut up Pros need their money for their drugs so they can can be high paid fakes. Let them all take drugs and raise the ticket prices people will pay

7-03-2009 @ 7:33AM

achilles433 said...

Mingo, I think that's probably an exaggeration. The example I use is David Boston. When he put on all that ridiculous extra weight, he became a worse football player at his position. No amount of steroids and rigorous workouts can develop the agility and acceleration of an average person into an elite NFL wide receiver.

Linemen? Sure, we should look into them more. Freaks of nature with 280 lb frames, 25 presses of 225 lbs and incredible times in the cone, shuttle and 40 Merriman ? Look into them too.

CBs, (coverage-based, non-Roy Williams) safeties, (most) WRs, RBs, QBs and other positions have less to gain than linemen and linebackers from steroid use, and FAR less to gain compared to power hitters in the MLB.

7-02-2009 @ 10:24PM

jc200member said...

In baseball, players are closely measured by their statistical achievements. A football player's stats aren't glorified as much.

Baseball's records are more well known than football; hence the lack of media interest.

7-06-2009 @ 2:21PM

gsan201 said...

More like a double standard by the MEDIA then stats and records. The MEDIA doesn't want to push the issue because the NFL is not as diverse as baseball and the MEDIA of course if nothing else pushes an AGENDA.OH we can't say anthing about the NFL.uh why? UHHH YOU KNOW UMM WE JUST Can't!!Washington is watching US.They got a new czar in charge of MEDIA manipulation!! WE ARE SCARED too says the MEDIA ELITES!!!

7-03-2009 @ 12:31AM

James said...

When I was a kid back in the 60's, my Dad would take me to the gym with him. There was a NFL player who was pretty open about the steroids he was using amoung the members of the gym. The position he played? Punter. No joke. Roid's have been in every sport since the 60's, including the olympic games. And every team owner knew it.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2005-05-03-steroids-house_x.htm

7-03-2009 @ 2:25AM

YouFaceTheTick said...

Never get why they make a big deal about drug use. It's really nobody's business.

I don't care if a player is using meth, Oxycontin, horse urine, badger testosterone, Aleve and Jack Daniels as a daily smoothie - just play hard and make me say "wow!" I get Sunday Ticket and go to Playoff games to be impressed. If the player dies at 35 because his heart stopped - oh well. If 1 million kids see a player using drugs and they want to too - so frakking what. Just dance for me! I'm waving my remote, NFL/Directv, make the players work for my money.

7-03-2009 @ 7:25AM

COMMANDO said...

the so called "performance enhancing drugs" that pace had in his system were purchased in a health foods store. it was not steriods..if you can purchase it legally in a store , it shouldnt be banned !!

7-03-2009 @ 7:51AM

Dan, you make some valid points, and I think you're right in that the public is too complacent about Shawne Merriman in particular.

At the same time, I think it's damn near impossible that the NFL could boast the way it does about its substance policies if every team had multiple linemen or whoever else on 'roids. The plausibility of the NFL capable of such a cover up, considering how many fans, journalits, employees and how much money is involved, is just not realistic at all.

On the subject of being bold in public statements, let's not forget that Jason Taylor argued publicly that Merriman should not be qualified for DPOY a couple years ago on the grounds that he was suspended under the substance-abuse policy. I find it hard to believe that he could fake that integrity and not have it bite him in the ass sooner or later if he himself was a roider. Taylor is a player for the ages as well.

That's another point. In football, 'roids hardly give you an edge. Every year 32 players are drafted in the 1st round, and all of them are phenomenal physical specimens, yet most of them fail. You win in the NFL with knowledgeable players who learn the game inside and out.

The big asterisk in that argument I just made is the battle in the trenches. Offensive linemen (non left tackles, anyway) and run-stopping defensive tackles need as much oversight as any big-time slugger in the MLB. Freaks of nature like Merriman (when looking at his cone, shuttle, 40 then his bench reps from the combine) also need to be monitored intensely.

