Texans linebacker Brian Cushing is a terrible liar.
At a Thursday press conference, while attempting to get his side of the story out, Brian Cushing sounded like a fool. A substance or substances he has been ingesting has affected his brain synapses. As a person who works in the medical field, Cushing’s plausible deniability is ludicrous.
- The substance found in his body, HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), is secreted by the placenta during early pregnancy. Therefore, it is found in the blood and urine of pregnant women. What the heck is it doing in a healthy male in his twenties?
- Cushing claims he had some tumor in his body. There are some tumors which produce HCG. However, if he had a type of cancer which produced HCG, he could not have played professional football. And it would have shown up in test after test.
Cushing’s flimsy story does not hold any water. On the other hand, by using the Barry Bonds’ defense, Cushing thinks he can make people believe he is being forthright. This is far from the case. It is my strong belief that Cushing used anabolic steroids. HCG is used with steroids during and after treatment. In a male steroid user, HCG allows the body to produce testosterone. An athlete like Cushing would use HCG because it helps prevent the loss of muscle mass and testes from shrinking. Although the NFL has vowed they cleaned up the use of steriods, this is not the case. A few months ago,
The NFL wants to test for HGH and the Players Union has balked. “What does that say?” asks Wonder. “I’ll tell you what it says- if you are a player in the NFL and NEED to run through walls to survive and make millions in salary, you are going to take steroids. So they are taking steroids.”
What percentage of players do you think have taken steroids at one point in their career? “75%-80%,” says Wonder. And what percent currently? “30-40%.” He continues. “There is too much rational logical demand for the product. You have thousands of players making millions of dollars… that is billions in salary. (If each team has a cap of ~$100M+, that is $3.2B) Players on the fringe who have a choice between playing for millions with steroids and flipping burgers are going to choose to do the steroids so they can run through walls. And don’t forget about the supply side. There is no doubt in my mind that there is an underground society to feed this demand. Where there is a lot of money and a lot of need, there are going to be people filling that need. Chemists, out of work medical professionals, drug reps with contacts… lots of people out there with a very lucrative opportunity. There are simply too many marginal players who will use drugs to get millions in contracts.”
Looking back on Wonder’s prescient comments, he nails it. From what I know, players who take steroids are also taking other drugs to take the edge off. One of the side effects of taking anabolic steroids is “roid rage.” In order to cope with this problem, athletes turn to amphetamines, alcohol, pot, and cocaine. For the short term, taking these drugs help them. As time goes on, mixing steroids with other drugs will eventually lead to trouble. Indirectly, there is a definite link between steroid use and the amount of untoward behavior exhibited by NFL players. Take for example, the amount of car crashes, arrests, tawdry behavior, and abuse of women. There is a profound problem here. Apparently, the NFL has more work to do in eliminating steroids from the sport. Let us hope the Cushing suspension will jump start the NFL into further action.
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