Congress Grills the NFL on Steroid Abuse

Another reason for the four game suspension is due to the fact that many of the substances on the banned list are found in over-the-counter products. Football players have to read the label on anything they ingest from cold medicine to sports drinks at the convenience store. Many players have dieticians and doctors review their vitamins and medicines for the sole purpose of guaranteeing a clean drug test.

To say that the NFL's banned substance list is thorough would be an understatement to say the least. I'm not sure how congressionally mandated testing could be any better.

Rep. Tom Davis a Virginia Republican open the hearing stating that the NFL's policy was tough but not perfect. Nothing is perfect, if it was Social Security would be overflowing with cash and there wouldn't be a national deficit. To have a U.S. Congressman asking for perfection is hypocritical at best. No policy now or in the future will be perfect. No matter how many times you build a better mouse trap, the mice will find new ways to beat it. I don't see how spending millions of dollars on federally approved drug testing facilities or paying for a new bureaucracy to oversee the testing will make any real difference.

If anything Congress should applaud the NFL's program and push for the other professional leagues to adopt. The National Football Leagues policy is by far the toughest and rather than be picked apart it should be held up as a model for the world to follow.

Nothing is perfect and professional players making millions will always look for ways to circumvent the rules, it's human nature, all any league can do is continue to review and adjust it's policy to keep up with the cheaters.

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