The NFL will become the first professional sports league in the United States to institute testing for human growth hormone. Of course, that has begun speculation of the number of players that could be worried about the random drug screenings that will be conducted during the season.
One NFL player, Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez, is a big supporter of the decision to institute HGH testing and he gave his thoughts on how big of a presence HGH has in the NFL.
“How many guys are on it, that’s hard to say,” Gonzalez told the Indianapolis Star. “It could be 10, it could be a hundred or more; either way, it’s too much. But around the league, you see guys on Sunday, and things don’t add up; they don’t look right.
“I see guys I saw in college, now they’re in the NFL and they look totally different. I don’t know how prevalent it is at this point, but to say that it’s not being used, that’s wrong.
“To think it [HGH] isn’t out there is really ignorant when you consider what can be gained by it with very little risk of getting caught,” Gonzalez said. “Before testing, the only way you got caught was if you were arrested with it or ended up on a supplier list.”
Now with testing, the number of players using HGH to try to gain an advantage will likely go down. No one is going to want to be the first player to get caught with the substance that has such a negative cloud that follows it.
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