I'm still around even though scarce here for awhile. I'm curious what others think about this situation at Georgia where the NCAA took away a year of eligibility for the player in question. The petition can be seen at Fans start petition to help Georgia OL Kolton Houston fight NCAA
It does seem unfair if they can prove that he received the treatment under the direction of a doctor for the specific purpose of helping heal his shoulder and the the continuing high level is the result of it being retained in the fatty tissue. Now that is the rub, I have never heard of steroid being retained in fatty tissue for that long or at all. If they were how would athletes who do take them for performance enhancement beat the tests? Is it a proven scientfic fact, or is it like Brian Cushing saying he had "overtrained athlete syndrome" and that his why he had high levels of HCG. Nobody had heard of that either and they didn't buy it.
Not enough information but I really believe that performance enhancing drug use is as widespread as ever at all schools. We routinely read about 210 lb freshman LBs morphing into 290 lb DEs. I don't believe those kind of gains can be made at a training table or in the weight room. I simply think that detection has not caught up with H G H technology.
Good questions Terry and I don't have the answers. It doesn't sound like Georgia and this kid are trying to scam the system though and it's a shame when a young person does the best they can and still can't get approval from the NCAA. I am not a big fan of a lot of the NCAA actions and think they need to be more help to the players.
George, you posted while I was typing my last post so just now saw what you had to say. I agree and find it scary. If what you surmise is true then it is not only widespread but condoned. I find that a bit depressing. But I am also a believer in giving some benefit of the doubt to the players who after all just kids. Really big kids, but kids. It sounds to me like this kid may be in a catch 22 and someone in the NCAA needs to take a close look at the situation.
I do feel bad for the kid, I don't know of course if he and everybody around him is lying or what of course. I would hope the the NCAA would look at all mitigating circumstances, certainly continuing to test positive is a problem and I'm guessing they don't want to create a loophole by making an exception for him. The other question is knowing that HCG is a problem with virtually all sports, why would the kids doctor administer it to him and why would his parents go along with it. Surely they couldn't have been ignorant of the possible consequences of using HCG, could they?
I don't know where the truth lies, but I know that there is a general tendency to side with the perceived victim and excoriate the NCAA. It's what happens frequently today in our society in all walks of life. Maybe it happened the way the kid and his family described. Maybe it didn't. Maybe it's an elaborate story intended to show that the kid was an innocent victim. Maybe not. I don't know, and I'm sure no one here does. I'm also sure that the NCAA is not being purposefully vindictive, as has been suggested. Terry's quote above makes sense, but it's still possible that the family was not aware of the consequences. Somewhere along the way, despite the public furor of emotion clouding the issue, the truth will come forth. Or not. In the meantime, the NCAA will bear the brunt of public criticism for unjustly punishing an innocent party, as perceived by those who choose to take sides.
It's hard to believe that the HHG sticks around this long if fatty tissue. If that's the case it seems like there would be a whole lot more cases of this. On the other hand, the NCAA has shown of propensity to ignore their own procedures before so I guess we should be happy if they do it at least once. :?
I am not coming down on the NCAA, however this has become public knowledge and while it's kind of hard to believe, I do believe that the University of Georgia would not knowingly get behind a false medical report that could come back to bite them big time. I think it needs to be looked at as to whether it could be legitimate. And I have always believed that the student athlete should be a big focus for the NCAA, as decisions made at this point in their life can have a big negative effect on their future.
I don't know enough of course about the whole situation other than that article, and if the kid is just a victim of circumstances it's a shame. I do think the NCAA probably has a hard time with the fact that he's still testing high. Again just speculating if they establish a target number for any banned substance it's hard probably to say this kid is a good kid and we'll allow him to be over the limit by a little, then in some other case stick to the limit. I haven't done any research to know if this storing of the drug in his his body fat is common or a previously unknown condition. As far as UGa taking up for the young man they really don't have anything to lose, probably have more to lose in terms of bad PR if they just cut him loose and move on. I still wonder why his MD and his parents allowed a drug that has recieved a lot of publicity as being banned in sports to be used on their son.
