CEO of Anti-Doping Agency Comments on NFL's HGH Blood-Testing Setup

It seems all the anticipation about the NFL implementing HGH testing seems to be misguided, because a new report suggests that only a misguided player would fail a test.    

A new analysis from The Associated Press, via ESPN.com, found that there are a number of loopholes NFL players can get around to beat the test:

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Among the deficiencies in the NFL program, critics say:

• Timing and location of the majority of testing is too predictable.

• The selection of who gets tested is actually too random, rather than targeting players who might be thought more likely to be using HGH.

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United States Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart is quoted in the report as saying, "You pretty much have to be a fool to test positive."

After NFL Players Association spokesman George Atallah told The AP that testing is "working like it's supposed to," Tygart replied that "positive tests are 'just highly unlikely, because they've known it's coming and probably stopped well in advance, to have it clear from their system. The question then becomes: Are athletes going to take a chance?'"

Also in the report, the NFL doesn't use "longitudinal" testing, "which tracks an athlete's body chemistry over weeks and years."

In terms of how players are tested, per the report, having it done during the season means it takes place at a team's facility and "players know they would need to provide a blood sample" when they are at the building. Players have "up to 24 hours to set up a meeting, which could allow HGH to leave his system" in the offseason.

This isn't strictly an NFL problem, according to The AP report, but a bigger issue for the way testing is done in a lot of sports:

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An Associated Press analysis of the testing protocol approved by the league and the NFL Players Association after more than three years of wrangling found that only the most reckless or uninformed player would seem to have a chance of getting caught using HGH.

Of the 2,798 HGH tests from various sports analyzed last year at labs accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, zero turned up positive.

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The NFL's HGH testing policy was agreed on in September with the plan to start implementing testing at the end of that month.

No one has been suspended for an HGH violation just over one month into the plan. While that could have been seen as a good sign, that players weren't using it or stopped using it once the new policy was enacted.

The AP report clearly states that no one should be failing a test because of how flimsy the testing protocol is. 

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