The National Football League is facing health-related challenges in addition to the growing concern over players’ traumatic brain injuries. Doping, always a sensitive topic in professional sports, is proving to be an elusive target for the blood test the league adopted after lengthy discussion with the players’ union.
The Associated Press recently reported on its own analysis of last year’s results from the blood testing protocol, which is also used by the World Anti-Doping Agency. In 2,798 HGH tests administered to athletes in various sports worldwide, AP reported, exactly zero tested positive.
Or, as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s CEO, Travis Tygart, remarked, “You pretty much have to be a fool to test positive” for HGH.
Of course, letting players know in advance that they’ll be tested undermines the essential element of random selection. What would really make a difference in detecting HGH doping, though, is using a different assay. Only one HGH assay — developed specifically for urine by European researchers and available in the United States exclusively through Rhein Labs — will truly do the job.