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View Full Version : MLS and Drug Testing - This is Not News (Discussion Thread)



DOMIN8R
06-18-2008, 11:39 AM
I have been reading much about performance enhancing drugs in sport these days. I couldn’t help but think about the black eye MLB has received in the last few years with Bonds, McGuire, etc. and the Congressional Committee investigation.

Apparently, MLS has a drug policy and it is part of the collective union bargaining agreement there is testing.

But does anyone know if it has teeth? Has anyone been caught? If not, would you wonder whether it even works? Or maybe everyone who plays in the league is clean? LOL

Oldtimer
06-18-2008, 12:19 PM
I would expect MLS to be very strict about such things.

I remember "the Don" spoke to a conference of sports execs about such issues. He said that an "emerging" issue is bionic body parts. For example, say if a player loses a leg, and has it replaced by one that is better at kicking than a human leg. How would sports leagues handle issues like that? The league is on top of things.

The CFL is the only major league that I know of that has no drug testing policy.

ChrisLav
06-19-2008, 12:58 PM
Article by Goff regarding Quaranta, DC player who was using cocaine & OxyContin for multiple years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/13/AR2008061303416.html

"He tested positive for cocaine in 2006, but because he was a first-time offender, MLS did not suspend him and the results were not made public. In the following 18 months, however, his addiction grew progressively worse, culminating with a three-month stay at a treatment facility in Malibu, Calif., last winter."

"The only other known case involving serious drug or alcohol use was Los Angeles Galaxy (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Los+Angeles+Galaxy?tid=informline) forward Edson Buddle, who in 2005 while with the Columbus Crew (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Columbus+Crew?tid=informline) was suspended under MLS's substance abuse policy."

DOMIN8R
06-19-2008, 01:28 PM
Wow. Nice find.

So these incidences were substance abuse (i.e.: recreational drugs) related. Not performance enhancement (i.e: steroids, stimulants, etc.). Are we to believe that there is no performance enhacement drug testing or that no one is using preformance enhancing drugs in the MLS because existing testing hasn't turned up any?

Kevvv
06-19-2008, 01:34 PM
Wow. Nice find.

So these incidences were substance abuse (i.e.: recreational drugs) related. Not performance enhancement (i.e: steroids, stimulants, etc.). Are we to believe that there is no performance enhacement drug testing or that no one is using preformance enhancing drugs in the MLS because existing testing hasn't turned up any?

For that matter, how prevalent are performance enhancing drugs in the sport? How much beneficial would they be to a soccer player? Not asking rhetorically, I just don't remember hearing of any incidents, and I wonder what that says about their efficacy in soccer.

brad
06-19-2008, 02:58 PM
For that matter, how prevalent are performance enhancing drugs in the sport? How much beneficial would they be to a soccer player? Not asking rhetorically, I just don't remember hearing of any incidents, and I wonder what that says about their efficacy in soccer.

Could be very beneficial. Building muscle quicker, some stuff enhances recovery time (great if you have a midweek and then weekend match), increase energy during the match, that sort of thing.

There have been cases (Abel Xavier comes to mind). It's not common as far a I know, likely down to drug testing or perhaps side effects related to the substances.

DOMIN8R
06-19-2008, 03:21 PM
...and I wonder what that says about their efficacy in soccer.

Stimulants and blood oxygenation recovery schemes might make sense.

footyfan
06-19-2008, 03:44 PM
Article by Goff regarding Quaranta, DC player who was using cocaine & OxyContin for multiple years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/13/AR2008061303416.html

"He tested positive for cocaine in 2006, but because he was a first-time offender, MLS did not suspend him and the results were not made public. In the following 18 months, however, his addiction grew progressively worse, culminating with a three-month stay at a treatment facility in Malibu, Calif., last winter."

"The only other known case involving serious drug or alcohol use was Los Angeles Galaxy (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Los+Angeles+Galaxy?tid=informline) forward Edson Buddle, who in 2005 while with the Columbus Crew (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Columbus+Crew?tid=informline) was suspended under MLS's substance abuse policy."


LA's Joey Franchino, when he was with the Revs had some stuff that was kept hush hush by the revs but the police were called to a motel and the rumor is that he was on drugs. He had erractic behavior and it is likely that is one reason he was traded to LA (same with Quaranta). Galaxy = MLS's Rehab team.. Abel Xavier, Santino Quaranta, Joey Franchino...

BeachRed
06-19-2008, 03:56 PM
It's a complicated issue:

"Every athlete in recorded history has used performance-enhancing drugs. Babylonians and Romans used herbs to improve their performance. The ancient Greeks put on shoes to run faster. Kenyan runners trained at altitude to improve their oxygen-carrying capacity. And runners everywhere carbo-load before races to enhance their performance.

"Why then do we have a replay of the Salem Witch trials with the strategy to humiliate and incarcerate elite athletes for doing what has been standard practice for millennia? And why out of the thousand and one ways that athletes enhance their performances have steroids and human growth hormone been selected for particular vilification?

"The short answer is that they're illegal and that these athletes were breaking the rules and perhaps the law and therefore it's immoral. Which begs the question: Why are they banned in the first place? We contend that the reasons given are morally incoherent, reek of hypocrisy and are based on wrong information."

The whole thing is here:

http://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/News_Media_c24.aspx

Dunc
06-19-2008, 04:27 PM
I read an article about Quaranta's struggle with drug abuse (he started off on painkillers he had for injuries, got into coke and started popping shitloads of more pills). It mentioned our Buddy buddle got caught with coke too, not sure what happened with that.