If this stuff hangs around in the body for that long, and one injection can be detected for that long then there must not be a big steroid problem in college sports. Otherwise there would be a whole lot of disqualifications around the country. Right? :?:
I'm not a doctor, good thing for all concerned, but is it possible that this could happen to one person but not to most people? It seems strange to me that the kid would still be doing steroids after all that has happened to in the last two years.
I guess it's possible that he is a one of a kind with regards to this...I did google HCG and fat tissue. Funny thing is that what came up were diet sites and injection of HCG causes fat tissue to disappear according to those sites. Certainly is a very odd case.
I still wish somebody would ask his MD and his parents....What were you thinking!! I wonder if the Ath Assoc he played under doesn't do drug testing so they figured that even though it is a banned substance in virtually all sports that with no testing they were safe from discovery and just assumed that it would not stay in his body long enough to be discovered by College testing.
I don't blame the MD. I'm sure he was trying to help the kid heal and get back to his regular routines. How was the doctor to know that there would still be some residue over a year later? I think that the NCAA should have a medical panel that can review the case and decide if the use of steroids was for only medical reasons and that because of unforseen events, the player might be slightly positive. I understand their zero tolerance approach up to a point but we have to remember that steroids are not only performance enhancing but also anti-inflamatory and can be used for a purely medical reason.
I think the idea of a medical panel to review cases like this makes a lot of sense. My question with regards to the MD and the parents though, isn't to question the intent to help the kids shoulder to heal, but that they reasonably should have known that it was a banned substance even for that purpose in virtually all sports. They should not have given HCG to the kid IMHO, if he was going to continue to play sports esp college football. I suspect they knew all of this but were afraid that if his shoulder was slower to heal and return him to competition that his scholarship opportunities would be different than being recruited by SEC programs. I think they rolled the dice. edit: In re-reading that article that Bill linked I noticed that they claim the MD who injected him, did so illegally. Not sure what that means or if the MD would contest that he did so with the parents permission. As far as I know HCG is not an illegal substance and in fact as I noted in a previous post if you google it you find it seems to be pretty popular as a fat reducing injection. I have read in the past that Hollywood types like Stallone and Brad Pitt use it in conjunction with their workouts to get their bodies really buff for the films they are making.
This case notwithstanding, I agree with gipper's position 2 posts above. Back to this case. Sherlock O'Keefe's investigative work gives rise to some interesting speculation. The kid is an OL. While not accusing anyone of dishonesty, it's possible, however remotely so, that his parents knew about the fat-reducing effect of HCG and saw it as an opportunity to heal the shoulder and reduce his body fat at the same time. A more likely scenario is that the family was ignorant of the banned status of HCG and after the fact are throwing the doctor under the bus. Either way, the case begs for more investigation. I wonder if Sherlock O'Keefe has a Lucy Liu-type sidekick to help him with his investigation, a la the TV show, Elementary. :wink:
What do you think about FSU's refusal to release that Linebacker who signed a LOI and then said his mom pressured him into it and he doesn't want to play for FSU and wants to go to UGA? Irish have a similar situation potentially in Eddie Vanderdoes, except that he and his family were beaming on signing day everybody happy and he was tweeting with his new future teammates up through march and then something changed and he supposedly no longer wants to come to ND. So no doubt if that turns out to be true (Eddie, nor his family have commented) and he asks for his release what should ND do? Mike Gundy was incredibly restrictive with the release of Wes Lunt who was his starter last fall as a true freshman at QB. Played very well till an injury. Now he's probhibited from B12, B10, SEC and Pac12 transfer and So. Mississippi. I think those are the restrictions, very broad for sure. FWIW not having the release just means he can't recieve scholarhip money the 1st year at his new school and doesn't prevent him from transfering to that school. Just has to pay his own way while he sits out the year.