Have baseball players found a loop-hole in the war against performance enhancing drugs?
With the NY Daily News reporting that Roger Clemens had a stash of Viagra hiding in GNC pill bottles in his Yankees' locker, Pandora's Box has been opened.
Viagra was obviously intended to aid men in the bedroom but are players really using it to... ahem... build bigger muscles or swing a bigger bat... on the field?
According to the report "Vitamin V" is rampant in baseball. In fact, athletes in many sports are said to be using the little blue pills because they can help build endurance and counteract impotence that can be a side effect of taking testosterone, another performance enhancer. Even BALCO founder Victor Conte, who worked with the likes of Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, admitted all of his athletes were using it.
If you think about it, it's not unlike Jose Theodore's situation a couple of years ago when he tested positive for a banned substance when trying out for Canada's Men's Olympic Hockey Team. The banned substance happened to be Propecia, a hair growth drug, something the goaltender had been taking for years. The IOC had no problem with Theodore's desire for a thick head of hair, but the trouble was, Propecia can also be used as a masking agent to cover up steroid use. Theodore applied for a TUE, a Therapeutic Use Exemption, and continues to be a poster boy for Vidal Sassoon.
So what if athletes are really using Viagra for its intended purpose? Would MLB or WADA be overstepping their bounds by banning it? How can you tell men, who potentially legitimately suffer from erectile dysfunction, who have finally been given a new lease on their love life: "No more Viagra. You can get to second base, maybe even third, but no more home runs."
Maybe, as it turns out, in more ways than one.
This blog is reprinted with permission of the author.
A guest to OSG, read the rest of Martine Gaillard's blog at sportsnet.ca!
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