We wrote a post the other night about the NFL ordering Raiders coach Hue Jackson to end his association with a supplement company.
Within the post, we also included Yahoo’s evidence that Ray Lewis and Bengals safety Roy Williams used a product called “The Ultimate Spray” which says it contains IGF-1, a byproduct of HGH.
“I use the spray all the time,” Bengals safety Roy Williams said. “Two to three times a day. My body felt good after using it. I did feel a difference.”
Williams has never tested positive with the NFL, which is no surprise. The author of the original Yahoo! piece Eric Adelson explained on Shan Shariff’s show in 610 Sports in Kansas City that the substance would only show up in blood tests.
This is basically where we are with PEDs: A player can openly admit to taking a banned substance containing “deer antler velvet extract” that is not detectable by the league, and no one really cares because the whole issue is too messy and impossible to solve.
The users will always be so far ahead of the testers that it’s almost better to just ignore the issue, even when a player outs himself by mistake.
The Ravens haven’t spoken to Ray Lewis about his inclusion in the report.
“Ray is one person that I think that we all can talk to, and he’ll explain any and everything to us about what he’s doing [and] why he’s doing it,” Ravens G.M. Ozzie Newsome said via the Baltimore Sun. “So, if need be, we’ll have that conversation.”
PED fever has certainly dissipated, which is a good thing overall. Let’s just not pretend to be outraged at some later date if the true scope of the issue becomes more apparent.