{"id":2466,"date":"2010-02-24T17:11:13","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T22:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=2466"},"modified":"2010-02-24T17:11:13","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T22:11:13","slug":"selig-nfl-rushing-to-judgment-on-blood-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/24\/selig-nfl-rushing-to-judgment-on-blood-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Selig, NFL Rushing to Judgment on Blood Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looks like Major League Baseball and the NFL could be headed for a major collision with its players over a blood test for human growth hormone.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Image by Tim Sloan\/AFP\/Getty Images via Daylife<\/p><\/div>\n

The Washington Pos<\/a><\/em>t is reporting today that the NFL has proposed implementing the blood test for HGH that tripped up a professional rugby player in Britain earlier this week. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our position is that HGH blood testing has advanced to the point where we are taking steps to incorporate it into our program,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Greg Aiello, the NFL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s senior vice president of public relations, told the Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This comes on the heels of last night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s report in the New York Times<\/a><\/em> that baseball has already decided to use the blood test in the minor leagues.<\/p>\n

“Major League Baseball, which had long been skeptical about a viable test for human growth hormone, now plans to implement blood testing for the substance in the minor leagues later this year, according to an official in baseball with direct knowledge of the matter.<\/p>\n

“The decision to move ahead with blood testing comes one day after a British rugby player<\/a> was suspended for testing positive for H.G.H. It was the first time that an athlete had been publicly identified for testing positive for the substance and was seen as overdue proof that the blood test, which has been in limited use for six years, actually works.”<\/p>\n

Use of the blood test in the NFL and MLB requires the consent of the respective players unions. Both leagues are entering into contract negotiations with their players, and drug testing is expected to be one of the issues on the table. Both leagues used urine tests for performance enhancing drugs, but there is no urine test for HGH. And doubts remain about the reliability of the blood test used in England.<\/p>\n

The NFL union has already told the Post<\/em> that it will oppose the test. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153At this point, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no reason to believe that blood-testing for NFL players will or should be implemented,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d union assistant executive director of external affairs George Atallah\u00c2\u00a0told The Post. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We should instead focus on preserving the drug-testing policy that we have in place.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

It appears that Bud Selig isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t content to wait. The Commissioner, who has worked feverishly to clear his name as the man who presided over baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s era of performance enhancing drugs, is now rushing to test minor leaguers before all the questions are answered.<\/p>\n

Victor Conte, who knows a few things about drug testing, asked two good questions in an email last night. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where are the published studies in peer reviewed\u00c2\u00a0scientific journals demonstrating the validity of\u00c2\u00a0blood testing for\u00c2\u00a0HGH?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Conte wrote me. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Does this case really provide proof that the available testing is effective?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

No, says Charles E. Yesalis, professor emeritus of exercise and sport science at\u00c2\u00a0Penn State<\/a> and one of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s foremost anti-doping experts.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They have this test for some time and they only caught one guy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00c2\u00a0Yesalis told the Times<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bet my life on that test.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But it looks like Selig is ready to bet the careers and reputations of minor leaguers on it. Look, everyone wants drugs out of baseball, but does that mean we should rush to use an questionable test based on one positive result? Selig apparently thinks so, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s well within his rights to unilaterally impose his judgment since minor leaguers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t protected by the players union.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it right.<\/p>\n

Jon Pessah writes on the intersection of sports & culture. He is a regular contributor at TrueSlant (http:\/\/trueslant.com\/jonpessah<\/a>) and a founding Editor of ESPN The Magazine. He Tweets @jonpessah.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looks like Major League Baseball and the NFL could be headed for a major collision with its players over a blood test for human growth hormone. The Washington Post is reporting today that the NFL has proposed implementing the blood test for HGH that tripped up a professional rugby player in Britain earlier this week. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":715,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[984,971,980,979,981,977,978,987,945,191,118,418,975,974,919,982,986,976,985,983],"class_list":["post-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-blood-test","tag-blood-testing","tag-british-rugby","tag-contract-negotiations","tag-daylife","tag-getty-images","tag-greg-aiello","tag-hgh","tag-human-growth-hormone","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-minor-leagues","tag-new-york-times","tag-performance-enhancing-drugs","tag-professional-rugby-player","tag-selig","tag-senior-vice-president","tag-taking-steps","tag-tim-sloan","tag-urine-test","tag-urine-tests"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/715"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}