coolhandluke121 wrote:M-C-G wrote:Iheartfootball wrote:
They do! Called HGH.
Remember when Adrian Peterson blew out his knee and then less than a year later came back and rushed for 2100 yards? If that wasn't the most blatant use of a PED since Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, I don't know what is.
I think the NFL depends on PED use in a way that few sports do. I can't imagine most fans wouldn't realize that if they thought it through. The sport could hardly exist in its current form without rampant PED use. It's not the same as baseball, where PEDs give competitive advantages but the mechanics and toll of the sport don't require them. Whereas other sports have incentives to ban PEDs to improve their brand, the NFL, if anything, is probably played in a way that would make them more likely to
require players to use PEDs to improve the brand.
Totally, from a recovery and branding standpoint PEDs are necessary. The game is just too fast and violent to not use them. If they didn't rosters would need to be expanded in the 100s.
I think the debate is the ethics of it, the long-term ramifications of using PEDs for these players. My guess is that fans don't get all the information because of the stigma and misunderstanding of how PEDs are being used.
Finally, this is all speculation. There is no proof that they actually use them but I find it hard to believe that they can suffer these injuries and not have help.