humanrefutation wrote:This whole saga brings back this anecdote that I've thought about...
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/890 ... d-questionNot everyone tests for elevated testosterone. For the leagues or sports that do, they must account for people with naturally elevated levels of testosterone. That threshold is higher than you think because they're accounting for biological outliers — some athletes might naturally have twice as much testosterone as the average person. All right, so let's say you're an NFL player that has to test three times higher than the "average" threshold before getting flagged. Conceivably, you could rely on a controlled amount of HGH, something that bumps you up … just not TOO high. Maybe you jack up your testosterone levels a little under three times higher than they should be. Guess what? That's still legal! Do they have patches that can briefly bump up your levels without prolonged traces? Yes, they do! Did one famous athlete (not an NFL player) use that patch on his testicles to bump his levels close to that threshold, fall asleep, keep his patch on too long and subsequently fail his next test? Yes, he did! It's amazing this doesn't happen more often.
Is he talking about Braun?
Yeah, I was going to post a whole long thing about that but this saves me the trouble. I think that's the "Braun advantage" that was referenced in some of the biogenesis documents. Take a steady diet of testosterone every day so that MLB thinks you naturally have high testosterone. Then use those recovery creams when you need them. Victor Conte has said that's the best PED for athletes to use and said it was the biggest loophole in baseball. They spike your testosterone for a little while, help you recovery, and are out of your system in several hours. Unless you get tested at the worst possible time, like Braun right after the first playoff game (remember that anecdote about some witness in the locker-room seeing Braun get super-pissed about a drug test right after that game?), your testosterone is probably going to be back to what MLB
thinks is your baseline level, but what is really the consistently elevated level that you've manipulated throughout your career. The Miami connections, the fact that Braun finally buckled, his relationship with A-Rod (remember how much A-Rod praised him when the Brewers first drafted him?) - it all adds up to him being one big fat cheating b*tch.
That said, he was clearly not on steroids and probably not on HGH. I think he was on those recovery creams Conte talked about - the easiest, most useful PED that you can usually still get away with taking - that don't provide a long-term advantage. He would be pretty great without them, as he demonstrated last year, which is what makes it all the more infuriating. But it's clearly still an advantage, because it helps you recover from those aches and pains that can interfere with your performance.
Wut we've got here is... faaailure... to communakate.