7-03-2009 @ 7:56AM

For reference, Taylor's exact words:

"You really shouldn't be able to fail a test like that and play in this league, to begin with," Taylor said in a conference call Wednesday with reporters in Indianapolis as the Dolphins prepare to play the Colts this weekend. "To make the Pro Bowl and all the other awards, I think you're walking a fine line of sending the wrong message."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nflinsider/2006/12/j_taylor_says_steroid_suspensi.html

7-03-2009 @ 6:35PM

Let's point out Taylor was loudly against Merriman having a shot at Def. MVP as Taylor was also strongly in contention. It had nothing to do with drugs and everything to do with Taylor wanting that "honor."

And in his quote he states: ...sends the wrong message... To whom? It's naive to think only pro athletes use drugs to be better at their jobs. talk to some pilots about pep pills.

7-04-2009 @ 2:18AM

@YouFaceTheTick

I don't think it should matter that Taylor was in competition for Merriman for DPOY. If anything, Taylor's saying that he operated from an immense disadvantage not being a steroid user in trying to play at such a high level if Merriman is still considered for DPOY. In fact, it might be more out of line for him to have called out Merriman if he wasn't in competition with him for an award, because it directly concerned him. Self-interest and selfishness don't have to be the same thing.

7-03-2009 @ 10:30AM

washougalrvr said...

Really, why should we care anymore what the Player's (and the rest of us) do. Quit dreaming about "the good ole days") when everyone was squeaky clean and good. This is today where most are dirty and bad. We're going to "hell in a basket," so give us what we want: copious abounts of alcohol, pot, painkillers, whatever, so we can cope with the grinding down of our society. No money. No jobs. A crooked and broke government. Jesus.god. I know, gloomy but real. "Let's party 'til it's 1999..."

7-03-2009 @ 2:06PM

jpc1108 said...

What a surprise. Thats why I don't watch pro sports anymore.

7-03-2009 @ 5:01PM

dbpainters1 said...

drugs here, drugs there, drugs, drugs, everywhere, and yes, even in pro-sports. it is the reality of life. cops do it, everyday people use it, the judge uses it, the prosecutor uses it, the politicians use it, they even engage in sex scandals too, so my question here is this, who cares. the people prosecuting these cases are using the drugs the same time they are writing the cross examinations.

7-03-2009 @ 6:34PM

BNajara04 said...

seriously i dont understand why people make such a big issue on these drugs. a ton of people use it to burn fat gain mass w.e there goal is. its not only in sports so whats the big deal. if it helps them improve somewhat so be it. steriods helps .. but it also takes extreme dedication and hard work to get to a supremem level. its not like they take steriods and sit on there ass. so regardless there working there ass off so what if it enhances there strength shit i played football back in highschool and that was 10 games. and during a season there was no such thing as recoverying from an injury because your consistantly hitting. so if this substance helps them get there a 17 game season and perhaps playoffs then why not . there job is extremely physical. so everyone who bitches about the use just shut your trap. y because NFL players use it baseball players use it im sure basketball players use it and any other competetive sport, poeple in the gym police officers firefighters everyone !!!

7-04-2009 @ 2:26AM

It's against the rules of the game to do so. What do you say for the class-act athletes who are above the steroids, don't end up with DUIs, don't end up in the news for stupidity and are downright competitive and honorable athletes? Are they stupid for not hopping on the bandwagon? I'd like to believe that professional athletics can, for the most part, resist a bandwagon abandonment of integrity for Machiavellian means of achieving success. Maybe it's too much to hope for, maybe it's a foolish hope, but it's certainly not a bitchy one.

7-27-2009 @ 1:57PM

millerinsnbg said...

The high injury and collsion sport like Football drugs are much more prevalent and are more helpful to the game the short lifespan of NFL players drugs dont bother me as much as blown calls...and Front Office pushing iits favorites to the Super bowl ...